Minnesota's Nudification Ban Is Now in Effect Despite xAI's Efforts to Stop It

Key Points:

• Minnesota has enacted a new law banning nudification apps, which alter photos to expose intimate body parts, with penalties including lawsuits from victims and fines up to $500,000 per image generation and each subsequent access.
• The law specifically targets automated, button-push alterations without artistic skill, excluding manual photo editors, and defines intimate parts broadly based on an existing state statute.
• Just before the law took effect, District Court Judge Donovan Frank denied a temporary restraining order requested by xAI (SpaceXAI), preventing a block on the law’s enforcement.
• xAI challenged the law’s broad scope, arguing it could criminalize AI-generated images created in jest, such as photos of political figures in bathing suits, but the court cited the timing of the lawsuit as a reason to deny the injunction.
• Judge Frank noted that xAI’s delayed legal action, filed nearly three months after the law’s passage and just days before enforcement, indicated no immediate harm requiring intervention.