When AI Undresses Women on Command
Why the biblical sexual ethic is necessary
Sometime around New Years Day, the Internet discovered that Twitter’s “Grok” AI would produce nearly-nude and sexually suggestive pictures of women based off of their real photos posted online. All they had to do was ask Grok to undress them, put them in a bikini, or whatever, and the AI would comply, without the original poster’s consent. All of a sudden, women and children across the globe were being digitally exposed by perverts with just a word. From what I can tell, some of these accounts were banned and the photos taken down, and Musk says that “changes” are in the works to prevent underaged persons from being violated like that again, but it’s unclear to me if anything is going to change to prevent Grok from altering adult users’ images. And even if they fix Grok, will another AI fill its space? Is this just the cost of living with AI? We’ve had this technological capability for years, but the explosion of images which occurred a few days ago on Twitter happened because the barrier to entry dropped nearly to zero. Lots of people have access to Grok. Is that the future we should expect? Unless ethicists behind these AI companies make a commitment to prevent their tools from being used for these purposes (is that possible?), the default is that human nature is going to take over. Which leads me to the point of this essay. In a world where you can digitally undress anyone you want, what kind of habits and virtues do you need to cultivate? And what does this say about us as a culture and the way we look at women in public? What I think we’ll find beneath this episode is signs that our culture believes but does not live out Christ’s command to not lust in your heart.
