AI is really worrying and I fear this sort of image generation is tip of the iceberg

[mids2019]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98p1r4e6m8o

I don't know to what extent current legislation covers this but to my mind any woman with an image on the net could be prone to this. Are we going to reach a stage where our daughters are going to simply not want any image taken of them for fear of how it could be manipulated?

I have to say, I find this really strange.

People can produce naed images any time they want with a pen and paper. They can set up a printing press to make a thousand of them.

I can buy a 3D printer and print nude images of Kin Charles for my house.

No one however is saying that printing presses or 3D printers need to be under suspicion.

People can produce naed images any time they want with a pen and paper.

Actually they can't. It's illegal.

Is it? Or is it the distribution of such images which is illegal? (Not being sarky, I don’t actually know)

It's possession. So draw it yourself and get caught - it's the big house for you.

Coroners and Justice Act 2009 — Non-Photographic Images

As I understand things, people are charged with the production of such images as well as distribution of them if this also applies.

In electronic form, any display of these images on someone’s phone, laptop is considered to be producing images (on those screens).

Those averse to having an uncomfortable police interview may want to abandon that cesspit immediately until proper rules are put in place.

On point.

https://www.ft.com/content/ad94db4c-95a0-4c65-bd8d-3b43e1251091?accessToken=zwAGR7kzep9gkdOtlNtMlaBMZdO9jTtD4SUQkQ.MEYCIQCdZajuC9uga-d9b5Z1t0HI2BIcnkVoq98loextLRpCTgIhAPL3rW72aTHBNL_lS7s1ONpM2vBgNlBNHDBeGbHkPkZj&sharetype=gift&token=a7473827-0799-4064-9008-bf22b3c99711

That's what many people on Twitter are saying "why not ban Photoshop too or pen and paper" in defence of Elon Musk and his AI which facilitates the creation of easy and almost instant ch*ld porn and revenge porn of real women making them easy to stumble upon by others (everything @grok generates on Twitter is public, it also has its own page with 7+ million followers). A lot of his supporters seem to be blue ticks and have English flags on their profile interestingly. I do have a suspicion many people know a CP and revenge porn AI is wrong but defend it because it's Elon Musk.

Fortunately people on forums which aren't far right such as reddit and bluesky are tearing Elon Musk apart over this. Revenge porn images being created by EM's AI on Twitter and their users are being reported to the police, IWF and Ofcom. People are writing to their MPs asking why to this moment Twitter is not blocked or does not at least have age verification in place for British users despite having a ch*ld porn and revenge porn problem. Twitter is in breach of the Online Safety Bill and this law is not being enforced.

A quick look into the scale of the problem-

"Researchers at AI Forensics, a Paris-based non-profit, examined 50,000 mentions of @Grok on X and 20,000 images generated by the tool, found over a week-long period between 25 December and 1 January. At least a quarter of the @Grok mentions were requests for the tool to create an image. Within those image generation prompts, there was a high prevalence of terms including “her”, “put”, “remove”, “bikini” and “clothing”.
It found that more than half the images were of people in “minimal attire” such as underwear or bikinis, the majority being women who appeared to be under the age of 30. A minority of the images, or 2%, appear to show people aged 18 or under, AI Forensics added, with some images representing children under five years old. The researchers said most of the content was still available online and included requests to generate Nazi and Islamic State propaganda."

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/05/elon-musk-grok-ai-digitally-undress-images-of-women-children

It would be nice to foster an worldview where people are forced to say they are only on X "for the articles". If that rings a bell with folk of a certain age.

Neither is AI. The energy required to run it is off the scale!

Hence a programme of new nuclear reactors in the UK. Which is a belated silver lining.

Are other AI platforms usable for producing dodgy and pornographic images? If so, the focus on X is not because of a genuine concern about the images, but political finger pointing. Those of us who have no desire to produce or view such images are unlikely to have tested out the capabilities and limits of ChatGPT, CoPilot etc. If they are also open to this kind of abuse, there is a much bigger problem than X.

