Grok’s sexualised images shows us that AI isn’t just enabling human sin — it is trained on it

Artificial intelligence has given humanity a new, near-divine power. With Elon Musk’s AI tool, Grok generating sexualised images of real people, the real question, Stephen Driscoll says, is not what the technology could do, but what it reveals about our sinful nature when law and restraint fall behind

Technology has just given humanity a new, near-divine power.

Before I tell you anything about that power — what it is, how we invented it — how do you feel about the thought of human beings gaining new powers of a near-divine nature?

A lot hinges on your view of humanity. If we were all-good, these new powers would be alright. We aren’t — so you probably read that sentence with a touch of anxiety. Our view of technology is a product of our view of human nature.

It was all over the internet this week. Grok, the Elon Musk owned AI product, was producing sexually explicit images of real people. That’s the power. A user speaks (or types) a phrase, and inputs an image, and Grok gives the output. You take an innocent photo and redress the person in something sexual. Most notably, this was being used to generate images of real people in bikinis.