Jess Asato, a British Labour MP, has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s company xAI in the High Court in London over fake, sexualised images of Asato generated by Grok. She is seeking a court order requiring the company to implement permanent technical measures to prevent the chatbot from generating manipulated images of Asato.
Briefly about the main points
- Jess Asato is suing xAI in the High Court in London.
- She is asking for a technical measure to block the generation of her images in Grok.
- The claim relates to privacy and data protection legislation.
- Asato claims that Grok’s design made it possible to create sexualised content.
- The ICO is conducting a separate investigation into the processing of personal data in connection with Grok’s operations.
Request to change the way the system works
Asato said that following her public criticism of Musk and Grok Users created fake images featuring her. Among them was a video in which she was allegedly drugged with chloroform and prepared for sexual assault.
In her claim, the MP alleges the unlawful use of personal data and breaches of data protection laws. According to the case file, she is seeking an order requiring xAI to «implement effective and permanent technical measures» to prevent Grok from generating manipulated images of Asato.
Her lawyers believe that the case could have implications for other AI developers. According to them, the courts have not previously applied data protection and privacy regulations in this way to an artificial intelligence developer.
The lawyers cite Grok’s internal guidelines
Representatives from Asato cited the chatbot’s internal guidelines, according to which it must not assist users who are clearly attempting to commit a crime. At the same time, according to their information, another instruction stipulated that there were no restrictions on adult sexual content or offensive content.
Another guideline cited in the claim permitted fictional sexual content featuring adults with dark or violent themes. Lawyer Asato Ravi Naik stated that Grok had acted in accordance with the decisions of its developers and that these decisions «must have legal consequences».
xAI, which is part of Musk’s space and rocket company SpaceX, did not provide an immediate comment on the allegations. Grok, which operates via the social media platform X, has not yet filed a response to the claim.
The restrictions on xAI have not resolved the complaints
In mid-January, xAI announced that it had restricted image editing on Grok and blocked the creation of images of people in revealing clothing in jurisdictions where this is illegal. However, in early February, Reuters found that, following the introduction of the restrictions, Grok continued to generate sexualised images, even when users explicitly warned that the people depicted had not given their consent.
Grok is already the subject of regulatory investigations in several countries. In March, the city of Baltimore filed a lawsuit against xAI over fake sexualised images generated by the chatbot; similar cases have also been brought in other parts of the US and the Netherlands.
Parallel audits in the UK
On 3 February, the UK data protection regulator, the ICO, launched formal investigations into X Internet Unlimited Company and X.AI. It is examining the lawfulness, fairness and transparency of personal data processing during the development and operation of Grok, as well as the presence of technical safeguards against harmful manipulated images. The ICO emphasised that it has not yet reached a final conclusion regarding any breaches.
Ofcom is conducting a separate investigation into the X platform under the Online Safety Act. The regulator explained that the current framework generally does not cover illegal content in private interactions between a user and an autonomous chatbot, provided that such content is not searched for on the web or shared between users. This may make Asato’s private lawsuit an important separate avenue for determining whether the developer should alter the product’s functionality.
In March, a court in Amsterdam had already banned X.AI, X and XIUC from generating and distributing unauthorised «nude» images of people living in the Netherlands. Whilst that ruling does not determine the outcome of the UK case, it does show that a European court may impose specific restrictions on the operators of such services.
