It further notes that any CSAM detected by xAI is reported to NCMEC.
In its complaint, xAI said Harwood alone was responsible for its results because it “flagrantly violated” xAI’s rules and “made every effort to circumvent” Grok’s “technological safeguards.”
Harwood allegedly did this by relying on “misleading tips,” xAI said. And Harwood also failed to control himself when he saw that he could create illegal content, xAI claims. In the complaint, xAI alleges that Harwood should have known that he was banned from using Grok after he first used the chatbot to create illegal content. Notably, however, xAI does not indicate that Harwood received any warnings that his account was facing penalties.
Instead, Harwood allegedly “continued to use Grok for the relevant period following the violation of xAI’s Terms of Service,” xAI alleges. “xAI’s terms of service to which he agreed prohibited his use following previous violations.”
xAI hopes that the U.S. District Court will rule that Harwood violated the terms of xAI and breached his contract with xAI. But perhaps more importantly, Musk wants the court to uphold an indemnification provision that holds only users, and not xAI, liable for CSAM and NCII generated by Grok. According to xAI, when people use Grok, they are responsible for all of their content, which xAI insists includes both input and output.
It is unclear whether the court will agree that users are responsible for the results of AI. Notably, the Copyright Office does not consider artificial intelligence output to be human-generated. This could be a deciding factor in the xAI crime if the court fails to understand how images of child sex generated by an artificial intelligence tool can be generated by a user if any other image cannot be legally recognized in this way.
If xAI wins this battle, Harwood could be required to pay substantial damages, including for “any actual injury to third parties,” “xAI’s exposure to potential third-party claims and suits,” and “any harm to xAI’s reputation,” the complaint states.