Labour MP Jess Asato, who represents Lowestoft in Suffolk, filed a claim at the High Court in England against Elon Musk's xAI on Wednesday, 3 June 2026, over the design of its Grok chatbot. The claim is brought under the Data Protection Act and for tortious misuse of private information. Asato is seeking damages, a formal acknowledgement that what occurred was illegal, and an order requiring xAI to cease all further illegality.
Asato's statement said that after she condemned Grok in January, users created and shared fake images depicting her in a bikini and a video showing her 'being chloroformed and prepared for a sexual assault'. She told BBC Breakfast she was taking the legal action to 'hold tech companies like Grok to account', and stated that 'Grok created deepfake pornography and sexualized content which harmed thousands of women and children', describing the capability as a design choice by its creators [Source: BBC News].
Asato is represented by law firm AWO. The firm's legal director Ravi Naik said the case is one of the first to test liability for the design of an AI system [Source: HuffPost]. xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the claim. Separately, xAI has asked a US court to strip anonymity from four people suing the company under pseudonyms in a related alleged Grok deepfake nudes case, a move that could force them to reveal their real names or drop the lawsuit [Source: Wired].
The UK filing adds to a growing body of legal and regulatory pressure facing xAI's Grok product. In January 2026, Asato spoke in the House of Commons about how Grok had been used to create fake images of her and was targeted further after speaking publicly. Following that backlash, xAI said users would no longer be able to use the tool to generate sexualised images of real people, and said it had restricted image editing in Grok and blocked users from generating images of people in revealing clothing in jurisdictions where it is illegal. UK communications regulator Ofcom launched a formal investigation into reports that Grok had been used to generate non-consensual sexual deepfakes, including 'undressed' images of women and sexualised images of children. Grok is currently subject to regulatory probes in several countries following the outcry earlier in 2026. In March 2026, the City of Baltimore sued xAI, claiming Grok's ability to create fake sexualised images violated the city's consumer protection law. xAI is part of Musk's group of companies alongside SpaceX.
Sources: BBC News, HuffPost, Wired