Elon Musk's Grok AI unleashes the wild west of image generation

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Skye Jacobs

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Editor's take: It didn't take long for users to generate controversial images using Grok, sparking a debate about how these AI-generated pictures might influence public perception of politicians or celebrities. With the potential of misinformation impacting elections, it is fair to wonder about the responsibilities of developers and platforms in ensuring the integrity of information shared on their networks. Moreover, this initial wave of images could wind up being a cautionary tale if they are used to shape future regulations or guidelines for AI content creation tools.

With much fanfare and accompanied by great displays of imagination, Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok has begun allowing users to create AI generated images from text prompts and post them on X.

Developed by Musk's xAI, Grok is powered by the Flux 1 AI model from Black Forest Labs and is currently available to X's Premium subscribers.

Black Forest Labs is a Germany-based AI image and video startup that launched on August 1, and they seem to adhere to the same school of thought that is fueling Musk's vision for Grok as an "anti-woke chatbot."

Users have quickly taken advantage of Grok's features to create and disseminate fake images of political figures and celebrities, often placing them in disturbing or controversial scenarios.

This rapid proliferation of potentially misleading content has raised significant concerns, particularly given the upcoming US presidential election. Unlike other AI image generation tools, Grok seems to lack comprehensive safeguards or restrictions, which has sparked fears about the potential spread of misinformation.

In contrast, other major tech companies have implemented measures to curb the misuse of their AI tools. For instance, OpenAI, Meta, and Microsoft have developed technologies or labels to help identify AI-generated images. Additionally, platforms like YouTube and Instagram have taken steps to label such content. While X does have a policy against sharing misleading manipulated media, its enforcement remains unclear.

Although Grok claims to have some limitations, such as refusing to generate nude images, these restrictions appear to be inconsistently enforced. Further experiments by users on X have shown that Grok's limitations can be easily circumvented, leading to the creation of highly inappropriate and graphic content.

Despite its purported safeguards against producing violent or pornographic images, users have managed to generate disturbing images, including depictions of Elon Musk and Mickey Mouse involved in violent acts, or content that could be considered child exploitation when manipulated with specific prompts.

It is hard to imagine how this would fly on other AI image generation tools, many of which have been met with criticism for their various shortcomings. Google's Gemini AI chatbot halted its feature after getting pushback for creating racially inaccurate portrayals. Similarly, Meta's AI image generator faced backlash due to difficulties in producing images of couples or friends from diverse racial backgrounds. And TikTok had to remove an AI video tool after it was revealed that users could create realistic videos of individuals making statements, including false claims about vaccines, without any identifying labels.

However, Musk, who has faced criticism for spreading election-related misinformation on X, is likely to remain unmoved when it comes to taking similar actions. He has praised Grok as "the most fun AI in the world," emphasizing its uncensored nature.

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Elon Musk's Grok AI unleashes the wild west of image generation

 
pcnthuziast said:
Humanity was always going to be the architect of it's own undoing. AI is beginning of the end. First it intriguied us. Now it serves us. Next it will learn us. And finally it will destroy us.
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Not unless we get more electricity. China is building the coal plants and we are building windmeals. China will kill us before AI
 
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RudyBob said:
Not unless we get more electricity. China is building the coal plants and we are building windmeals. China will kill us before AI
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You've been suspended in life since more than 300 million centuries ago, this is merely a rehash of a prior simulation... Rest easy, so to speak.
 
RudyBob said:
All I get on climate change is lies.
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I'd suggest you get your information from scientists (97% agree on climate change) rather than politicians. The 10 hottest years on record have all occurred during the last decade (the record goes back almost 200 years). The other alternative is just to go outside. I live in London where 30C (86F) was seen as exceptional but a year or so back it went to 40C (104F). I'm currently in the mountains in France, close to one of the largest glaciers in Europe. It was 30C all of last week and the glacier is retreating by 40 meters a year every year (a meter is close to a yard). Even the observation platform they built for the glacier is now nowhere near the ice. The heat is also melting the permafrost on the mountain causing large rocks, which previously were a permanent part of the mountain, to now fall down. Next month I'll be in Athens where huge wildfires are encroaching on the city. It feels surreal when you're in a city where the sky is a strange shade of orange and ash is constantly raining down.
 
mbk34 said:
I'd suggest you get your information from scientists (97% agree on climate change)
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Nothing more clearly illustrates the divide between actual science and fearmongering propaganda than statements like this. Ask any physicist why you should believe in the theory of relativity, and they wouldn't even think to reply "just trust us, we all agree". They'd clearly explain the evidence, the experiments done, and the reasoning behind the conclusions.

