A US judge has refused xAI’s bid to immediately halt a Minnesota law banning ‘nudify’ apps, allowing the measure to take effect while the company’s broader legal challenge continues. The decision matters because Minnesota’s law is described as the first US ban of its kind and targets tools used to create non-consensual sexualised images.

Judge Donovan Frank said xAI waited too long to seek an emergency order, filing on 29 July, nearly three months after the law was signed and three days before it came into force on 1 August. xAI argues the ban is overly broad and that less restrictive approaches could achieve its aims; the lawsuit follows misuse of its Grok chatbot on X to generate and share such images.