AIBRIEF
Minnesota's ban on AI nudification tools — software that generates nude images of real or depicted people — takes effect Saturday, even as Elon Musk's xAI argues in federal court that the law violates the First Amendment by sweeping in consensual
Minnesota's ban on AI nudification tools takes effect Saturday, three days after Elon Musk's xAI asked a federal judge in Minneapolis to block the law on First Amendment grounds. AI nudification tools generate nude images of real or depicted people from ordinary photos or text prompts; the category includes minors.
xAI filed its complaint on July 28 in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota (case filing). The company's central argument is overbreadth: that the statute (SF 3667) criminalizes nudification imagery without distinguishing clearly between nonconsensual intimate images and consensual or artistic expression. xAI, the AI company Musk founded and best known for the Grok chatbot on X, does not name Grok in the suit.
Sen. Erin Maye Quade (D-Minn.), who authored the Senate bill, defended the law as targeting conduct rather than speech, according to Fox 9. She said she worked with Adobe and other tech companies while drafting to address free-expression concerns. The law's stated purpose is to combat image-based sexual abuse, a rationale Maye Quade emphasized on the record.
Whether xAI can secure an injunction before Saturday is the open question. A separate Minnesota prediction-market ban was recently enjoined by a judge, the AP reported, supplying a comparative datapoint rather than a precedent.