xAI Seeks to End Anonymity for Four Alleged Grok Deepfake Victims
9 reported
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence firm, xAI, is asking a federal court to require four pseudonymous plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit to use their real names, according to recently filed court documents. The four individuals, identified as South Carolina Doe, South Carolina Roe, New Jersey Doe, and Ohio Doe, allege that deepfake sexualized images of them were created using the Grok chatbot earlier this year. The plaintiffs’ lawyer argues that forcing them to reveal their identities would compound the harms they are seeking to remedy. xAI’s lawyers contend that there is a public interest in knowing the identities of those suing the company and that no evidence of specific further harm has been presented. The plaintiffs have stated they would consider dropping the lawsuit if their names are made public. The case is pending in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.
What’s reported
xAI filed two motions in mid-May asking a judge to overturn a previous ruling allowing pseudonyms in the case.
The four plaintiffs are South Carolina Doe, South Carolina Roe, New Jersey Doe, and Ohio Doe.
The lawsuit was initially filed in January with one pseudonymous lead claimant, later refiled with four plaintiffs in early May.
The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Sophia Rios of Berger Montague, wrote that xAI seeks to “strip Plaintiffs of their pseudonyms in an obvious effort to intimidate Plaintiffs into dropping the litigation.”
xAI’s lawyers argue that because deepfake images will remain under seal, there is “nothing inherently stigmatizing” about revealing the fact that a deepfake was created.
All four plaintiffs said in May 29 filings they would consider dropping out if their names had to be revealed.
South Carolina Roe alleges Grok was used to create explicit images of her as a child, and that police searched her home in February in connection with her father’s criminal charges related to CSAM.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate claimed Grok was used to create around 3 million sexualized images over 11 days, with 23,000 potentially including children.
SpaceX, which now owns xAI, has set aside more than $500 million to deal with fallout from the Grok controversy.
Key figures
Sophia Rios, lawyer for the plaintiffs at Berger Montague
Danielle Citron, law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law
South Carolina Doe, pseudonymous plaintiff
South Carolina Roe, pseudonymous plaintiff
New Jersey Doe, pseudonymous plaintiff
Ohio Doe, pseudonymous plaintiff
Sources: Wired
