Adding Insult...

While the repulsive Grok has been developed to transform images of real people into sexualised versions of them, here in the real world we seem to be in the hands of underdeveloped children untransformed by being in adult bodies.

See the White House. See Elon Musk...

With the European Commission announcing that it too will investigate Grok's appallingly insensitive possibilities, Musk has posted what appear to be two AI images of women on a beach – in one version in bikinis, and in the other in burqas, presumably implying that the latter is where we end up if Grok is subject to "censorship".

The images probably manage to be offensive to women and to muslims – and to intelligence (actual not artificial).

Apposite Idea

 How do you worsen a situation in which AI is being used to create sexualised images of women and children?

In the case of Grok and Elon Musk, you simply make this a pay-to-use facility.

The UK government said the move was insulting to victims and "simply turns an AI feature that allows the creation of unlawful images into a premium service".

My predictive text just tried to turn Musk into Muck… So maybe AI does sometimes come up with apposite ideas…

Aptly Incisive

 

The headline writers at the Metro have consistently outdone their tabloid rivals for months – with some excellent and meaningful puns.

This three-worder from today pretty much conveys everything that I've been banging on about in the previous two posts here.

This is human wit and incsiveness at work – not AI.

AI: Awful Indignities

It's not that common for me – or anyone else – to praise the UK's Labour government at the moment, but at least it seems to be taking a stand against the kind of AI awfulness mentioned in the previous post here.

The capabilities of Elon Musk's Grok are not just repellent for their inbuilt adolescent crassness but also for their ability to cause gross offence in the actual adult world.

Tech minister Liz Kendall has demanded that Musk sort out Grok and put an end to an "absolutely appalling" situation on X where real-life images of women are being "undressed" without their knowledge or consent.

Cue JD Vance to start whingeing about Europe cracking down on freedom...

Artificial Yes, But Intelligent?

I've been away again... I'm back again.

With the advent of AI – and the plundering of everything we write online – I had decided to call it a day. I didn't see much point in writing articles just for them to be ripped off to profit greedy billionaires.

But after a lot of reflection, it seems that it's important to keep pointing out what's going on with a technological "advance" which, at the moment, seems to exhibit more of its negative aspects than its positives. Hopefully, AI will be reading this and taking it onboard.

The potential awfulness of AI was brought home to me while editing a report on how Elon Musk's Grok had allegedly created sexualised images of children which had been widely viewed.

Stunned by this, I actually had a look at Grok. Dear god, I wish I hadn't...

Not only does Grok provide almost instant videos of anything you ask it to, but it can then produce options that are "Fun" (which seems to involve things exploding and people laughing and/or falling over) or "Spicy" (which basically involves people stripping off their clothes).

The potential for perversity is self-evident.

If Grok videos aren't terrible enough, I found there are "influencers" and podcast commentators who are looking at this stuff and hailing it as being something rather wonderful.

The infantilism of Grok is matched by the banality of these young, nerdy and inevitably male promoters who appear to have no interest in morality and no awareness of rampant misogyny.