A 27-year-old writer and political strategist, who is the mother of one of Elon Musk's children, has launched a high-profile lawsuit against the billionaire's artificial intelligence company, xAI. Ashley St. Clair alleges the firm's Grok chatbot was used to generate sexually exploitative deepfake images of her, leading to significant humiliation and emotional distress.
Graphic Details of the Alleged Deepfakes
The legal complaint, filed on Thursday, 16th January 2026, in the New York State Supreme Court, contains disturbing allegations. St. Clair, who is Jewish, states the AI-generated images include an altered photo of her at age 14, originally fully dressed, manipulated to show her in a bikini. Other images allegedly portray her as an adult in sexualised positions and wearing a bikini adorned with swastikas.
St. Clair claims she reported the deepfakes to X, the social media platform that hosts Grok, after they began circulating last year. She says the platform initially responded that the content did not violate its policies, before later promising not to allow her image to be used or altered without consent. However, she alleges the platform then retaliated by removing her premium subscription and verification checkmark, demonetising her account with one million followers, and continuing to permit the degrading fake imagery.
Legal Battle and Corporate Countersuit
St. Clair is seeking an undisclosed amount in damages for the alleged infliction of emotional distress and is asking the court for orders to immediately bar xAI from permitting further deepfakes of her. She is the mother of Musk's 16-month-old son, Romulus, and resides in New York City.
The legal landscape shifted rapidly. Later on Thursday, xAI's lawyers successfully transferred the case to federal court in Manhattan. In a more aggressive move, the company filed a countersuit against St. Clair the same day in the federal court for the Northern District of Texas. xAI alleges she violated her user agreement, which stipulates lawsuits must be filed in federal court in Texas, and is seeking an undisclosed monetary judgment against her. X is based in Texas, where Musk has a home and where Tesla is headquartered.
Carrie Goldberg, St. Clair's lawyer, called the countersuit a "jolting" tactic. "Ms. St. Clair will be vigorously defending her forum in New York," Goldberg stated. "But frankly, any jurisdiction will recognise the gravamen of Ms. St. Clair’s claims."
Platform Policy Changes and Company Response
The lawsuit follows significant global backlash against the generation of sexualised AI imagery. In response, on Wednesday 15th January, X announced that Grok would no longer be able to edit photos to portray real people in revealing clothing where such actions are illegal. The platform stated it had zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation and non-consensual nudity, vowing to remove such content and report relevant accounts to law enforcement.
Additional safeguards were announced, including limiting Grok's image creation and editing features to paid accounts to improve accountability. When contacted by The Associated Press for comment on the lawsuit, xAI replied only with the phrase: "Legacy Media Lies."
In a document attached to her lawsuit, St. Clair expressed her ongoing torment: "I have suffered and continue to suffer serious pain and mental distress as a result of xAI’s role in creating and distributing these digitally altered images of me. I am humiliated and feel like this nightmare will never stop so long as Grok continues to generate these images of me." She added that she now lives in fear of those who view the deepfakes.
