- Less than a week after launching Grok-2 and Grok-2 Mini, Musk’s latest AI tools have landed in a controversy for generating scandalous images.
- From Barack Obama shown doing drugs to Mickey Mouse carrying a gun, the unregulated nature of the tool seems dangerous.
- Elon Musk seems to be aware of what his tools are doing, but he just doesn’t care.
Elon Musk recently announced his new image generation tool Grok-2 and Grok-2 Mini, but they’ve been making the headlines for the wrong reasons: for generating offensive images.
Musk has always been known for not playing by the rules. Even when he launched his AI firm xAI and the first AI model Grok, he didn’t follow the same strict guidelines that other AI tools made by OpenAI and Google follow.
He says it’s to avoid political interference, but it also means that there’s absolutely no guardrail to prevent his tools from going awry. This is what has happened this time around.
Grok 2 and Grok 2 Mini seem to have no regulations. After the tools were launched, a few users shared some images they generated using the tool – and they were appalling, to say the least.
It’s worth noting that the scandalous images aren’t just limited to politicians, as an image showed Mickey Mouse carrying a gun. It’s clear that these image generators can be used to create hyper-realistic deepfakes of real individuals. It also doesn’t seem to follow any copyright law.
To a lot of people, this might seem all fun and games, but let’s not forget that it can very quickly take a very dangerous and dark turn. We’ve already seen people using AI to create explicit images of celebrities despite putting regulations in place. Imagine what malicious actors will do if they get their hands on an AI image generator with no regulations.
What Does Musk Have to Say about This?
Elon Musk doesn’t seem to understand the gravity of the situation. I say this because he shared a post on X on Wednesday saying “Grok is the most fun AI in the world!”
He also pointed to a thread on X where a user showed the different prompts one can use to create interesting results. Needless to say, the images therein were, once again, deepfakes of known figures.
Plus, when a user tweeted about the image generator saying that the trolling enabled by it would be “epic,” Musk simply retweeted it. This goes on to show that he’s aware of what the tool is capable of and probably supports it.
Controversy over Spreading Misinformation during UK Riots
Elon Musk and his social media platform X have also been accused of spreading misinformation during the ongoing riots in Britain. I talk about this in detail in my recent article covering the UK riots and the Online Safety Act.
Unlike other social media platforms that have rules regarding posting content about sensitive issues, Elon Musk seems to have given free rein to all.
When users on X started posting false information about the accused in the UK stabbings, nothing stopped them. As a result, the tweets went viral, fueled anti-immigration sentiments, and led to a lot of violence.
Even worse, all this while, Elon Musk was silently sitting on the sidelines, enjoying the show and tweeting stuff like “Civil war is inevitable.” This event received heavy criticism from the UK authorities, but once again, Elon Musk just doesn’t seem to care.
