AI week in quotes: Grok’s abuse and dangers of ChatGPT Health

Another turbulent week for those in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, as Grok creates unconsented nudes, OpenAI launches ChatGPT Health, and Character.AI settles lawsuits over a teenager’s suicide.

Cybernews starts a weekly roundup of the most important quotes from AI industry leaders, independent experts, and decision makers.

The xAI’s chatbot Grok made headlines this week for being used to digitally undress female users without their consent. Grok-generated images flooding X sparked the discussion over what can be done to prevent the use of the technology to abuse women.

Malin Frithiofsson, the CEO of femtech company Daya Ventures, wrote on LinkedIn that the proliferation of these images wasn’t “AI misuse” but an old behavior simplified by new infrastructure.

“If you are building generative technology, or honestly any technology, and you are not asking how this could be used to hurt women, you are not doing due diligence. Because if there is a way to hurt women, men will find it,” Frithiofsson said.

World leaders reacted to the Grok scandal, with the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer promising not to tolerate unconsented sexualized images.

“I’ve asked for all options to be on the table. It’s disgusting. X needs to get their act together and get this material down,” Starmer said.

David Dalrymple, a programme director and AI safety expert at the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency, has told the Guardian that people should be concerned that AI may outperform humans and not assume these systems are reliable.

“I think we should be concerned about systems that can perform all of the functions that humans perform to get things done in the world, but better. Because we will be outcompeted in all of the domains that we need to be dominant in, in order to maintain control of our civilization, society, and planet,” Dalrymple said.

As OpenAI has introduced ChatGPT Health, a dedicated space for health-related questions, Chiara Gallese, a researcher in AI law and data ethics, has warned that users may treat it as a medical authority.

“Most health harm won’t look like ‘ChatGPT told me to do X, and I died.’ It will look like delayed care, false reassurance, misinterpreted symptoms, prolonged anxiety, and missed intervention windows. Which means: no obvious failure point and no accountability,” she wrote.

Google and CharacterAI have agreed to settle lawsuits alleging that the chatbot contributed to mental health issues and suicides among teenagers, which alerted the industry watchers. Marcus Schuler, founder of Implicator.ai, has pointed to the lack of admitting liability and the trial process.

“The industry assumed chatbots had the same legal immunity as search engines. That assumption just got expensive. The real test comes when a company decides to fight rather than settle,” Schuler wrote.

​Jenseng Huang, CEO of Nvidia, the company developing chips crucial for the technology, told CNBC that he isn’t worried about the potential California’s one-off 5% tax on billionaires, even if it would cost him $7.75 million.

“I’ve got to tell you, I have not even thought about it once. We chose to live in Silicon Valley, and whatever taxes they would like to apply, so be it. I’m perfectly fine with it,” Huang said.

Unlock more exclusive Cybernews content on YouTube.