Ashley St. Clair, mother of one of Elon Musk's children, sued xAI in New York state court, alleging Grok let users generate sexualized deepfakes of her, including a photo of her fully dressed at 14 altered to show her in a bikini. The same day, xAI moved the case to federal court and countersued her in Texas; it told the AP only "Legacy Media Lies."
California Attorney General Rob Bonta sent xAI a cease-and-desist letter ordering it to immediately halt the creation and distribution of deepfake nonconsensual intimate images and child sexual abuse material. On Wednesday Bonta announced an investigation into Grok's alleged use to create thousands of sexualized images of women and children without consent; xAI is expected to confirm its remedial steps within five days.
The EPA ruled Thursday that methane gas turbines xAI used to power its Colossus datacenters required air-quality permits even when portable or temporary, rejecting the company's claimed exemption. xAI had relied on a county loophole for generators staying in one place no more than 364 days, running up to 35 at Colossus 1; whether noncompliance will be penalized is unclear.
League City police posted a mugshot of a woman charged with organized retail theft that had been enhanced with Canva software because the original was blurry. Sgt. Jason Gray said the edit was only meant to clarify the image, not change her appearance; the department, which has no rules on AI use, says it will review its policies and retrain jail staff.
Five women have sued the city of Chula Vista and a former city employee, alleging he used AI to turn their photos, some scraped from social media, into sexually explicit images. He was assigned to the San Diego Law Enforcement Coordination Center, where he came into contact with them through work; the city says it processed his payroll but did not oversee his work.
Justice Milind Sathaye of the Bombay High Court imposed ₹50,000 costs on film producer Mohammed Yasin, appearing in person in a flat dispute, whose written submissions relied on a judgment the court and its clerks could not find anywhere. In the January 7 ruling, the judge wrote that the court "strongly feels" the submissions were prepared using an AI tool such as ChatGPT.
A Jeonju District Court appeals panel sentenced the 61-year-old ringleader of a scheme that took about 19 billion won from investors to three years and six months in prison, and four others to terms from a suspended ten months to two years. From 2017 to 2019 the group claimed AI-equipped computers earned crypto arbitrage profits; the computers had no such function.
Judge Michael Liburdi referred document preparer Clearpoint to the State Bar of Arizona and the state Attorney General, saying it appears to have used undisclosed AI to draft a homeowner's foreclosure filings, which cited hallucinated cases and statutes, while charging her $1,000 a month. The court raised concerns about unauthorised practice of law and deceptive practices; these remain allegations.
