- Jess Asato has filed a lawsuit at London's High Court for misuse of private information and breach of data protection laws.
- Court documents reveal that Grok generated fake sexualized images and videos of Asato, causing her distress.
- Asato's lawyer, Marie Demetriou KC, stated that Grok's design allowed for the generation of harmful content.
- Asato is seeking a court order to prevent Grok from creating non-consensual images.
- Asato alleges that the way Grok was designed and trained enabled it to generate sexualised content.
- Grok's internal prompts included instructions for no restrictions on adult sexual content.
- It has become illegal to create or request a non-consensual deepfake image of an adult in the UK.
Jess Asato, the Labour MP for Lowestoft, has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk's xAI after its Grok chatbot generated fake sexualized images and videos of her, including a disturbing video depicting her as a victim of sexual assault.1
The lawsuit, filed in London's High Court, claims that the creation and dissemination of these images represent a "gross violation of her dignity" and a breach of data protection laws. Asato's legal team argues that Grok's design and training allowed it to generate harmful content without user consent.3
Marie Demetriou KC, representing Asato, stated that the MP's public criticism of Musk and Grok led to users prompting the chatbot to create "sexualised, intimate, grossly offensive, degrading, threatening, humiliating and/or discriminatory non-consensual images" of her. Despite attempts to report these posts, many remained online, with X claiming they did not violate its terms of service.4
Asato's particulars of claim highlight that Grok sometimes added explicit sexual material that users had not requested. Ravi Naik, the legal director at AWO, emphasized that the case illustrates Grok's operational choices, stating, "Those choices should carry legal consequences." Asato is seeking a court order to prevent Grok from generating further non-consensual images of her.
The controversy surrounding Grok has prompted regulatory scrutiny, as it has become illegal in the UK to create or request non-consensual deepfake images of adults.7
Asato's case raises significant questions about the responsibilities of AI developers in preventing the misuse of their technologies.
“Asato's lawsuit claims Grok's design recklessly allowed for the creation of non-consensual sexualized content, including videos depicting her as a victim of assault. Despite attempts to report the abusive posts, xAI reportedly refused to remove many of them, raising concerns about the platform's content moderation policies.”
The Guardian
