Deepfake Victims Bolster Class Action Against xAI, Add Stability AI, Alleging Their AI Models Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material

Amended class action complaint includes new plaintiffs alleging Grok generated AI CSAM of them, and names Stability AI as a new defendant.

Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein and Baehr-Jones Law filed an amended class action complaint today in the Northern District of California against xAI and Stability AI. The amended complaint adds two new plaintiffs whose family photographs were used to generate child sexual abuse material (CSAM) through xAI’s Grok app and alleges that xAI obstructed a law enforcement investigation into that abuse. The complaint also names Stability AI as a new defendant over its open-weight AI models, which were allegedly trained on CSAM and released without adequate safeguards, allowing them to serve as the basis for third-party “nudify” apps.

“xAI and Stability AI knew their AI models capable of producing explicit deepfakes of adults would be equally capable of producing deepfake CSAM. Yet these companies made the reckless business decision to unleash this unsafe technology on society with complete disregard for the devastation they knew would follow,” said Annika K. Martin of Lieff Cabraser. “AI-generated CSAM is a scourge on society that touches every community and every demographic. The scale of harm is staggering, and the companies whose products enable it must be held accountable.”

Both new plaintiffs had CSAM generated of them by adult perpetrators who used Grok to produce sexually explicit deepfakes of them as children. Jane Doe 4’s stepfather used a photograph of her as an 11-year-old child to generate roughly 7,000 sexually explicit images through Grok, then traded them online with other child sex predators. Jane Doe 5 was 14 in a photograph an adult male relative of one of her classmates used from her eighth-grade graduation to generate CSAM through Grok. He then distributed this CSAM to other predators online. Both now live with the ongoing fear that these sexualized images of them as children will continue to circulate with no way to permanently remove them.

“It is incredibly disturbing to us that a predator could take a completely innocuous photograph of my daughter at her 8th grade graduation and defile it in this way,” said the mother of Jane Doe 5. “Because of this technology, my daughter is filled with anxiety and feels a complete lack of control over who has seen these images. No child should ever have to go through this.”

The complaint alleges that xAI repeatedly failed to properly report Grok-generated CSAM to authorities. By early 2026, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) found that 90% of xAI’s CyberTipline reports were not actionable by law enforcement because xAI declined to include user information that would allow law enforcement to track and locate perpetrators. Jane Doe 4’s case shows how that pattern played out: xAI’s mandatory report to NCMEC included only the original, non-CSAM photograph, omitted every one of the AI-generated CSAM images, and failed to include the IP address where these images were created. Despite repeated requests from investigators for this location information that is critical for identifying and arresting perpetrators, xAI did not respond, stymieing the investigation for weeks.

“A person I trusted took a photo of me as a little girl sleeping on the couch, wearing an oversized panda pajama shirt, and Grok turned that photo into thousands of sexually explicit images of me—images so horrific I can’t even begin to describe them. When law enforcement came looking for the perpetrator, xAI went silent. They had everything they needed to help law enforcement stop the person responsible and achieve justice. Instead, they remained silent and allowed this person to use Grok to steal my childhood,” said Jane Doe 4. “This technology is a free, easily accessible weapon put into the hands of the worst people in the world. What is so dangerous is there is no way to prevent a predator from taking any photograph—not just a photograph on the internet—but any photo of a child and using this technology to create images from your worst nightmares. No one is safe—not adults, not children, not anyone.”

The amended complaint also adds Stability AI, creator of the open-weight Stable Diffusion models, as a defendant. Stability AI allegedly trained early versions of its models on a dataset known to contain CSAM. According to the complaint, when a later Stability version with stronger anti-CSAM safety restrictions proved less popular, the company chose to strip those restrictions from its next release, actively choosing profits over safety. The result was a proliferation of applications built on Stability AI’s models that foreseeably enabled child sexual exploitation at an unprecedented scale.

“Stability AI knew its models could generate CSAM and it deliberately chose growth over children’s safety, stripping out stronger safety restrictions to drive model adoption,” said Vanessa Baehr-Jones of Baehr-Jones Law. “The plaintiffs in this case are living with the tragic consequences of that decision.”

The lawsuit brings claims under Masha’s Law, the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and state law, and seeks damages, punitive damages, and injunctive relief. It is brought on behalf of two nationwide classes, one against xAI and one against Stability AI, along with corresponding Tennessee subclasses, covering all persons in the United States whose real images as minors were used through xAI’s Grok, or through apps built on Stability AI’s models, to produce sexually explicit content.

For a copy of the complaint or to speak with lead counsel Annika K. Martin or co-counsel Vanessa Baehr-Jones, please contact Adrianna Harper at adrianna@rebuttalpr.com. Learn more about the litigation on LCHB’s Grok xAI and Stability AI case page.

About Lieff Cabraser

Founded in 1972, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein is one of the largest law firms in the United States that exclusively represents plaintiffs. With more than 135 attorneys across offices in San Francisco, New York, Nashville, and Munich, the firm has recovered over $133 billion in verdicts and settlements for clients harmed by corporate misconduct. Lieff Cabraser has served as court-appointed lead or class counsel in some of the most consequential civil cases in the country, spanning product liability, data privacy, consumer protection, antitrust, environmental catastrophes, and civil rights. The firm currently serves as co-lead counsel for plaintiffs in the nationwide multidistrict litigation against Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube over the platforms’ role in fueling youth mental health harms. The firm also serves on the Plaintiffs Steering Committee in the federal multidistrict litigation against Roblox over child sexual exploitation and assault on the platform. Lieff Cabraser has championed the rights of children, abuse survivors, and communities targeted by dangerous products for more than five decades.

About Baehr-Jones Law

Baehr-Jones Law represents survivors of sexual abuse, exploitation, and trafficking. Founder Vanessa Baehr-Jones spent nearly a decade as a federal prosecutor trying child sex offense and human trafficking cases before opening her practice in Oakland, California to advocate for survivors in civil litigation. She is a graduate of UCLA School of Law, a former clerk on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and a member of the National Crime Victims Bar Association. Learn more at www.advocatesforsurvivors.com.