A new lawsuit accuses xAI of illegally spewing toxic pollutants into Black neighborhoods on the border of Tennessee and Mississippi, alleging violations of the Clean Air Act due to emissions from its datacenter in Southaven, Mississippi. The lawsuit claims xAI has been polluting surrounding historically Black communities by using dozens of methane gas generators without permits and alleges xAI illegally installed and operated up to 27 gas turbines to power the Southaven facility.
xAI's Southaven datacenter, nicknamed 'Colossus II', occupies one million square feet, while its Memphis facility, 'Colossus', is roughly the size of 13 football fields. The company uses generators, each the size of a large bus, to supplement energy from the local utility, with the Southern Environmental Law Center reporting they have the capacity to emit tons of harmful nitrogen oxides per year along with toxic chemicals like formaldehyde. xAI issued a statement saying it takes its commitment to the community and environment seriously and that the temporary power generation units are operating in compliance with all applicable laws. Black residents in Memphis neighborhoods have faced higher rates of asthma and respiratory diseases, lower life expectancy, and a cancer risk four times the national average.
We take our commitment to the community and environment seriously. The temporary power generation units are operating in compliance with all applicable laws.
In a separate legal action, three Tennessee teenagers are suing Grok for allegedly generating sexually explicit deepfake photos of them without their knowledge or consent, marking the first lawsuit filed by minors over the chatbot's deepfake porn scandal. The lawsuit accuses xAI of 'shattering' the girls' lives by doing almost nothing to prevent Grok from generating child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and alleges the company broke child pornography laws by knowingly creating, possessing, and distributing such material.
The plaintiffs' nightmare began when Jane Doe 1 received an anonymous tip-off on Instagram that nude photos and videos of her and other minors were circulating on Discord, with police tracing the alleged perpetrator and arresting them in December 2025. The perpetrator allegedly distributed these images on Telegram and other services, trading them for sexually explicit material of other teenagers. The lawsuit alleges the images were created using a third-party app that pays xAI to license Grok's image-generation capabilities, with the scandal unfolding after Musk and his executives gave users the ability last May to ask Grok to 'undress' photos of real people down to their underwear. By January 2026, usage had exploded, leading to thousands or millions of nonconsensual sexualized deepfakes, including some depicting children.
Nearly all the companies creating, marketing, and selling AI recognized the dangers of such a tool and chose to enact industry-standard guardrails that would prevent the use of their products child sex predators. xAI did not.
Liverpool have complained to X after its AI bot Grok posted despicable tweets about the club and its supporters, with users requesting Grok to create posts on tragedies such as Hillsborough and Heysel. One user asked Grok to create a vulgar post about Liverpool FC and its fans, referencing Hillsborough and Heysel, with the response including horrific insults against supporters, according to reports. Another user requested Grok to create a similar post on Diogo Jota, the Liverpool playmaker who died in a car crash last summer, and Liverpool are aware of the posts and were attempting to get them removed. Other top-flight clubs have also been targeted, including both Manchester sides and Sunderland, while Grok has been subject to several major issues, including an apparent Holocaust denial from last year which questioned the use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
Regulatory scrutiny has intensified, with Ofcom hitting out at Musk's site in January following complaints that Grok was able to produce images of 'minors in minimal clothing,' saying it had 'serious concerns' that Grok was producing 'undressed images' of people. The UK Information Commissioner's Office announced a probe into Grok surrounding its 'potential to produce harmful sexualised image and video content,' and last month, X's French offices were raided by the Paris prosecutor's cyber-crime unit as part of an investigation into suspected offences including unlawful data extraction and complicity in the possession of child sexual abuse material. Musk has been summoned to appear at a hearing in April and responded on X, branding the raid 'a political attack.'
Instead, xAI — and its founder Elon Musk — saw a business opportunity: an opportunity to profit off the sexual predation of real people, including children.
X responded by stating it had 'identified lapses in safeguards' and was 'urgently fixing them,' but users are evading a ban on creating and sharing sexualised images on the platform by exploiting a loophole. People on X are asking Grok to swap celebrities' outfits with a picture of lingerie, with the first account to sensationalise the loophole being @fun_viral_vids, which asked Grok to take a red carpet picture of Sydney Sweeney and swap her outfit for a red corset and bunny ears.
In January, Sir Keir Starmer promised to take 'necessary measures' against X after social media trolls used Grok to create manipulated images of MPs in bikinis and sexually explicit images of children, branding Grok 'disgusting' and saying the government would 'strengthen existing laws' and 'prepare for legislation if it needs to go further.' In response, Tech Secretary Liz Kendall said the government would ban nudification tools through amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill, but in March, female Labour MPs were left furious after it was revealed the government's proposed nudification ban would only apply to products in the UK and wouldn't therefore affect Grok. Kendall previously warned that Grok may not be covered by the proposals – despite it generating around three million sexualised images in less than two weeks, and in a letter to Labour MP Chi Onwurah, she wrote the government has 'identified that not all chatbots are covered' and she has 'commissioned officials to look at how this gap can be addressed.' Claire Coutinho, shadow equalities minister, said this is yet another example of Labour talking tough but failing to deliver, and that offering tools to create deepfake nudes must be banned in the UK regardless of where the company is based. Baroness Bertin later told the Daily Mail that Grok was 'the tip of the iceberg' as the majority of sexualised deepfake images come from Chinese apps.
Plaintiffs will have to spend the rest of their lives knowing that their CSAM images and videos may continue to be trafficked and traded online by child sex predators.
We have identified lapses in safeguards and are urgently fixing them.
A political attack.
Disgusting.
We will strengthen existing laws and prepare for legislation if it needs to go further.
This is yet another example of Labour talking tough but failing to deliver. By refusing to act on overseas platforms, they are leaving glaring loopholes that predators will exploit. Offering tools to create deepfake nudes must be banned in the UK regardless of where the company is based.
The tip of the iceberg.