8th Circuit halts Minnesota's AI 'nudification' ban pending xAI's appeal

What happened: On Friday, October 2, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit granted xAI an injunction pending appeal, putting Minnesota's first-in-the-nation ban on AI-generated "nudified" images on hold. The law, which took effect August 1, prohibits website operators and software developers from allowing users to create realistic images depicting an intimate body part not shown in an original photo of an identifiable individual. A district judge (Donovan Frank) had rejected xAI's bid to block the law in September; the appeals court reversed course for now. xAI argues the measure restricts constitutionally protected free speech and says its Grok Imagine tool has "rigorous protections" against creating nudified or sexualized images of real people. Minnesota countered that the law combats what it called a "staggering amount" of child sexual abuse material generated by AI products like Grok Imagine.

Why it matters to creators: This is the leading court fight over non-consensual AI manipulation of real people's likenesses. Performers, influencers, and other creators whose faces and bodies are turned into non-consensual intimate imagery by tools like Grok Imagine are directly affected by whether such bans survive constitutional challenge. The case will shape what legal protections exist for creators' likeness rights.

What is not yet known: The ruling is only an injunction pending appeal, not a decision on the law's constitutionality. The appeals court has not yet ruled on the merits, and xAI separately says it has begun suing users who evade Grok's blockers to create sexual images of people without consent.