xAI founder Elon Musk has denied that Grok has ever been used to generate child sex images.
Well, that's a relief! Of course they wouldn't do something like that. Because that would be super illegal!
How do you even generate ONE of those images and NOT immediately go to prison?
"FoR thE chIlDrEn" when privacy is on the line but they can't put a weirdo in prison after generating SEVEN THOUSAN CSAM images?!
Hi, someone that has worked extensively in the trust and safety space before AI destroyed said trust and safety industry in the west here.
The short answer is the lack of human moderation.
The long answer is that due to companies using AI to detect CSAM (for some good reasons, but also because it's way, way, way cheaper than a trust and safety team and their mandatory EAP benefits) it has become infinitely easier to get CSAM past filters these days.
This is especially true for tools that can generate CSAM from existing images, where both the generation and sharing of these images are likely run through the same detection AI, meaning if one gets through the other does as well.
GAN image detection models are literally a part of image generation training models; to explain better how a GAN model trains is:
Agent B is given [extensively tagged image of a scene].
Agent A uses random noise to generate [Random image of pixels]
Agent B then sees if [Random image of pixels] is [Extensively tagged image of a scene]
If not, then Agent A regenerates the image. Again. And Again. And Again.
Agent B only has extensively tagged images of scenes, and only knows what the end products should be... in theory. Agent A only learns what these tags mean and what these images should be based on feedback from Agent B.
So if you want to detect bad things... go with Agent B, right?
Wrong! Current GAN has AI-trained Agents in both roles, with manual additions to their databases to further refine their knowledge.
This means Agent A trains Agent B as much as Agent B trains Agent A. Some models even have an Agent C which uses a LLM to figure out how to describe an image based on the tags generated by agent A or B... which is then fed into Agent A or B to further refine the image.
Now which one do we pick for moderation? It doesn't matter! It's all an incestuous clusterfuck that is defeated by word play (given Grok is an LLM feeding into a GAN image generator, any tags the LLM gives the image generator will be automatically approved by whatever agent scans the image for CSAM, since the tags it can detect are already filtered out by the LLM).
Now you can see the problem with this. I can see the problem with this. Most human beings can see the problem with this. But this meets current global moderation regulations as long as there is a manual way to report content that gets past the AI moderation... which would work except without human moderators the AI moderation will still fuck up removal either by removing any reported content or just not removing content if the AI moderator disagrees.
Until regulators in every single market collectively decide to enforce human moderation teams on big tech or punish for content hosted regardless of the company's efforts to prevent it, this will not change or stop. It will always be people exploiting the inherent arms race of GAN models to generate CSAM with minimal effort and no real way to prevent it.
Christ. I'm tired of humans being removed from positions where they are the only good option just to be replaced with a worse option that isn't even cheaper in the end, like AI.
"Think of the children"
And this is what happens when they do that a little too much
it's ironic how all the people barking "think of the children" turn out to be the people we absolutely DO NOT want thinking about children, ACTUALLY.
I think they think its the normal amount.
Musk should not be walking around free at this point.
Horrors of this aside… is Grok using a keyword filter for CSAM detection?
I cannot even begin to describe how technically negligent that is.
Image based CSAM detectors have been around for ~2 decades, and any image host with an ounce of self preservation uses them. I’m pretty use some Lemmy instances use them. Twitter must have already been using them, even before Musk bought them, because it would be legal suicidal not to.
That they wouldn’t implement a strong image-based checker in Grok is mind-boggling.
A pedophile would remove a CSAM checker? Color me shocked.
I cannot even begin to describe how technically negligent that is.
Tbh, this is par for the course for most of Elon's businesses
But even unintentionally serving CSAM is unique in that it can get you in legal hot water reeeal quick. It’s why web services are so strict about filtering.
I just can’t wrap my head around this. Maybe I’m misreading what Grok did, or maybe the story isn’t quite right, but if it is, the company should be getting raked over hot coals by the feds right about now.
More likely the Epstein class will be offered given "premium private" accounts.
is Grok using a keyword filter for CSAM detection?
At some point in the last ten years, everyone apparently forgot why this doesn't work
Not everyone. Not even AI platforms.
CivitAI is a great example; they have a robust image categorizer that auto tags anything uploaded to the site, or generated on it. They have it divided into a SFW and NSFW sites, and nothing even related to children is allowed on the NSFW side. No depictions of real people are allowed on either. And by all indications, they have CSAM firmly under control.
It’s why this story is so mind boggling to me. Either Grok’s team is such a mess that they weren’t aware of ancient filtering technology, or they deliberately left it “uncensored” and thought they could get away with it. Either possibility is horrifying.
They are making their pedo dream land, with no laws or rules.
This is their so-called effective altruism.
We all know what to do.
Well, the only bright spot here is that the trash does sometimes take itself out.
xAI did more to protect a pedophile than it does to protect its regular users from law enforcement.
... i hope he never had the chance or ability to actually do anything to her physically ._.
i hope learning about what someone did without her knowledge will not scar her for life...
All the people who bought SpaceX stock invested in this. Grok is owned by SpaceX. It would be nice if journalists would put that in their articles.
Lawsuits for this need to start including shareholders as defendants. Make investing in it a civil and reputational liability.
Every image Grok generates of CSAM is another reason to rightfully call Elon a pedophile for knowingly allowing it to happen.
So, if xAI did that, then did they get obstruction charges?
Why? This is just about a megapedophile, it's not like anybody camped out on a lawn or asked Lockheed to stop selling f35s to baby murderers.
Jesus Fucking Christ.
Just turn it off at this point.
You expect this dude to switch it off?
Seven thousand sex images of an eleven year old is a lot.
One sex image of an eleven year old is a lot.
Nothing dystopic about this headline.
A major company makes CSAM generation platfor and sharing network, yet it does not get seized or closed by any government entity. Makes sense.
Well that is what happens when you train an AI on the likeness of Elon
On one hand, this is great news, he's no longer here to be gross.
On the other hand, could these images have served as an outlet for his perversion, and kept his step-daughter safe for years?
On the other other hand, was access to this what twisted him? Was he reasonable at one time?
He did the right thing in the end, this was the best possible outcome for everyone.
Geez, if only there were alternatives to ai generated csam, like therapy and medication??
Yes, it's not a perfect fix, and it is hard, but people overcome drug addictions with therapy and meds, and I am pretty sure that nothing beats heroin...
I'd bet that the societal stigma actually makes it more difficult than heroin in spite of the raw addictiveness. Society does look down on drug addicts, but there's still a decent chunk of people who will be understanding and rooting for them sincerely when they're trying to overcome it. I have to imagine it would be infinitely harder to find just one person you feel safe asking for help, much less an entire community.
I have to think they'd be much less dangerous in a society more willing to differentiate between pedophilia and predation just because of how much of a difference community support can make. If they feel like the only people they can open up to are other pedophiles, that's probably not a recipe for hearing healthy perspectives.
On the other hand, it's probably easier for me to say this stuff from my armchair with no children of my own and not even interacting with any children on a regular basis.
Even if it was an outlet he used her image, which in itself is not okay, and was trading them to others online. Killing himself was the right choice. He should have done it before making the images in the first place. Or sought mental help but I'm not sure what can actually be done about pedophilia.
He was trading these pictures for material from others so other children were hurt in trade of his step child being victimized. She may not have been physically victimized but her likeness was portrayed in CSAM which now she knows about and is going to damage her mentally.
Every time a Republican says "think of the children!" I usually respond with "you are. With your hand in your pants".
Burn it to mother fucking ground. Then salt the earth.
"We did it, Patrick! We made a technological breakthrough!"
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AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.