Musk’s xAI challenges Minnesota’s pioneering ban on AI “nudification” tools in federal court

Elon Musk’s AI venture xAI sued Minnesota to block a first-in-the-nation statute that outlaws “nudification” tools, arguing the measure is overbroad, lacks a safe harbor for good-faith platforms, and penalizes constitutionally protected content with fines of up to $500,000 per violation. The complaint, filed days before the law takes effect, says the ban would reach even consensual or self-created images and defines “intimate parts” too expansively. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison defended the law’s aim to curb nonconsensual sexual imagery, calling “AI nudification” harmful and demeaning. The case tests how far states can regulate AI without violating free-speech protections, amid a patchwork of approaches that includes California’s blocked deepfake election law, Texas’s civil liability regime, and new federal requirements to remove explicit AI images.

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