Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) has long been criticized for being unethical, but it was only recently that many women’s worst fears came to life on one of the most popular social media platforms. 

In late Dec., X’s Grok rolled out a feature that allowed users to freely edit other people’s images. The results are displayed publicly, both on the timeline and in Grok’s media tab. This is already hugely unethical and raises a multitude of privacy concerns. However, users wasted no time in worsening the situation. 

In no time at all, Grok’s media tab was flooded with images of naked women and children. 

A vast, vast majority of users did not consent for their images to be digitally tampered with. Nor did they consent for the images to be stored by Grok, unable to be deleted (least not without the help of X’s support, which is… less than helpful). 

While the development team at X is working on guardrails, Elon Musk, Grok’s creator, seems relatively unconcerned. He claims that, rather than protecting people’s rights, Grok’s critics are suppressing free speech. 

“Free speech” does not encompass child sexual assault material. “Free speech” does not encompass rape victims being retraumatized by anonymous posters. “Free speech” is not whatever Elon Musk wants to hear. 

Elon Musk has shown a willingness to quickly edit Grok’s abilities in the past, citing concerns that the GAI was too “woke.” Compared to that, he was dragging his feet to address this issue. This, more than anything, shows where his priorities lie; not with morality, but with what makes him money. 

Due to Grok’s new ability, many women have deleted photos of themselves off the platform, if not their entire account. But only time will tell if legislation nips this in the bud.