UK MP Jess Asato sues Elon Musk's xAI over AI chatbot image generation

A Suffolk MP said she had launched legal action against Elon Musk's xAI over the design of its Grok chatbot tool, after she claimed it was used to create fake images of her in a bikini.

Jess Asato, the Labour MP for Lowestoft, previously said she felt violated after an image of her was manipulated using artificial intelligence.

She said a legal case was filed at the High Court on Wednesday. The MP is seeking damages but also wants to set a precedent for companies to be liable for the design of AI systems.

It comes after a backlash earlier this year over how Grok was being used to create false sexualised images.

Asato was targeted in January after speaking up, she said, and spoke in the Commons at the time about how Grok had been used to create fake images of her.

It has since become illegal to create or request a non-consensual deepfake image of an adult in the UK.

Asato said her claim was about seeking redress for "the harms that were created while Grok was creating harms".

"If you think about any other products, like a car, for example, that might have been manufactured with a fault, it doesn't matter if, you know, the cars get recalled and the faults are fixed and no more harm is done," said Asato.

"It matters that the car was produced with the fault in the first place, and that's the problem with Grok, is that it was created without the safeguards and without the guardrails to prevent this from happening in the first place.

"I guess that's the centre of my case, is to say that it doesn't matter how quickly things were then repaired. Once the damage is done, the damage is done."

The claim filed at the High Court is being brought under the Data Protection Act and for tortious misuse of private information.

Ravi Naik of law firm AWO, which is representing Asato, said: "Where there is a wrong, the law must provide a remedy, and that is as true of artificial intelligence as of anything else.

"No-one should be subjected to abuse like this, and no-one should have to instruct a lawyer to get images like these taken down.

"This is one of the first claims to test liability for the design of an AI system, and we aim to make it clear that safety cannot be an afterthought."