According to NBC News, despite a lawsuit filed by xAI, Minnesota’s ban on applications that can digitally “undress” photos may still take effect as planned.
In his ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank said his decision was based not only on the law itself but also on the timing of xAI’s lawsuit.
Frank pointed out that xAI applied for a temporary restraining order on July 29, 2026, nearly three months after the law was formally signed and just three days before it was scheduled to take effect on August 1.
He wrote: “The delay in bringing this action and seeking a temporary restraining order suggests that the alleged harm is not imminent.”
However, this does not mean that xAI’s lawsuit against the ban has ended. It only means that the law can take effect while the case proceeds.
In its lawsuit, xAI argued that the ban is the first law in the United States targeting this type of application, but that its restrictions are “overly broad.” It also argued that there are “less restrictive alternatives that would achieve the same legislative goals.”
Earlier this year, users of Elon Musk’s social media platform X (X and xAI have now both been incorporated into SpaceX) used xAI’s Grok chatbot to generate large numbers of sexualized images of people without their consent on the platform. The incident subsequently prompted regulatory investigations and led to the relevant features being restricted or banned.