xAI wins suspension of Minnesota law against fake nude images created with AI

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI has won an early legal victory in the United States, after the federal appeals court of the 8th Circuit in St. Louis suspended enforcement of the first law of its kind in the U.S. banning fake nude images created with artificial intelligence, as Reuters reports.

With the temporary order, the court gives the company the opportunity to continue its lawsuit against the state of Minnesota, where xAI claims the law is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment, which protects free speech, according to Reuters’ reporting.

Last month, federal judge Donovan Frank had rejected xAI’s request to block the law, but the company appealed the decision and has now won the suspension. The law H.F. 1606, signed by Governor Tim Walz in May 2026 and in force since August 1, 2026, bans website operators and software developers from allowing users to digitally “undress” images of identifiable persons through AI technology, with fines of up to $500,000 per violation, Reuters reports.

Minnesota authorities defend the law as a necessary tool to curb the spread of non-consensual sexual images. The state’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, has stated that these applications “have been used to generate child sexual abuse material and to harass people in the most disgusting ways imaginable”.

The suspension is temporary: the appeals court will consider the merits of the case in due course, while xAI continues its legal battle against the state of Minnesota.