xAI sues photographer while families sue xAI over Grok images

AI company xAI, the maker of the Grok chatbot, has filed a lawsuit against 43-year-old photographer Russell Bloodworth of Bentonville, Arkansas. At the same time, the company is itself being sued by families whose children were depicted in the material.

The company's claim against the photographer

According to local TV station KATV, xAI alleges that Bloodworth repeatedly submitted so-called adversarial prompts to get around Grok's safety guardrails. These are instructions written to an AI to trick its built-in restrictions. xAI is asking a judge to order him to pay the costs that his alleged actions caused the company.

The criminal case

Bloodworth was arrested on June 10, 2026. He is charged with 200 counts in total: 100 for possession of child pornography and 100 for unlawful creation of deepfakes, meaning fake images or videos of real people. He has pleaded not guilty, and the charges are allegations by police and prosecutors.

In a search on July 10, police found about 1,700 images and videos on his phone. According to police, much of the material was made with Grok from photos he had taken himself of underage customers. He is free on bail, and the next hearing in the criminal case is September 21.

The families sue xAI

Several families have sued xAI over the same events. One family filed suit in July 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas in Little Rock. The daughter was 10 years old. According to The Christian Post, the parents claim that xAI should have known users could misuse Grok's features to create explicit material without consent. They allege that the company knowingly marketed Grok as less restrictive, including with "Spicy Mode." According to the lawsuit, every image and video made with Grok constitutes a lasting exploitation of the girl.

The family is seeking damages, deletion of all illegal depictions of the child, and built-in safeguards against creating sexually explicit content of real people, especially minors.

The family's attorney, Derek Potts, says xAI marketed itself as "rebellious" and with "spicy" image features. He argues that Arkansas lacks meaningful AI regulation.

More families are expected to join the suit because police have notified them that their children were depicted. The families' claims are those of the lawsuit and have not been tested in court. xAI did not immediately respond to The Christian Post's request for comment.