32 h. ago EU investigates Elon Musk's X over sexually explicit deepfakes made by Grok AI

Elon Musk's X is now being officially investigated by the European Commission over concerns that AI chatbot Grok has been making deepfake sexual images of children

Events

38 h. ago EU investigates Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot over explicit images

The AI chatbot was used to remove clothing from images of women and children

Events

58 h. ago Thousands march in Crowborough over asylum plan for former military camp

Protesters walk to Sussex market town from base where Home Office plans to house up to 500 asylum seekersThousands of people have marched through an East Sussex market town to protest against UK government plans to house asylum seekers on a former military site.Crowds of men, women and children walked to Crowborough from the base, where the Home Office plans to house up to 500 male asylum seekers as part of plans to end the use of hotels for the same purpose. Continue reading...

Events

4 d. ago Custody: The Secret History of Mothers by Lara Feigel – why women still have to fight for their children

Feigel uses her own experience as a starting point to examine the past, present and future of separationThis book about child custody is, unsurprisingly, full of pain. The pain of mothers separated from their children, of children sobbing for their mothers, of adults who have never moved on from the trauma of their youth, and of young people who are forced to live out the conflicts of their elders. Lara Feigel casts her net across history and fiction, reportage and memoir, and while her research is undeniably impressive and her candour moving, at times she struggles to create a narrative that can hold all these tales of anguish together.The book begins with a woman flinging herself fully clothed into a river and then restlessly walking on, swimming again, walking again. This is French novelist George Sand, driven to desperate anxiety as she waits to go into court to fight for the right to custody of her children. But almost immediately the story flicks away to Feigel’s own...

Society

5 d. ago Grok flooded X with over 3 million sexualized images in just 11 days, analysis finds

The deluge of photorealistic images included almost two million depicting women and almost 25,000 that contained children, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate

Events

7 d. ago 'Men used Grok to make sexualised photos of me after I posted gym selfie'

Lecturer Daisy Dixon says men on X used Elon Musk's Grok to manipulate her photos into sexualised images

Culture

8 d. ago ISIS claims to have 'caused 25 casualties' in horror suicide restaurant bombing

Women and children are reported to be among the injured - This is a breaking news story and is constantly being updated as the story develops

Events

8 d. ago Elon Musk insists ‘Grok should have a moral constitution’ after AI photo scandal

Grok has now been banned in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines

Culture

1 week ago Downcast David Walliams arrives at his theatre show in first public appearance since being dropped by publisher and children's charity over claims he harassed young women

David Walliams looked downcast as he arrived at a children's event promising 'plenty of Walliams-style mischief' in his first public appearance since his fall from grace last month.

Society

1 week ago Tech companies’ access to UK ministers dwarfs that of child safety groups

Exclusive: Amazon, Meta and X among firms holding hundreds of meetings with people at heart of government, data showsTech companies have been meeting government ministers at a rate of more than once per working day, enjoying high-level political access that dwarfs that of child safety and copyright campaigners, who called the pattern “shocking” and “disturbing”.Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Elon Musk’s X, whose Grok AI image generator has sparked outrage with its sexualised images of women and children, were among the US tech companies holding hundreds of meetings with people at the heart of government, a Guardian investigation has found. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Mother of Elon Musk's child sues his company over sexualised Grok deepfakes that 'altered picture of her aged 14 to show her in a swastika bikini'

Ashley St. Clair, 27, who is mother to one-year-old Romulus, is taking action against xAI, arguing the images have caused her humiliation and emotional distress.

Politics

1 week ago Elon Musk faces lawsuit from mother of his child over 'humiliating' Grok deepfake images

Ashley St. Clair, the mother of Elon Musk's son, has filed a lawsuit against his AI company, claiming the company's Grok chatbot allowed users to generate sexually exploitive deepfake images of her

Society

1 week ago Mother of Elon Musk's child suing AI company over sexual Grok deepfake images

Ashley St. Clair, 27, says the images have caused her humiliation and emotional distress - she has filed a lawsuit against the AI compamny owned by the father of her child

Politics

1 week ago Mother of Elon Musk's child sues his AI company over sexual deepfake images created by Grok

The mother of one of Elon Musk's children is suing his AI company over deepfake images of her on the internet

Politics

1 week ago X down as Elon Musk's Twitter site suffers massive global outage after Grok scandal

Twitter, recently renamed X under new owner Elon Musk, has been hit by a major global outage that has left millions of users struggling to access the social media platform

Technology

1 week ago Public sceptical over new Grok safeguards as Ofcom launches investigation

The Independent asked the public how artificial intelligence should be regulated, as Elon Musk’s X introduced new safeguards on its AI chatbot Grok following pressure from UK regulators.

Events

1 week ago What you need to know about Grok and the controversies surrounding it

Elon Musk's AI assistant, Grok, is facing scrutiny from governments worldwide

Politics

1 week ago Elon Musk backs down in Grok sex images war as Starmer threatens to ban X

The richest man in the world made the u-turn after Prime Minister Keir Starmer threatened to ban social media platform X altogether in the UK

Events

1 week ago Grok scandal highlights how AI industry is ‘too unconstrained’, tech pioneer says

‘Godfather of AI’ Yoshua Bengio says firms building powerful systems without appropriate guardrails • Musk’s X to block Grok AI from creating sexualised images of real people The scandal over the flood of intimate images on Elon Musk’s X created non-consensually by its Grok AI tool has underlined how the artificial intelligence industry is “too unconstrained”, according to a pioneer of the technology.Yoshua Bengio, a computer scientist described as one of the modern “godfathers of AI”, said tech companies were building systems without appropriate technical and societal guardrails. Continue reading...

Science

1 week ago Musk’s X to block Grok AI tool from creating sexualised images of real people

UK government claims vindication after Keir Starmer criticised earlier decision to keep functionality as ‘horrific’The UK government has claimed “vindication” after Elon Musk’s X announced it had stopped its AI-powered Grok feature from editing pictures of real people to show them in revealing clothes such as bikinis, including for premium subscribers.After a fortnight of public outcry at the tool embedded into X being used to create sexualised images of women and children, the company said it would “geoblock” the ability of users “to generate images of real people in bikinis, underwear, and similar attire via the Grok account and in Grok in X”, in countries where it was illegal. Continue reading...

Politics