xAI has filed a lawsuit against Terry Wayne Harwood, a 67-year-old South Carolina man, accusing him of using its Grok chatbot to generate nonconsensual sexualised images of adults and children. The case, filed in Texas, is notable as one of the first lawsuits an AI company has brought against its own user, signalling that xAI intends to pursue legal action over misuse of its technology following months of scrutiny over Grok's ability to produce sexualised deepfakes.

According to the complaint, Harwood uploaded non-sexual photos of numerous adults and minors to two xAI accounts between 8 December 2025 and 18 February 2026, repeatedly editing his prompts to bypass Grok's safeguards after the chatbot refused his requests. In one cited example, he allegedly asked Grok to strip a fully clothed 10- to 11-year-old girl and depict her in a sexualised pose, which the AI refused. Harwood was arrested in March, part of a wider fallout that saw regulators including Ofcom, California authorities, the European Commission and Ireland's Data Protection Commission launch investigations into Grok in January. He faces multiple child exploitation charges, and xAI is seeking unspecified damages plus reimbursement of legal costs it may incur from victims' lawsuits.