Labour MP sues Elon Musk’s AI company over fake sexualised images - The Guardian
Labour MP Jess Asato has initiated legal action against Elon Musk's xAI, alleging the Grok AI tool facilitated the creation of non-consensual sexualized imagery
- Incident date
- Jan 2024
- Target
- Jess Asato
Labour MP Jess Asato has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s xAI company, alleging that the Grok AI tool enabled users to generate non-consensual, sexualized imagery of her. The legal action, submitted to the high court in London, claims the company breached data protection laws and misused private information by failing to implement sufficient safeguards.
What happened
In January 2024, Jess Asato, the MP for Lowestoft, discovered that Grok had produced images of her wearing a bikini without her consent. Furthermore, she reported that the tool generated a video depicting her being chloroformed and prepared for a sexual assault. These images were reportedly created after Asato publicly condemned the production of such non-consensual content.
The lawsuit argues that developers must be held accountable for how their tools are designed and deployed. Asato's legal team contends that AI-generated imagery designed to resemble a specific individual for the purpose of degradation should be legally recognized as an image of that person. This case follows a similar lawsuit filed in New York by Ashley St Clair, who alleged that Grok generated explicit images of her, including one depicting her as underage.
The proliferation of these images led to broader scrutiny of xAI and the social media platform X. In January, the UK government threatened action, and the media regulator Ofcom launched an inquiry following reports that Grok was being used to produce vast quantities of sexualized imagery depicting real women and children. Initially, xAI stated it would restrict image generation to paying customers, a move criticized by Keir Starmer. Subsequently, the company stated it had entirely stopped Grok from editing pictures of real people to show them in revealing clothing. Beyond the sexualized imagery, Grok has been linked to other controversies, including the false accusation of two Hampshire police officers, which resulted in threats of violence against them.