There is only one basis on which to judge a scientific theory: its predictive ability against real-world data. Not by counting noses on who agrees. For anyone interested in seeing how dismally anthropogenic warming theories have failed, read the 1990 IPCC report. And when comparing its predictions to the real world, 35 years later, remember that we exceeded even their "worst case" estimates for CO2 emissions by several hundred percent, thanks to the rapid industrialization of China and India.


mbk34 said:
I'm currently in the mountains in France, close to one of the largest glaciers in Europe. It was 30C all of last week and the glacier is retreating by 40 meters a year every year
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You mean the same glaciers which have been retreating more or less steadily since the end of the last Ice Age? During the RWP (Roman Warm Period) total glaciation was actually less than today, which is why retreating ice in many areas exposes human artifacts underneath, up to and including tin mines and entire villages:

Columbia Univ, 2021: "Melting Ice Reveal Viking Secrets in Norway... surveyors [began] picking their way through the boulders that covered the [now] ice-free Lendbreen pass, the crew soon realized they had walked into a vast archaeological treasure, one that had stayed frozen for a thousand years...They [found] countless tools, artifacts and weapons—items that had once been in the possession of Vikings...."

NYT Nov 2021: "The [archeologists discovered] the charred remnants of a large communal sod house...The researchers [unearthed] the scattered bones of 28 people, almost all women, children and elders. Several of them had evidently been dragged out of the house, bound with rope and killed — some beheaded....Until recently, the site had been deepfrozen in permafrost...."

Der Speigel, Nov. 2005: "these [mountain pass finds] the archaeologists owe to the retreat the glacier in the upper Bernese country, which was accelerated by the particularly hot summer of 2003. However it was still hotter in the third millennium BC. At that time the temperatures in the Swiss Alps were up to two degrees over today’s. The timber line had climbed substantially, the glacier zone began only at 2700 meters. In the outgoing Stone Age and the early Bronze Age, the inhabitants of central Switzerland used the later completely forgotten Schnidepass..."
 
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mbk34 said:
I'd suggest you get your information from scientists (97% agree
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It's the scientists I don't believe
It's the politicians I don't believe

Everyone is paid.

I did not write that climate change it is right or wrong. What I do know is people are willing to lie for money on a grand scale. My church, WELS Lutheran, is installing a new furnace. If we designate a member as owner we get a 12 year warranty. If the church is designated as owner it's two. I voted against doing this ( I am a council member ) and was the only person to do so. Everyone cheats, everyone lies
 
pcnthuziast said:
Humanity was always going to be the architect of it's own undoing. AI is beginning of the end. First it intriguied us. Now it serves us. Next it will learn us. And finally it will destroy us.
Click to expand...
LOLOL well I can easily tell the difference! may be they need to get better glasses???
 
RudyBob said:
It's the scientists I don't believe
It's the politicians I don't believe

Everyone is paid.

I did not write that climate change it is right or wrong. What I do know is people are willing to lie for money on a grand scale. My church, WELS Lutheran, is installing a new furnace. If we designate a member as owner we get a 12 year warranty. If the church is designated as owner it's two. I voted against doing this ( I am a council member ) and was the only person to do so. Everyone cheats, everyone lies
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NOTE that all of this is PREDICTING THE FUTURE - they have a room full of powerful computers, and still they cannot accurately predict when it will rain..
hey! the computer got it wrong! blame something else!!!

the warranty is to cover the risk that it may fail.. If only one person takes care of the health of the furnace, the risk is low.
If many more take care of the furnace, the chance of mistakes being made increases!!
 
Endymio said:
Nothing more clearly illustrates the divide between actual science and fearmongering propaganda than statements like this. Ask any physicist why you should believe in the theory of relativity, and they wouldn't even think to reply "just trust us, we all agree". They'd clearly explain the evidence, the experiments done, and the reasoning behind the conclusions.
Click to expand...
I'm not going to waste my time explaining why climate change is real as there are plenty of sources explaining it far better than I can. Listing a few edge cases and then saying this proves climate change is wrong is also disingenuous.

The point of stating that 97% of scientists agree with climate change wasn't as proof. It was that these people are qualified to look for valid evidence and mark trends - they all say that climate change is real. It's strange that the rest of the world is suffering from climate change but America somehow doesn't agree. Even NASA was saying that climate change was real until it's funding got cut by your last president as it didn't agree with his narrative. As I mentioned before, the ten hottest years on record is every year in the last decade.

I suggest that if you really don't believe in climate change then you move down to Florida. Coastal properties are likely to get really cheap down there.
 
comnut said:
NOTE that all of this is PREDICTING THE FUTURE - they have a room full of powerful computers, and still they cannot accurately predict when it will rain..
hey! the computer got it wrong! blame something else!!!

the warranty is to cover the risk that it may fail.. If only one person takes care of the health of the furnace, the risk is low.
If many more take care of the furnace, the chance of mistakes being made increases!!
Click to expand...
Not entirely sure of what you mean but you tried hard and that's good. my perspective on climate change is that the urgency felt by a few is being pushed on the masses to control them. as we know people will believe anything. I for instance believe America is the greatest beacon of hope in world history. Getting back to climate change. Cheap energy is needed now because the poor need inexpensive energy if they are to get out of poverty more than anything else. There is no rational to keep people poor and send more people to the poor house for something that may happen in a thousand years. There is NO WAY anything other than fossil fuels and nuclear can provide the energy MANkind needs now and in the long foreseeable future.
 
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