xAI wins appeal to pause Minnesota AI deepfake nude ban

xAI has persuaded a U.S. federal appeals court to pause Minnesota's ban on AI-generated nude imagery, which reports describe as the first such law in the country. According to a Reuters report carried by IT之家 on October 4, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, based in St. Louis, granted xAI's request for a temporary injunction, setting the statute's enforcement aside for now. The ruling came on Friday.

The Minnesota anti-"nudification" law took effect on August 1. It bars website operators, software developers and other covered parties from allowing users to generate photorealistic images that depict the intimate body parts of identifiable people — imagery that does not exist in the original photographs. xAI, the AI and social media company led by Elon Musk, is suing the state and argues that the law restricts speech protected under the U.S. Constitution. The appeals court outcome follows a setback last month, when a trial-level judge rejected the Musk side's bid to suspend the law's operation.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's office said in a statement on Friday that it was disappointed by the appellate ruling and that it would continue to defend the law during the appeal. With the temporary injunction in place, the statute is on hold while the litigation proceeds.