New tool allows Californians to request data brokers delete personal details

Californians can now use a government website to request that certain companies stop selling their personal information online. The Drop website, which stands for Delete Request and Opt-Out Platform, launched on New Year’s Day as part of a state law aimed at enhancing data privacy.The Drop tool sends a mass deletion request to 500 data brokers, the term for companies which collect and sell personal information gleaned from public records, phone data, online web browsing and a host of other activities. The information, which can be highly detailed and can be taken without user consent, is widely available for purchase on data brokers’ sites.California’s Drop program aims to reduce the typically time-consuming and expensive process of individually identifying and contacting data brokers to seek out deletion

Grok AI still being used to digitally undress women and children despite suspension pledge

Degrading images of children and women with their clothes digitally removed by Grok AI continue to be shared on Elon Musk’s X, despite the platform’s commitment to suspend users who generate them.After days of concern over use of the chatbot to alter photographs to create sexualised pictures of real women and children stripped to their underwear without their consent, the UK’s communication’s watchdog, Ofcom, said on Monday that it had made “urgent contact with X and xAI to understand what steps they have taken to comply with their legal duties to protect users in the UK”. Ofcom added that it would assess whether an investigation is necessary based on the company’s response.Meanwhile, politicians and women’s rights campaigners accused the UK government of “dragging its heels” by failing to enact legislation that was passed six months ago making the creation of such intimate images illegal.The trend, which went viral over the new year period, also prompted the European Commission to say on Monday that it was “very seriously” looking into complaints that Grok was being used to generate and disseminate sexually explicit childlike images

Mother of one of Elon Musk’s sons ‘horrified’ at use of Grok to create fake sexualised images of her

The mother of one of Elon Musk’s sons has said she felt “horrified and violated” after fans of the billionaire used his AI tool, Grok, to create fake sexualised images of her by manipulating real pictures.The writer and political strategist Ashley St Clair, who became estranged from Musk after the birth of their child in 2024, told the Guardian that supporters of the X owner were using the tool to create a form of revenge porn, and had even undressed a picture of her as a child.Grok has come under fire from lawmakers and regulators worldwide after it emerged it had been used to virtually undress images of women and children, and show them in compromising sexualised positions. The widespread sexual abuse consists of X users asking Grok to manipulate pictures of fully clothed women to put them in bikinis, on their knees, and cover them in what looks like semen.“I felt horrified, I felt violated, especially seeing my toddler’s backpack in the back of it,” St Clair said of an image in which she has been put into a bikini, turned around and bent over

World ‘may not have time’ to prepare for AI safety risks, says leading researcher

The world “may not have time” to prepare for the safety risks posed by cutting-edge AI systems, according to a leading figure at the UK government’s scientific research agency.David Dalrymple, a programme director and AI safety expert at the Aria agency, told the Guardian people should be concerned about the growing capability of the technology.“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,” he said. “Because we will be outcompeted in all of the domains that we need to be dominant in, in order to maintain control of our civilisation, society and planet.”Dalrymple said there was a gap in understanding between the public sector and AI companies about the power of looming breakthroughs in the technology

What happened after Tesla opened a diner in Los Angeles?

Less than six months since it opened, Elon Musk’s Tesla Diner has the feel of a ghost town. Gone is the Optimus robot serving popcorn, gone are the carnivore-diet-inspired “Epic Bacon” strips, gone are the hours-long, hundred-person lines wrapped around the block. Even the restaurant’s all-star chef, Eric Greenspan, is gone. The Hollywood burger-and-fries shop seems like a shell of the bustling eatery it was when it opened in late July.On a balmy Friday afternoon in December, the parking lot for Tesla car charging was, at best, half full

‘Just an unbelievable amount of pollution’: how big a threat is AI to the climate?

Defenders say AI can do good to fight the climate crisis. But spiralling energy and water costs leave experts worriedThe Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.During a golden sunset in Memphis in May, Sharon Wilson pointed a thermal imaging camera at Elon Musk’s flagship datacentre to reveal a planetary threat her eyes could not