Lowestoft MP Jess Asato Launches High Court Claim Against xAI Over Grok-Generated Images
Jess Asato seeks damages and aims to establish liability for AI system design after Grok produced non-consensual images of her. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer expressed support for the legal action.
BBC NewsJess Asato, the MP for Lowestoft in Suffolk, filed papers at the High Court on Wednesday seeking damages and aiming to establish that companies can be held liable for the design of AI systems. The claim is brought under the Data Protection Act and for tortious misuse of private information.
Asato said Grok was used to create fake images of her in a bikini after she spoke in the Commons about the issue in January.
She stated she was pursuing accountability for design choices made by Grok's creators and seeking redress for harms created while the system operated without adequate safeguards. Asato added that she had received many additional images of herself in a bikini since news of the legal action became public. Sir Keir Starmer said Asato was absolutely right to take legal action against xAI.
He stated he was 100 percent behind the action she had taken and noted that the government had previously addressed similar issues with platform providers. Asato told BBC Breakfast that the case was intended to show tech companies cannot act without impunity and must build safeguards into products so images cannot be manipulated by AI without consent.
She compared the situation to a car manufactured with a fault, arguing that it matters the product was created without proper protections in the first place.
Ravi Naik of law firm AWO, representing Asato, said the claim is one of the first to test liability for the design of an AI system. He stated the goal is to make clear that safety cannot be an afterthought and that where there is a wrong, the law must provide a remedy. xAI previously said users would no longer be able to use the tool to generate sexualised images of real people.
It has since become illegal in the UK to create or request a non-consensual deepfake image of an adult.
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