British Member of Parliament Jess Asato Sued xAI, Grok Allegedly Used to Make Sexual Deepfakes

LONDON - British Member of Parliament Jess Asato has sued xAI, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, after the Grok chatbot allegedly used to create fake sexual images and videos of himself without permission.

Quoted from The Mirror, Thursday, June 4, Asato became the target after criticizing Grok. The AI tool is said to be used by a number of users to create fake sexual images of women and children.

Asato's photo was taken from the internet, then manipulated into a deepfake image of himself wearing a bikini. Deepfake is a fake image or video created with the help of AI to look like the original.

There is also a fake video that portrays him as if he was drugged and prepared for sexual violence.

Asato, an MP for Lowestoft, has been active on issues of violence against women and girls. He also highlighted other cases, including photos of women made into deepfake pornography.

"I am filing a lawsuit against xAI, the company owned by Elon Musk that owns and designs Grok," Asato said, quoted by The Mirror.

He said his photo was used without consent, then turned into a fake sexual image and video that degraded women.

"I feel it's very humiliating and it violates myself," he said.

Asato admitted that he was angry at the impact of Grok and judged that xAI did not provide enough protection. According to him, the AI image of him was only deleted after he appointed a lawyer.

"Of course not everyone can afford to pay a lawyer to do this," he said.

Asato assessed that such images and videos should not have been made from the start. He said that AI tools like Grok were designed without sufficient safeguards to protect women and children.

"Elon Musk knows that Grok doesn't have this security," said Asato. He said there had been warnings since Grok was created that the tool could be misused to produce potentially illegal material.

According to The Mirror, Asato's lawsuit was filed in the High Court on Wednesday, with xAI as the defendant. The case centers on the design of Grok, which is considered to allow the manipulation of the member of parliament's image.

If granted, the case could test the extent to which AI developers are responsible for the design of systems that can be easily misused.

Asato also hopes that this case will open a debate about the meaning of consent in the digital space.

Ravi Naik, a lawyer from AWO representing Asato, said no one should have to experience such harassment. He also assessed that the victim should not have to hire a lawyer just to remove a fake picture.

"This content exists because of design choices made by engineers at xAI," Naik said.

According to Naik, user safety should not be thought of later in the development of AI.

The Mirror reported that the Grok scandal sparked global outrage after the proliferation of sexual deepfakes on Musk's X platform.

The Internet Watch Foundation, a watchdog on child sexual exploitation, said its analysts had found illegal images of children that appeared to have been created using Grok.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called Grok and X's actions "disgusting and shameful".

The British Minister of Technology Liz Kendall also called Grok's artificial images "harassment weapons". England then banned the creation or attempted creation of intimate images without consent.

After coming under widespread pressure, X said it would take steps to ensure full compliance with UK law.