Judge denies request by Elon Musk’s xAI to pause Minnesota nudification ban

Artificial intelligenceJudge denies request by Elon Musk’s xAI to pause Minnesota nudification banThe ruling clears the way for the first-in-the-nation law to go into effect on Saturday.Listen to this article with a free profile00:0000:00Elon Musk, CEO of XAi, in Berlin in 2022.Patrick Pleul / AFP via Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleJuly 31, 2026, 3:41 PM EDTBy Samantha Elkins and David IngramA federal judge on Friday denied a request from Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI to block a Minnesota law that will be the first in the nation to ban nudification technology.U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank ruled that there was little risk of immediate harm from the law going into effect as scheduled on Saturday, despite a lawsuit this week from xAI claiming that the law violates the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech.“xAI filed the motion on July 29, 2026, nearly three months after the law was signed, and only three days before the law is set to take effect. Such a delay in bringing the action and the motion suggests that harm is not immediate,” the judge wrote in a two-page order, denying xAI’s request for a pause to the law.Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in Chicago in 2024.Andrew Harnik / Getty Images fileThe court could still pause the law at a later time. The judge wrote that he’ll hold a hearing on Aug. 19 on whether to grant a preliminary injunction.The law, which was signed by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz in May, prohibits a person who owns or controls a website, application or software to allow their users to “nudify” images of others. It also prohibits anyone from advertising nudification capabilities. In its lawsuit filed Monday, Musk’s company did not dispute Minnesota’s interest in banning nudification websites and apps, but said: “The law is overinclusive and there are far less restrictive alternatives that function to achieve the same ends.”Grok, one of xAI’s products, has faced severe scrutiny for its ‘Imagine’ feature that u...