this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2026
230 points (98.3% liked)

Technology

78511 readers
3023 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
technopagan@lemmy.world
L4s@lemmy.world
L3s@hackingne.ws
230
X pulls Grok images after UK ban threat over undress tool (www.theregister.com)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by tonytins@pawb.social to c/technology@lemmy.world
25 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Grok has yanked its image-generation toy out of the hands of most X users after the UK government openly weighed a ban over the AI feature that "undressed" people on command.

In replies posted to users on X, seen by The Register, the Grok account confirmed that "image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers," a change from the previous setup in which anyone could summon the system by tagging it in a post and asking for a picture.

That access helped fuel a grim trend: users uploading photos of clothed people – sometimes underage – and instructing the bot to remove their clothes or pose them in sexualized ways. Grok complied.

The rollback comes as governments openly float the idea of banning or boycotting X altogether if it fails to rein in the abuse enabled by its AI tools. In the UK, screenshots of Grok-generated images quickly drew the attention of ministers and regulators, who began questioning whether X is complying with the Online Safety Act.

Update

The Verge and Ars seems to be claiming otherwise. However, I don't know for certain since I left Twitter ages ago.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] j4k3@piefed.world -5 points 1 day ago

I agree, but the tool is not to blame and never has been. This is not unique. The same thing was said with the advent of digital photo editing. Fakes predate that when people made them with film. In each instance, it is the ethics of the people that are the problem. At the deepest abstract levels, if you play out all of the implications, there is no difference between a tool and the thoughts in your head. Blaming tools is always a problem and only an illusion of a solution.

I have been able to edit photos like this since before AI, but have never done so. When I was a kid in school I drew stuff like this. So the problems is actually intent and social accountability more than anything else.

I don't like that the issue boils down to this. I think it is ugly, but I think the alternative is far far worse. I think those that are pushing this issue are convenient idiots combined with people that are hell bent on a fascist authoritarian future that is truly horrendous. If posting dubious child nudes of me will stop fascism and WW3, what poses would you like me to strike?