MINNESOTA 'NUDIFY' BAN TAKES EFFECT AFTER JUDGE REJECTS XAI CHALLENGE

U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank refused xAI's request to block a Minnesota law banning apps that generate nonconsensual intimate imagery, allowing the law to take effect on 1 August. The judge noted that xAI filed its legal challenge on 29 July, nearly three months after the law was signed and only three days before enforcement began. In his ruling, Frank wrote that "such a delay in bringing the action and the motion suggests that harm is not immediate", indicating he was not persuaded that the law would cause immediate damage to xAI's interests. The court scheduled a hearing for 19 August to consider xAI's request for a preliminary injunction to halt the law.

The Minnesota law is the first of its kind in the United States. It prohibits apps and websites capable of generating nonconsensual intimate imagery and imposes fines of £500,000 each time a user generates such an image through a developer's product. The legislation defines a "nudified" image or video as one altered or generated to depict an intimate part not present in the original, and applies when the result is realistic enough that a reasonable person would believe the intimate part belongs to the identifiable individual. xAI argued in its legal filing that the law constitutes an "overbroad, content-based ban on free speech" that extends beyond preventing nonconsensual nude imagery to expose "a wide array of protected speech to civil liability and government sanction". The company stated it did not contest Minnesota's efforts to prevent the spread of artificially generated nude images, but objected to the law's scope.

Grok, xAI's artificial intelligence system, attracted attention earlier this year after complying with user requests to generate sexualised images of real women and children. The court's decision to allow the Minnesota law to proceed sets a precedent as other jurisdictions consider similar restrictions on image generation technology. The preliminary injunction hearing on 19 August will determine whether xAI's legal challenge succeeds in blocking enforcement of the law.