Prince Harry and Meghan Blast xAI Over AI Deepfakes as Minnesota Ban Faces Legal Challenge

Harry and Meghan blast Elon Musk, Big Tech over 'predatory' AI features

LONDON - Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan are once again taking aim at Big Tech. The royal couple, issued a scathing statement on their official website, titled: "Can we all agree technology should not enable predators to target children?" which accused tech giants of putting profit ahead of the digital safety of women and young people. The statement, dated August 2026, began by praising the state of Minnesota for its recent decision to outlaw AI "nudification" technology. The ban passed unanimously in the Minnesota state Senate with a 65-0 vote, becoming the first of its kind nationwide. Meghan and Harry described the law as "an example of leadership fit for the digital age: a bi-partisan decision to stop technology from enabling predatory behavior disproportionately targeting women and children." The royal couple, without naming Elon Musk directly, slammed "the trillionaire leader of the tech company responsible for X's Grok" for suing the state in a bid to "stop the law from going into place." A representative for Musk did not immediately return a request for comment Monday, Aug. 3. Last week, Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, sued Minnesota over the ban and called for the law to be blocked. The legal complaint noted that the state had the right to block AI from being used to create sexualized content but that the law "extends far beyond that goal" and was potentially a violation of freedom of speech. Meghan and Harry accused the company of "mitigating risk to their bottom line instead of aggressively responding to the clear evidence their product features are enabling predators to prey on women and children." Grok has come under widespread scrutiny specifically for its "Imagine" feature, which has been used to create sexualized deepfakes of people without their consent. In the Google Play store, xAI touts the Grok product as "designed to be maximally truthful, useful, and curious." On Friday, July 31, a federal judge denied xAI's request to block of the law but said a hearing would be held on Aug. 19 on whether to grant a preliminary injunction, NBC News reported. "Big Tech companies are raising billions claiming AI will bring society forward, yet they retaliate against basic safety measures to keep children safe," the Sussexes' statement said. "Can AI make our world better while it enables the worst in humans? Should our children pay the price while we wait to find out?" Harry and Meghan have long expressed concern over the dark side of social media, along with the rapid development of AI tools. The pair say the issue of online safety is a global humanitarian issue and have spent years calling on platforms to implement better content-moderation policies and bolder online protections. In 2024, the couple said they had been spending time with families of children who had died or been negatively affected as a result of social media. "The best parenting in the world cannot keep children safe from these platforms," a statement from the royal couple, who share two children, read. Their statement came one year after they spoke on a panel in New York about the mental health challenges faced by young people who use social media. "People are getting hurt - and people, specifically children, are dying," Meghan said during the panel discussion. In 2021, Harry blamed social media for the attack on the U.S. Capitol, citing an "avalanche of misinformation" and a and "a barrage of mistruths" that he said allowed conspiracy theories to thrive, threatening democracy with violence and death.

Prince Harry and Meghan's charitable arm urges Congress to act on AI deepfakes: 'More bills are sitting, waiting'

Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's charitable organization, Archewell Philanthropies, is urging lawmakers to act on legislation involving AI deepfakes as it calls out Big Tech for what it describes as retaliation "against basic safety measures to keep children safe." A statement recently posted on the couple's website titled, "Can we all agree technology should not enable predators to target children?" applauded Minnesota for passing a ban on AI "nudification" apps earlier this year. The legislation, signed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) in May, bans the access or promotion in the North Star State of technology that could allow users to turn authentic images of an individual into fake, pornographic ones. The bill includes civil penalties of up to $500,000 for "each unlawful access, download, or use." Last week, a federal judge denied a request by xAI, Elon Musk's company, for a temporary restraining order that would've stopped the AI ban. "The Minnesota law is an example of leadership fit for the digital age: a bi-partisan decision to stop technology from enabling predatory behavior disproportionately targeting women and children," the statement on Harry and Meghan's site said. "Even in a state with many differences of opinions, it was not controversial." "Leaders in other parts of the U.S. like Pennsylvania, North Dakota and California, have followed Minnesota proposing interventions and launching investigations to stop A.I. technology designed to allow the abuse, harassment, stalking, and sexualization of targeted individuals and children," the post on the pair's website stated. "These state-level initiatives come after the successful passing of The Take It Down Act in U.S. Congress, which criminalizes the nonconsensual sharing of intimate images and AI-generated deepfakes, and requires online platforms to remove them." President Trump last year signed the Take it Down Act, the bipartisan legislation that was championed by first lady Melania Trump. "Archewell Philanthropies applauds leadership taking the tech-fueled sexualization of women and children seriously and doing all they can to keep society safe," the statement said. "Still more bills are sitting, waiting to be prioritized as the need for protection grows," the post said, noting that the Defiance Act, a bill that would create a civil right of action for survivors of nonconsensual deepfakes and which Paris Hilton has been a vocal proponent of, has "been passed by the Senate twice but has yet to make it to a vote on the House floor." "This begs the question: why the delay? The answer may lie in the deepest offense to families and children: the tech industry's commitment to pushback on these bills to protect their bottom line," the post on Harry and Meghan's site said. The pair, who wed in 2018, announced in 2020 that they were stepping down as full-time working members of the British royal family and moved to California. "Big Tech has taken shocking steps to limit restrictions on or accountability for these objectively predatory A.I. product features," the statement said. "Most recently, ahead of the Minnesota law to ban 'nudification' apps going into effect," the statement continued, "the trillionaire leader of the tech company responsible for X's Grok, sued the state of Minnesota to stop the law from going into place," the post said, without naming Musk. "If one wonders why someone would try to stop a ban on AI technology producing deepfakes of people and children in the nude without their consent, they need look no further than the three different groups, including a UK lawmaker, an Arkansas family, and five children from Tennessee, all filing new lawsuits against that same Grok feature, alleging it created sexual material of them, just this week," the statement said. "The company is mitigating risk to their bottom line instead of aggressively responding to the clear evidence their product features are enabling predators to prey on women and children. A representative for xAI didn't immediately respond to ITK's request for comment. "Big Tech companies are raising billions claiming AI will bring society forward, yet they retaliate against basic safety measures to keep children safe," the Archewell Philanthropies post said. "Can AI make our world better while it enables the worst in humans? Should our children pay the price while we wait to find out?"