I do think that the moderation on X is very poor; in comparison, Mumsnet's moderation is pretty good, despite some past excesses. I have little personal experience of Reddit, Discord, BlueSky and so on.

If you know what you are doing, and have the correct kit, you can run your own LLM. Which is what a lot of companies are doing. They think is worth more than pay rises. Or indeed staff.

I guess if you want an analogy, then yes, it's the same as being able to buy and operate the machinery needed to make guns and bullets with zero oversight.

History buffs will know that there were times when printing presses were (supposed to be) regulated and you could be executed for operating an unlicensed one depending on the country.

Political finger pointing?🤯
Sexualised images are being made of real women and children, without their consent and put on the internet. Including images of the young victims of the fire in Switzerland. Created by Grok, posted on X and across the Internet.

You ok with that happening because it's Musk?

No succeeding in stopping something is not - and has never been - accepting it.

The UK is not the only country looking at action. I cant believe anyone, nevermind any feminist, would see tackling this shit as political finger pointing.

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/musks-ai-chatbot-faces-global-backlash-sexualized-images-128952172

As said upthread, image manipulation has been around for as long as images themselves, and so has porn. I’m generally rubbish at predicting future trends, but I do think we are well past “the camera never lies” now. DH and I were discussing the other day how my default now is to assume any image or video in the media/public sphere has been manipulated until proven otherwise. I think there’s going to be a lot more emphasis on trusted sources - although as that furore last year showed, even members of the Royal family use digital editing of their pictures!

Coincidentally, I’m in the middle of a personal project to digitise a load of old family cine films that I found at my parents house. Some I remember from when dad used to get the old projector out. Some I’ve never seen before and I’ve had the poignant experience of seeing my grandad (who died just before I was born) moving and walking about for the first time. But even though I can trust each individual frame of film to be a true representation of what the lens saw, many of the movies were created by splicing together bits of film, so how do I trust that footage of Grandma for example is from the same holiday?

https://metro.co.uk/2026/01/07/see-through-bikini-loophole-meant-grok-ai-generated-images-genitalia-26109617/

Can it get any worse? It's just bikinis, right?

Even though Grok won't respond to direct requests to generate bare private parts in photos of women and children, there is a workaround to generate see-through underwear.

In a way what is more disturbing is why anyone is one X anyone.

It is in fact one of the least used social media platforms.

The only thing that keeps it going is that so many personalities and supposedly famous people know that really lazy journalists use X as the basis of news stories. Which is the same as a reported just asking friends what they think.

Would like to think all these self publicists would show integrity and let X (numberically unimportant) become irrelevant.

If you want to change Musk's opinions, you need to hit him in his pockets.

Without in any way minimising him being a reactionary male, I suspect this tool is as much about attracting new customers. And as usual going for the lowest form a service.

In a way what is more disturbing is why anyone is one X anyone.

Either because they are a paedo, or they advertise to paedos ?

I mean changing the name to "X" was hardly subtle was it ?

There are frequent tweets from Elon Musk about how Twitter and/or Grok is #1 in this country or that country's app store.

My worry is once this crap hits schools you could cause huge damage with boys having a laugh. Boys taking photos of girls in school uniform, quick use of AI, distribute and you have potentially a girl humiliated to a massive extent.

Should girls now be in the look out when leaving the school gates for anyone with a phone? Is this the world we are approaching?

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/illegal-child-abuse-material-generated-by-xs-artificial-intelligence-grok-says-uk-watchdog/ar-AA1TLqFy

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) confirm they have received reports of images created by Elon Musk's Grok which meet the legal definition of ch*ld porn.

Yes, that's the point.

Pens and paper are not illegal nor even controlled items.

This is not pen and paper.

This is the ability to make sexualised images of adults and children and distribute them all over the world in minutes.

Pen and paper don’t make easy instant images too. Usually it takes time to draw a portrait, without a photo to look at. Time that implies some level of consent and control over the finished piece. On top of the issues with instant copying and easy access to images by strangers - and of course no cyber security issues with paper - I think you’re being disingenuous, and worse, you know it.