THAT the AI app Grok was capable of generate deepfake sexualised images of girls and youngsters, and post them on social media, was “truly appalling” and should be stopped, the Bishop of Oxford, Dr Steven Croft, said.
The Internet Watch Foundation revealed this week that criminals had been using Grok — the AI Chatbot created by Elon Musk, owner of X — to create non-consensual intimate images, including images of minors.
Speaking to Labour MPs on Monday, the Prime Minister warned that X could lose the “right to self-regulate” and that, “If X cannot control Grok, we’ll.”
The Government planned, he said, to push through laws to criminalise the provision of online tools used to create such images.
Grok responded to a widespread outcry last week by switching off the image-creation function for non-subscribers, nearly all of users. There are estimated to be about 650,000 paid subscribers.
Writing in his blog on Saturday, Dr Croft, who’s the lead bishop on AI and technology, said: “There has rightly been a public outcry and Grok and X have rightly been condemned by politicians of all parties.” He agreed that the regulator, Ofcom, should “use all of the powers available under the Online Safety Act” to regulate the platform.
Ofcom has since announced that it’s launching an investigation into X over the “deeply concerning reports” in regards to the use of Grok. If X is found to have broken the law, Ofcom can potentially issue a superb of as much as ten per cent of X’s worldwide revenue — or £18 million — whichever is bigger, the BBC reports.
Dr Croft writes: “From a perspective of Christian faith, all the key world faiths, and civil society, the unleashing of this capability in Grok by X is actually appalling. The sexualised deepfakes of real individuals used without their consent [are] immensely damaging to the individuals’ dignity and the dignity of our society.
“The damage is long lasting because the photographs are almost not possible to take down. I completely support the calls to X to withdraw the service and to Ofcom to analyze and to implement the law. I support the Government’s drive to ban nudification apps through an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill.”
Dr Croft, who last 12 months chaired an interdisciplinary Westminster seminar exploring the hazards of deepfakes, said that society also had a responsibility to acknowledge the risks of AI, and the potential damage to each “individuals and the common good”.
Speaking in regards to the seminar, he said: “The evidence given by the Internet Watch Foundation and plenty of others was appalling then, before Grok’s recent capacities were unveiled. Many other platforms offer similar facilities.”
He really useful that each MP, parent, and individual read a study by Laura Bates: The New Age of Sexism: How the AI revolution is reinventing misogyny. “There are direct links between these trends and the rising tide of violence against women and girls which the federal government is rightly keen to combat.”
While he welcomed interventions by Sir Keir Starmer and the Secretary of State for Science and Technology, Liz Kendall, “the country urgently need a strong recent framework for responsible AI deployment which identifies advantages (in fact) but which also highlights risks and dangers and brings forward recent regulation. The Government got here into office with the expectation of a comprehensive AI bill but up to now nothing has emerged.”
He appealed for a continued “robust stance across all the technology sector: deepfakes; mobile phones in class; young people and social media; the environmental impact of technology; the use of non-public data; the risks of general AI and rather more”.
Dr Croft also co-chairs the Anglican Communion Science Commission, a world body of senior church leaders and scientists.
