Judge lets Minnesota's 'nudify' app ban take effect over xAI suit

A federal judge has denied xAI’s request to block a Minnesota law banning apps that let users “nudify” images, according to NBC News, allowing what is described as the first ban of its kind in the United States to take effect while xAI’s broader lawsuit against it proceeds. U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank’s ruling focused as much on the timing of xAI’s request as on the substance of the law itself.

Frank noted that xAI filed its request for a temporary restraining order on July 29, 2026 — nearly three months after Minnesota signed the law and only three days before it was set to take effect on August 1. “Such a delay in bringing the action and the motion suggests that harm is not immediate,” Frank wrote in denying the request.

The ruling does not resolve xAI’s underlying lawsuit against the ban — it only allows the law to take effect while that case proceeds. In its suit, xAI argued the ban sweeps too broadly and that far less restrictive alternatives could achieve the same goal.

The case follows an earlier controversy this year in which users of Elon Musk’s social media platform X used xAI’s Grok chatbot to flood the platform with non-consensual sexualized images, prompting investigations and bans. X and xAI are both now part of SpaceX.

Why it matters

As the first U.S. state law targeting “nudify” apps, Minnesota’s ban — now in effect despite xAI’s challenge — could become a reference point for other states weighing similar restrictions on AI image-generation tools, even as the underlying legal fight over its scope continues.