Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI filed a federal lawsuit Monday challenging a Minnesota law that bans so-called nudification technology — AI tools that generate fake nude images of real people. The suit was filed days before the law is set to take effect Saturday, making Minnesota the first state to attempt to outlaw such technology. The law, signed in May, imposes civil penalties of up to $500,000 per violation on companies whose platforms are used to create such images.

In its 38-page complaint, xAI said it does not dispute Minnesota's interest in preventing the non-consensual distribution of AI-generated nude images, but argues the law overreaches by restricting constitutionally protected speech. The company contends the statute lacks a safe harbor provision for platforms that make good-faith efforts to prevent misuse, that it applies even to images created or consented to by the depicted person, and that its definition of 'intimate part' is overly broad. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who had not yet been served with the lawsuit, said in a statement that AI nudification 'robs the target of their dignity and can cause immense harm on an emotional, personal, and professional level.'

The legislation was authored in the state Senate by Democratic Sen. Erin Maye Quade, who said she began working on the bill two years ago after learning that a man had used social media photos of more than 80 women to generate hyperrealistic sexual images without their consent. The bill passed the state Senate unanimously and cleared the House with only one dissenting vote. Maye Quade said the law regulates conduct, not artistic content, and that no technology companies raised objections during the drafting process — with the exception of xAI.

Minnesota's law is distinct from existing state and federal statutes that penalize individuals who create and distribute non-consensual explicit deepfakes, as it targets the makers of the tools themselves. The federal Take It Down Act, passed last year, requires websites and apps to establish processes for removing such images but does not ban the underlying technology. Texas enacted a related but narrower law making platform owners liable if they knew an image was created without consent or failed to remove it promptly.

The case is expected to serve as a significant legal test of how far states can go in regulating AI under the First Amendment. State lawmakers note that similar legislation is advancing in more than a dozen other states, and a 2025 court challenge to the Minnesota law by Musk's company has so far failed. Ellison's office said it would review the lawsuit and respond accordingly.