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FollowingFederal judge upholds Minnesota's order banning AI from generating nudity images and rejects xAI's injunction request.
A federal judge has upheld Minnesota's ban on the use of artificial intelligence tools to transform real-life photos into nudity images and media, rejecting a request by Elon Musk's xAI company to suspend the rule during a free speech lawsuit. The ruling allows regulators to immediately impose fines of up to $500,000 for each image that violates the rules.
U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank denied xAI's preliminary injunction application. If approved, the order will suspend legal execution until the litigation is concluded. Based on the memorandum cited by CBS Minnesota, the judge considered what he called the "balance of damage" and found that "the public interest strongly leans in favor of the state government."
The judge described the regulation as "a civil regulation designed to protect the public from the undeniable harm caused by AI nudity synthesis technology" and said the regulation was "democratically and nearly unanimously passed." He frankly pointed out that due to the background of new technology, the fundamental issues involved in the First Amendment are still complex, and he believes that as the case progresses, these issues will eventually be resolved. But for now, the ban remains in effect.
Last-minute appeals weaken xAI's stance
The Minnesota Legislature passed the bill this spring and was signed into effect by the governor. However, xAI did not file a lawsuit until July 27, just a few days before the August 1 effective date, about three months late. The company sought a temporary restraining order on July 29, but Judge Frank denied it on July 31.
This time difference becomes strong evidence that is unfavorable for xAI. "If xAI was truly concerned about irreparable harm, the court had no doubt it would have acted more quickly to file this lawsuit and apply for injunctive relief," Judge Frank wrote. In other words, a company eager to avoid disaster does not wait until the eve of enforcement to seek help from the courts.
Legal scope and cost of violations
The regulation, known as HF 1606, is the first law of its kind in the United States. It prohibits service providers from allowing users to generate realistic images, which add non-existent private parts to original photos that identify real people, and prohibits making such images on behalf of any user.
Each violation can face a civil penalty of up to US$500,000, and the characters in the image can file separate damages lawsuits. The federal Take It Down Act and the 2025 Texas approach to deeply forged content depend on whether the producer knows the image is not consented. Minnesota has completely lifted this requirement, so even if the service provider does not know it, it may be held legally responsible for creating nudity images.
This clause is the core of xAI's objection. After reporting that a man used social media photos to fabricate sexual images of more than 80 women he knew, the bill passed with a vote of 132 to 1 in the House and a unanimous vote of 65 in the Senate.
Scale of Grok Imagine's impact
Attorney General Keith Ellison, who defended the signed statute, said the verdict was a victory for Minnesota residents. "I am extremely proud to defend this law and the dignity of the people of Minnesota," he said, adding that the regulation continues to prevent products such as xAI's Grok Imagine from generating pornographic images.
According to reports cited in the ruling, Grok generated approximately 3 million pornographic images in the 11 days after the launch of the new image editing feature, including approximately 23,000 images that appeared to depict children. It was previously reported that xAI defended its performance and said it had suspended 52,222 accounts this year and submitted 73,604 reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Currently, xAI's lawyers have filed a notice stating that they will apply to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to review the injunction refusal. In previous debate, the company proposed suspending features for Minnesota users to avoid any risk of fines.
