The legal walls are closing in on Elon Musk’s AI venture. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has launched a formal investigation into xAI, the parent company of the Grok chatbot, following an "avalanche" of reports that the tool is being used to generate non-consensual sexual imagery of women and children.

Bonta described the content as "shocking," accusing the platform of facilitating digital harassment on an industrial scale. The probe coincides with a scathing attack from Governor Gavin Newsom, who labeled X (formerly Twitter) a "breeding ground for predators."

The Accountability Gap

While Musk claims the tool has safeguards, investigators argue they are easily bypassed. The probe seeks to determine if xAI violated state child protection and privacy laws. If found guilty, the company could face fines that would make the $44 billion Twitter acquisition look cheap. It is a test case for whether "free speech" can be used as a shield for algorithmic abuse.