Dan Morris: Grok outrage making us ask if social media is worth it |
And so, the seedy and sadistic saga of social media continues. In the latest chapter of humanity’s greatest failed experiment, X’s Grok AI chatbot is under global fire after allowing users to create sexualised images of real women and children.
An investigation by Reuters news agency found that over a single 10-minute period on January 2, X users asked Grok to digitally edit photographs of people so that they would appear to be wearing bikinis at least 102 times. More explicit requests have also been made, and they have been fulfilled.
For how long Grok has allowed photographs to be manipulated in this way, no one has said. Yet this recent spike in sexualised deepfaking via the bot has prompted strong reactions from various world leaders, including our own Prime Minister.
“If X cannot control Grok, we will – and we’ll do it fast because if you profit from harm and abuse, you lose the right to self-regulate,” said the PM on Monday.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Social media is The Devil’s work. And now, things have gone too far.........