xAI sues Colorado over AI law

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, has filed a lawsuit against the state of Colorado over a new AI law set to take effect in June.

The suit seeks to block the state from enforcing the law, which would impose new requirements on AI systems to protect state residents from “algorithmic discrimination” in sectors such as education, employment, healthcare, housing and financial services.

Colorado was the first state to pass a comprehensive bill to regulate AI.

The company claims the law infringes on its first amendment free-speech protections and would force xAI to “promote the state’s ideological views on various matters, racial justice in particular”, according to the Financial Times, which first reported the lawsuit. “Its provisions prohibit developers of AI systems from producing speech that the state of Colorado dislikes.”

The lawsuit, filed in US district court in Colorado, comes as battles have raged at the state and federal level over how to regulate the fast-growing technology. States such as California and New York have been working to rein in AI with regulations, while the Trump administration has been trying to loosen the rules and place a moratorium on state laws.

xAI, which makes the chatbot Grok, has been plagued with accusations of discrimination. The chatbot has consistently spewed racist, sexist and antisemitic content, put forth conspiracies of “white genocide” and referred to itself as “MechaHitler”.

Katie Miller, a former spokesperson for xAI and the wife of Trump adviser Stephen Miller, heralded the lawsuit in a post on X on Thursday: “Colorado wants to force Grok to follow its views on equity and race, instead of being maximally truth-seeking. Grok answers to evidence, not woke leftist government regulations.”

Jared Polis, Colorado’s Democratic governor, signed the bill into law in 2024 but said it was “with reservations”. He has called on state legislators to amend it. The legislation was intended to go into effect in February, but was pushed until 30 June.

xAI, which merged with Musk’s rocket business SpaceX earlier this year, is seeking an injunction to block the enforcement of the Colorado law and a court declaration saying the legislation is unconstitutional.

The Colorado attorney general’s office declined to comment on the lawsuit and xAI did not return a request for comment.

The Guardian