The Naked Future

Move over Nostradamus, it seems that, once more, my ramblings here have correctly predicted the future.  Many, many years ago, I wrote a post here about a non-existent computer app which could be used to 'nudify' pictures of fully clothed women.  Back then, in those far off days before AI, I envisaged it as being a feature of an image editing suite, like Adobe and like that type of software, I imagined that it would offer you a series of choices as to what you wanted your chosen subject to look like: breast size, nipple type and so on.  Although such a thing didn't exist, I speculated that, even as I was writing that post, some nerdy coder was sweating away in his bedroom devising such a piece of of software, probably with the aim of 'digitally undressing' some attractive female neighbour he had been secretly photographing.  An aid to masturbatory fantasies for those with limited imaginations, I mused.  I liked this idea (as satire) so much that, late last year, I adapted it into a fake ad for a fake smart phone for a podcast I was producing.  Well, here we are, years after the original post (and only a few weeks after the audio adaptation) and I find myself reading headlines about how Musk's attempt at AI, Grok, will, on request, happily produce fake nude images of women, even children, based on photos of them fully clothed.  Actually, the reports are unclear as to whether the fakes are actually full nudes, or just in bathing costumes or underwear.  But hey, it's creepy Elon Musk we're talking about here, so I'm guessing it'll be full nudes.  

Which is why we shouldn't be surprised that it is Grok which is the AI involved here.  Musk is one of those individuals whose ego is so large that he contrives to make every enterprise he is involved in reflect his own personality.  So it is with his AI, which frequently spews forth disinformation, abuse and downright bile which reflects the same prejudices displayed by Musk himself in his public utterances.  Moreover, if the sort of discourse that dominates Twitter since his takeover is anything to go by, I think it might be fair to assume a degree of misogyny on Musk's part.  So it is no wonder that his AI is now turning out pornographic images of unconsenting women.  For once, the UK government have actually decided to take a stand on this issue, threatening to sanction, or even ban from the UK, Twitter unless action is taken over Grok's unacceptable outputs.  Which, of course, in the eyes of Musk and his crazy murdering right-wing buddies in the US government, makes us the bad guys!  Yes, indeed, we're threatening every pervert's inalienable right to sexually objectify women (and even children)!  Damn it, there's probably an amendment to their constitution covering it!  The breathtaking arrogance of these bozos never ceases to amaze me - their apparent belief that any law other than US law is inferior, that other nations don't have the right to expect US corporations operating in their territories to conform to their laws.  Talk about cultural hegemony, (see, Gramsci was a prophet, too).