UK lawmaker seeks court order against Grok over fake sexualised images

Labour lawmaker Jess Asato filed the case against xAI, alleging misuse of private information and breaches of data protection laws. She is seeking

LONDON: A British lawmaker has asked a London High Court to order Elon Musk’s xAI to prevent its Grok chatbot from generating manipulated sexualised images of her without consent.

Labour lawmaker Jess Asato filed the case against xAI, alleging misuse of private information and breaches of data protection laws. She is seeking permanent technical measures that would stop Grok from producing altered images of her.

Asato said fake content featuring her had been created after she publicly criticised Musk and Grok. She previously said one manipulated video depicted her being drugged and prepared for a sexual assault.

Her lawyers argue that the design and training of Grok enabled users to generate sexualised material involving real people. They say the case could have wider implications for artificial intelligence developers and the way privacy and data protection laws apply to AI platforms.

Court documents cited by Asato’s legal team reportedly refer to internal instructions given to Grok. Her lawyers claim the system contained safeguards against assisting users involved in criminal activity but had fewer restrictions concerning adult sexual and offensive content.

Asato’s lawyer, Ravi Naik, argued that the platform’s behaviour reflected decisions made by its developers. He said those decisions should have legal consequences if the system fails to comply with privacy and data protection requirements.

The lawsuit comes amid growing international criticism over AI-generated sexualised images. Critics have raised concerns that such technology can be used to create non-consensual material involving women and other individuals without their knowledge.

xAI previously introduced restrictions on image editing in Grok. The company said it had blocked certain requests involving people in revealing clothing where such content was illegal.

However, subsequent investigations found that the safeguards did not always prevent users from generating sexualised images of people, including when users indicated that the subjects had not given consent.

The controversy has also triggered legal action in other jurisdictions. Baltimore filed a lawsuit against xAI over allegedly manipulated sexualised images generated using Grok. Other cases have also emerged in the United States and the Netherlands.

Grok is available through Musk’s social media platform X. The AI chatbot has faced regulatory scrutiny in several countries over its image-generation capabilities.

Asato’s case could therefore become an important test of whether AI companies can be held legally responsible for harmful manipulated content generated by their systems.

xAI had not immediately responded to requests for comment on the allegations. The company had also not filed a response to the lawsuit at the time of the report.