Summary: XAI filed lawsuit in Texas federal court Terry Harwood accused of creating sexualized deepfakes XAI suspended over 52,000 accounts in 2026   Elon Musk's artificial-intelligence startup xAI has sued a South Carolina man arrested earlier this year on charges of sexually exploiting minors, alleging he misused the company's AI system Grok to create child sexual abuse material. xAI alleged in the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Texas on July 14, that Terry Harwood violated the company's terms of service. The case is one of the first brought by an AI company against one of its users for allegedly using an AI system to generate explicit material. Contact information for Harwood, who was arrested in February, was not immediately available. Spokespeople for xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. The company's lawsuit against Harwood follows intense global scrutiny of xAI over allegations that Grok has allowed users to generate non-consensual sexualized deepfakes, or realistic-looking videos fabricated by AI. xAI's complaint said that the company "enforces its rules against violators through account suspensions, account terminations, and by reporting suspected child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children." "Indeed, Plaintiff has suspended 52,222 accounts and made 73,604 reports to NCMEC in 2026, resulting in (at least) 244 arrests," the lawsuit said. xAI alleged that Harwood uploaded non-sexual images of adults and minors to Grok and tried to use the system to generate sexually explicit deepfakes based on them. The complaint also alleged he created non-consensual sexual imagery of adults. The company asked the court for an unspecified amount of monetary damages and a court order permanently blocking Harwood from using Grok. "Defendant’s actions were a calculated scheme to weaponize Plaintiff’s tool for criminal ends, exposing real victims to profound and lasting harm, while exposing Plaintiff to significant legal risk and reputational damage," xAI said in the lawsuit.

Summary: Writers Guild files lawsuit in San Francisco federal court Paramount seeks to acquire Warner Bros discovery for $110 billion Case parallels DOJ's blocked Penguin Random House Simon & Schuster merger The Writers Guild of America sued on July 14 to block Paramount's $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, saying the deal would jeopardize writers' livelihoods and threaten the health of U.S. entertainment. The case is another blow to Paramount's bid to become a bigger rival to Netflix and Disney, a day after California and 11 other states sued to block the deal. Paramount, which argued the combination would increase opportunities for writers, must now deal with a double dose of legal work. The Writers Guild said in its lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court that the deal would reduce the number of buyers in Hollywood for films and TV shows, harming its members. “With fewer competitors, the merged Paramount-Warner Bros. entity would have both the incentive and the ability to lower costs by suppressing writers’ wages and reducing output. Writers will be paid less and have fewer employment opportunities,” the WGA complaint said. The union, made up of the Writers Guild of America West and Writers Guild of America East, has 18,000 members across the entertainment industry. The Writers Guild said that by combining two of five major Hollywood studios, the merger would unlawfully concentrate demand for writers of top-grossing films and episodic television series, and decrease the bargaining power of writers who enter exclusive deals with studios. The Writers Guild pointed to a case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice that successfully blocked Penguin Random House's bid to buy rival Simon & Schuster, on grounds that it would hinder competition in the market for top-selling books and lower advances paid to authors. That case hinged on the argument that the combined company would control close to half the market for publishing, an effective monopsony that would leave hundreds of individual authors with fewer options and less leverage.

Summary: 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reverses dismissal Expert testimony from Harvard public health dean reinstated Over 500 private lawsuits against Kenvue and retailers revived A federal appeals court on July 13 revived more than 500 private lawsuits against Tylenol maker Kenvue over the painkiller's alleged link to autism. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said a district court judge improperly excluded expert testimony from three doctors offered by parents and guardians who tied Tylenol use during pregnancy to autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. There is no firm scientific evidence of such a link. The issue drew greater attention after President Donald Trump and top U.S. health officials in September suggested a link to autism. In a 64-page decision for a three-judge panel, Circuit Judge Guido Calabresi said the testimony from the three doctors, including the dean of Harvard University's School of Public Health, reflected methodologies used by other scientists, and "constitute acceptable interpretations of scientific evidence where scientists may, and in fact do, disagree." Calabresi stressed that the appeals court was not deciding whether using acetaminophen causes autism or ADHD, or whether elected officials should do more to protect public health. Doctors and medical societies consider acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, the preferred means to treat pain and fever during pregnancy. Many retailers and pharmacy operators including CVS, Kroger, Target, Walgreens and Walmart were also named as defendants. The appeals court said the doctors whose testimony was wrongly excluded included Harvard public health dean Andrea Baccarelli; Eric Hollander, a psychiatry professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Brandon Pearson, a toxicologist at Columbia University. "We are pleased that the panel unanimously found that our key experts reliably applied their scientific methods and principles," Ashley Keller, a lawyer for the parents, said in an email. Experts often play a key role in product liability lawsuits such as the Tylenol cases. The private lawsuits were dismissed in December 2024 by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan, who criticized the methodology of the plaintiffs' expert witnesses. The decision on July 13 returns the lawsuits to Cote for further proceedings.