Labour MP Jess Asato sues xAI over Grok-generated bikini images; company has since blocked sexualised depictions of real people

Labour MP Jess Asato filed papers at the High Court on Wednesday against Elon Musk's xAI, alleging the company's Grok chatbot generated fake images of her in a bikini without consent. Asato, the MP for Lowestoft in Suffolk, is seeking damages and aims to establish that AI companies can be held liable for the design of their systems.

The claim is brought under the Data Protection Act and for tortious misuse of private information.

Asato was first targeted in January after she spoke in the Commons about Grok being used to create such images. She said she had received "many images once again of me in a bikini" since news of the legal action became public. "There are no social rules about how people's images are used any more," she told BBC Breakfast.

She described the experience as a form of "digital sexual assault" and said it made her feel dehumanised and demeaned. "I was by no means the worst victim affected but it made me feel dehumanised.

My consent had not been gained and I had been stripped of my clothes without my consent," Asato said. She called on others whose images had been manipulated by Grok in an "abusive or demeaning way" to come forward. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said Asato was "absolutely right" to take legal action against xAI over the "disgusting" images.

"I'm really pleased that we took Grok on a few months ago, because that's the fight we should be in," he said. " Ravi Naik of law firm AWO, which is representing Asato, said the case tests liability for the design of an AI system. "This content existed because of design choices made by engineers at xAI," Naik said.

XAI said users would no longer be able to use Grok to generate sexualised images of real people. Elon Musk said anyone using Grok to make illegal content would suffer the same consequences as if they uploaded illegal content. It has become illegal in the UK to create or request a non-consensual deepfake image of an adult.

Asato argued that companies must build safeguards into AI products so that images cannot be used or manipulated without consent, using the analogy of a car manufactured with a fault.