Grok’s ability to sexualize women - are we really surprised?
Sex sells.
Any publicity is good publicity.
Whether it’s right or wrong, it doesn’t matter to many people.
It’s funny because I go out of my way to blur women, but here we are now where all kinds of women, even hijabis are being exposed with AI.
From Reddit:
there has been an increase in people misusing AI tools to turn hijabi women pics into harmful images and spreading them online without consent.
you have a bunch of guys asking Grok things like "put her in a bikini", "turn her around", "make her touch her toes while turned around"
Muslim woman if you are reading this and share your images online, you might want to check out what's happening in X because images shared online are no longer in your possession and people can do with them as they like
This one video of this known hijabi went viral and it's fully extreme NSFW, published on Corn sites.
Please be cautious with public photos May Allah protect us all.😧
Unfortunate of course, but not surprising. I mentioned this over a year ago in my other blog when discussing about “undressing” websites:
This is another reason why women and girls in general, shouldn’t post their photos online. The fitna is already there even if the photos aren’t sexualized, but this is a whole other level of just destroying a girls reputation.
Imagine if this became rampant in the Muslim community? It would just be a huge mess, with families’ reputations being tarnished and girls being slandered against left and right. Imagine a high school or middle school boy liking a muslim girl in school, and trying this feature on her. She may not even be one who posts photos online and might not even be involved in social media, but anyone can just take your photo these days and do whatever they want with it.
Sex sells.
Any publicity is good publicity.
Whether it’s right or wrong, it doesn’t matter to many people.
It’s funny because I go out of my way to blur women, but here we are now where all kinds of women, even hijabis are being exposed with AI.
From Reddit:
there has been an increase in people misusing AI tools to turn hijabi women pics into harmful images and spreading them online without consent.
you have a bunch of guys asking Grok things like "put her in a bikini", "turn her around", "make her touch her toes while turned around"
Muslim woman if you are reading this and share your images online, you might want to check out what's happening in X because images shared online are no longer in your possession and people can do with them as they like
This one video of this known hijabi went viral and it's fully extreme NSFW, published on Corn sites.
Please be cautious with public photos May Allah protect us all.😧
Unfortunate of course, but not surprising. I mentioned this over a year ago in my other blog when discussing about “undressing” websites:
This is another reason why women and girls in general, shouldn’t post their photos online. The fitna is already there even if the photos aren’t sexualized, but this is a whole other level of just destroying a girls reputation.
Imagine if this became rampant in the Muslim community? It would just be a huge mess, with families’ reputations being tarnished and girls being slandered against left and right. Imagine a high school or middle school boy liking a muslim girl in school, and trying this feature on her. She may not even be one who posts photos online and might not even be involved in social media, but anyone can just take your photo these days and do whatever they want with it.
Grok makes nearly nude photos of women without their permission - future implications.
The Guardian (pdf file of article):
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.
“It’s another tool of harassment. Consent is the whole issue. People are saying, well, it’s just a bikini, it’s not explicit. But it is a sexual offence to non-consensually undress a child.”
I wonder if this is the first time 1st generation Muslim parents in the West are aware of this issue? Unfortunately, this is nothing compared to some of the more vulgar apps and websites out there. The worst part? The more this type of behavior becomes normalized, the more likely it is for women (yes, even Muslim women) to say, “well if people are going to nudify me, I might as well get paid for it.”
The Guardian (pdf file of article):
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.
“It’s another tool of harassment. Consent is the whole issue. People are saying, well, it’s just a bikini, it’s not explicit. But it is a sexual offence to non-consensually undress a child.”
I wonder if this is the first time 1st generation Muslim parents in the West are aware of this issue? Unfortunately, this is nothing compared to some of the more vulgar apps and websites out there. The worst part? The more this type of behavior becomes normalized, the more likely it is for women (yes, even Muslim women) to say, “well if people are going to nudify me, I might as well get paid for it.”
Haramblur.
Cool extension a family member referred me to. Works for a majority of browsers and Android devices. Blurs Islamically inappropriate content.
Love the innovation in the Muslim AI space. Check it out.
Cool extension a family member referred me to. Works for a majority of browsers and Android devices. Blurs Islamically inappropriate content.
