A member of the British Parliament announced Thursday that she has initiated legal proceedings against Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, claiming violation of privacy after fabricated images of her were generated through their Grok chatbot.
Jess Asato, who serves as a legislator with the governing Labour Party, alleges that an individual utilized Grok to produce unauthorized images showing her in swimwear during January, following her public criticism of deepfake pornography proliferation on the internet.
The legal action was submitted Wednesday to London’s High Court, citing improper use of personal information under the Data Protection Act.
Asato is pursuing financial compensation and aims to establish legal precedent holding companies responsible for their artificial intelligence system designs.
“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, because the feeling, while it is not quite the same, is very similar,” she stated. “It is like somebody has digitally stripped me without my consent.”
Asato expressed hope that additional individuals will participate in the legal action.
Following global criticism regarding deepfake pornography, Musk’s company announced in January that Grok users would no longer be permitted to modify images of actual people by digitally removing their clothing.
Legislation enacted last year in the U.K. criminalized the creation or solicitation of non-consensual deepfake images of adults. However, Asato maintains that xAI must answer for harm already inflicted.
“Once the damage is done, the damage is done,” she explained. “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.”
xAI had not provided a response to requests for comment as of Thursday.
