Legal trouble for Elon Musk in UK? Labour MP sues xAI over Grok-generated sexualised images

A UK MP has initiated legal proceedings against Elon Musk’s xAI, alleging that its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok enabled the creation of fake sexualised images depicting her without consent. The case follows a controversy earlier this year when the AI tool was widely used to generate explicit altered images of real women across the social media platform X.

Jess Asato, MP from the ruling Labour Party, said she discovered in January that Grok had generated images portraying her in a bikini after a user interacted with the chatbot. She described the experience as deeply intrusive and said the images were created shortly after she publicly criticised the growing trend of non-consensual AI-generated sexualised content.

Asato said her legal challenge aims to hold major technology companies accountable for the safeguards they implement before releasing powerful AI tools. She argued that individuals should have stronger protections when technology is used to create harmful and misleading content.

Legal challenge could test AI accountability

The lawsuit is expected to become a significant test of whether AI developers can be held legally responsible for content generated by users through their systems.

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The controversy prompted concern from UK authorities earlier this year after Grok was used to create large volumes of sexualised images based on photographs of real women and, in some cases, children. Following the incident, media regulator Ofcom opened an investigation, while the UK government warned that action could be taken against X if adequate safeguards were not introduced.

Initially, xAI announced that only paying X subscribers would be allowed to generate such edited images through Grok. The move drew criticism from Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who described the situation as “horrific”. Shortly afterwards, X said it had disabled Grok’s ability to modify photographs of real people by depicting them in revealing clothing.

Not just the UK, the controversy drew global attention, with Grok's image-generation tools facing criticism for enabling the creation of explicit deepfakes of women and children. While Indonesia and Malaysia temporarily blocked access to the chatbot, India sought an Action Taken Report from X and warned of legal consequences if the content was not addressed. The issue also triggered regulatory scrutiny in Europe, with the European Commission launching a probe under the Digital Services Act and French authorities opening a criminal investigation into the spread of AI-generated explicit images.