Labour MP Jess Asato has launched legal action against Elon Musk's xAI company, alleging that its Grok AI tool generated fake sexualised images of her without consent. The MP for Lowestoft said in January that seeing herself portrayed in a bikini via the tool was 'violating'.
The claim, filed at the High Court in London, argues that xAI breached data protection laws and misused private information by allowing users to prompt Grok to create such images. Asato also reported that Grok produced a video showing her being chloroformed and prepared for a sexual assault.
Asato's case follows a similar lawsuit in New York by Ashley St Clair, mother of one of Musk's children, who alleged explicit images of her were generated, including one depicting her as underage. The UK government threatened action against X in January after Grok was used to create vast quantities of sexualised imagery based on real women and children, prompting an inquiry by media regulator Ofcom.
Asato told the Financial Times that the images were generated after she criticised the creation of non-consensual sexualised pictures. Her lawyer, Ravi Naik, said: 'At its heart this case is about a single principle: that developers must answer for the way they design and deploy their tools.'
Initially, xAI said it would restrict image generation to paying customers, a move condemned by Prime Minister Keir Starmer as 'horrific'. Days later, X announced it had entirely stopped Grok from editing pictures of real people to show them in revealing clothes.
