A federal judge has rejected xAI’s request to temporarily block Minnesota’s new law banning “nudify” apps, allowing the measure to take effect while the legal challenge continues.
According to NBC News, U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank said xAI waited too long to seek emergency relief. The company filed its request on July 29, nearly three months after the law was signed and just days before its August 1 start date.
Frank said the delay undermined xAI’s claim of immediate and irreparable harm, noting that the timing suggested the issue was not urgent enough to justify halting the law before a full review.
The ruling does not decide the broader case, but it keeps Minnesota’s ban in place as litigation moves forward.
xAI argues the law is overly broad and unconstitutional, saying it restricts more speech than necessary to address harmful AI-generated content. The company says narrower rules could achieve the same public safety goals.
The law is believed to be the first in the U.S. to specifically target AI tools that digitally remove clothing from images to create non-consensual sexual content.
The lawsuit comes after earlier scrutiny of xAI following reports that users on Elon Musk’s platform X, now operating alongside xAI, used the Grok chatbot to generate and share non-consensual sexualised images. Those incidents led to investigations in multiple jurisdictions.
The court will now consider whether Minnesota’s law can withstand constitutional challenges while it remains in effect.
