Irish Examiner view: Depraved adaptation of technology

It is also extremely worrying that Ashley St Clair, the mother of one of Musk’s children, said she felt “horrified and violated” after fans of the billionaire used Grok to create sexualised images of her from real pictures in a deranged attempt at revenge porn. Picture: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg

Users of Elon Musk’s X and his Grok AI tool have, since last month, been able to use a function called “edit image”, whereby they can request modifications to images and can remove clothing from real people in those images.

A depraved adaptation of technology, it has been used to generate sexual abuse material — including material relating to children.

With X’s headquarters for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa based in Dublin, the platform is subject to Irish law and, in this particular instance, our law states that sharing any visual, audio, or text representation depicting or implying sexual exploitation of anyone is illegal.

In 2021, the government introduced legislation criminalising the sharing of, or threatening to share, intimate images without a person’s consent. Dubbed Coco’s Law, after young Dubliner Nicole Fox who died by suicide after years of relentless abuse, offenders can face a maximum of seven years in prison.

That law also means sharing images or footage of simulated activity, computer-generated imagery, or any content suggesting a child is available for sexual exploitation, is illegal.

Grok has been shown, on request, to be able to manipulate an image of a minor. It is sinister that this technology can be utilised by malign actors to demean, humiliate, or sexualise anyone — be they adult or child — but all the more terrifying if it is the latter.

It is also extremely worrying that Ashley St Clair, the mother of one of Musk’s children, said she felt “horrified and violated” after fans of the billionaire used Grok to create sexualised images of her from real pictures in a deranged attempt at revenge porn.

It is therefore most welcome to hear Tánaiste Simon Harris say that our laws will be changed “if required” to crack down on the creation and sharing of fake nude or sexual images by Grok, as he called for a garda investigation into the practice.

It was bad enough that social media has become a cesspit of extreme viewpoints, but that it is now being used to exploit women and children means the authorities must act against his malign new capacity of the platforms.

Indications of a movement

The dream of a co-ordinated, co-operative, and combative political left here in Ireland seemed within touching distance when there was unity behind the successful presidential election candidate, Catherine Connolly.

The election was unique in socialist politics in that it united all the elements of the left here — including Sinn Féin, the Labour Party, the Social Democrats, and People Before Profit — along with Independents such as Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, whose political aims would not be that far removed from some of the others.

There were calls from Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald to use the Connolly campaign to unite the left to form a broad coalition to “send Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael packing”, while PBP’s Paul Murphy demanded a “credible” left alternative in the next general election.

But was this the stuff of fantasy? Could the traditionally querulous socialists ever agree on anything for long enough to make a serious run at forming a government?

Indeed, it was Flanagan who best described their chances of successfully coalescing when he said that uniting the left was going to be as difficult as “getting a whole lot of butterflies into the one bubble”.

Despite Connolly’s outstanding performance in securing the Áras, his prediction was prescient as Labour, the Social Democrats, Sinn Féin, and the Greens have indicated they will each field candidates in the forthcoming Galway West by-election to fill the vacancy Connolly left in the Dáil.

The brave talk of fielding a unified candidate in the constituency has come to nothing, but there are indications at a non-political party level that the slumbering giant that is the socialist movement in this country is mobilising — if not exactly uniting.

There is a new Galway-based organisation called Tonn na Clé, which describes itself as a “private network” of the left rather than a political party. It is trying to crystalise a nationwide ethos of “vote left, transfer left” in order to spur momentum towards an eventual socialist administration.

The left here has long lacked any sort of glue to hold its disparate parts together. That may be about to change.

Time to adopt junk food advertising ban

In an attempt to curb obesity levels, new rules have been introduced in Britain banning the advertising of junk food on television and across the internet.

The new regulations have received broad support across all political lines, with the common line of thinking being that, while it is really easy right now to not be healthy, the ban may help to make being healthy easier.

Obesity is a growing issue across first-world countries and Britain’s ban is aimed at reducing advertising for high-fat, salt, and sugar products on TV up to the 9pm watershed.

Is it something we here in Ireland should also be adopting? The Irish Heart Foundation certainly thinks so. It has called on the Government to match the British example and ban junk food advertising during certain hours.

In a world where fast food has become ubiquitous and junk food is everyday fare, we have been aware for some time that there are inherent dangers within a food system controlled by a few multinational corporations. However, it would appear we are doing little to mitigate against those dangers.

A simple advertising ban would provide all manner of health benefits, and it clearly should be adopted.

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