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Jess Asato sues Elon Musk’s xAI in UK court, alleging Grok generated fake bikini images of her, citing privacy and data law breaches, as Keir Starmer backs her case.
Elon Musk (File Image)
British lawmaker Jess Asato has launched legal action against Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, alleging that its Grok chatbot was used to generate fake images of her in a bikini without her consent.
Asato, a member of the UK’s ruling Labour Party, filed a claim in London’s High Court on Wednesday, accusing the company of invading her privacy and misusing her personal information under Britain’s Data Protection Act.
The MP said the images were created in January after she publicly criticised the growing problem of deepfake pornography online. According to Asato, someone used Grok to digitally alter her image and create revealing photographs that did not exist in reality.
“Nobody would be able to walk up to me in the street and strip me and put me in a bikini, and I don’t see why anybody should be able to do that to me online,” Asato said while announcing the lawsuit.
She argued that AI companies should be held accountable for how their tools are designed and used, saying she hopes the case establishes a legal precedent for future victims of AI-generated abuse.
The lawsuit comes amid increasing scrutiny of deepfake technology, which uses artificial intelligence to create realistic but fabricated images, videos and audio recordings of real people.
Following criticism earlier this year, xAI updated Grok’s image-generation policies and said users would no longer be allowed to edit photographs of real people to remove clothing.
However, Asato argues that policy changes do not erase harm already caused.
“Once the damage is done, the damage is done,” she said, comparing the issue to a defective consumer product that causes injury before being recalled.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed Asato’s legal action, calling the images “disgusting” and saying he supported her decision to sue.
The case is the latest legal challenge involving Grok. Earlier this year, writer Ashley St. Clair filed a lawsuit in New York alleging that Grok generated explicit images depicting her, including one in which she appeared underage.
Asato’s lawsuit is expected to become an important test case as governments and courts around the world grapple with how existing laws should apply to rapidly evolving artificial intelligence technologies.
xAI, the AI company founded by Elon Musk, had not publicly responded to the lawsuit at the time of reporting.
London, United Kingdom (UK)
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