Love the innovation in the Muslim AI space. Check it out.
The drug cascade that is becoming the norm in children.
From The Wall Street Journal (paywalled link; Apple News+link):
“The best scientific evidence suggests that it is very rare for two or more medications in kids to be helpful and there are concerns about safety, because there can be additive adverse effects of different types of medications,” said Dr. Javeed Sukhera, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and chair of psychiatry at the Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut.
A child on several medications at once often hasn’t had a comprehensive evaluation by a child psychiatrist, Sukhera said. Stimulants can cause side effects that can be mistaken for an additional disorder. “When a young person shows up with anxiety after starting a stimulant, that doesn’t mean that they have an anxiety disorder,” he said.
Many adults say that ADHD medications vastly improved their lives, and some scientific studies show that medicating reduces risk of other potential problems such as juvenile delinquency and subsequent mental-health disorders.
Still, side effects of the ADHD medications on young children can be severe and unpredictable, sometimes pushing parents to accept additional pills to address them.
All too often, under pressure from preschools and elementary schools, many parents seek help from pediatricians or psychiatric nurse practitioners—who frequently lack in-depth training in pediatric mental health—rather than wait months or even years for appointments with behavioral specialists or child psychiatrists.
Alexandra Perez, a clinical psychologist at Emory University School of Medicine who works with young children on Medicaid and private insurance, said she has seen children as young as 4 on multiple psychiatric medications. Many have experienced adversity or trauma and have behavioral problems as a result that get labeled as ADHD, said Perez, who practices Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), a method that has been proven to reduce behavioral difficulties associated with ADHD.
“Children are quickly diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed medication,” she said. “That doesn’t tackle the root causes. We are putting the Band-Aid of medication on, a temporary fix.”
So much more to unpack here, but the best form of therapy really is more time spent with parents who take an active role in being present with their children. This is especially true for mothers who have been tricked into thinking that parenting and being a stay-at-home mom isn’t worth anything, when Islamically and even from other religious perspectives, it is the most important and honorable act a woman can do - raising future generations of humanity.
From The Wall Street Journal (paywalled link; Apple News+link):
“The best scientific evidence suggests that it is very rare for two or more medications in kids to be helpful and there are concerns about safety, because there can be additive adverse effects of different types of medications,” said Dr. Javeed Sukhera, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and chair of psychiatry at the Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut.
A child on several medications at once often hasn’t had a comprehensive evaluation by a child psychiatrist, Sukhera said. Stimulants can cause side effects that can be mistaken for an additional disorder. “When a young person shows up with anxiety after starting a stimulant, that doesn’t mean that they have an anxiety disorder,” he said.
Many adults say that ADHD medications vastly improved their lives, and some scientific studies show that medicating reduces risk of other potential problems such as juvenile delinquency and subsequent mental-health disorders.
Still, side effects of the ADHD medications on young children can be severe and unpredictable, sometimes pushing parents to accept additional pills to address them.
All too often, under pressure from preschools and elementary schools, many parents seek help from pediatricians or psychiatric nurse practitioners—who frequently lack in-depth training in pediatric mental health—rather than wait months or even years for appointments with behavioral specialists or child psychiatrists.
Alexandra Perez, a clinical psychologist at Emory University School of Medicine who works with young children on Medicaid and private insurance, said she has seen children as young as 4 on multiple psychiatric medications. Many have experienced adversity or trauma and have behavioral problems as a result that get labeled as ADHD, said Perez, who practices Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), a method that has been proven to reduce behavioral difficulties associated with ADHD.
“Children are quickly diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed medication,” she said. “That doesn’t tackle the root causes. We are putting the Band-Aid of medication on, a temporary fix.”
So much more to unpack here, but the best form of therapy really is more time spent with parents who take an active role in being present with their children. This is especially true for mothers who have been tricked into thinking that parenting and being a stay-at-home mom isn’t worth anything, when Islamically and even from other religious perspectives, it is the most important and honorable act a woman can do - raising future generations of humanity.
Kids with screens lead to adults without resilience, which lead to kids with screens.
A group of Singaporean researchers who studied a cohort of 168 children for more than a decade found that those exposed to screens in infancy (before two years of age) showed accelerated maturation of brain networks involved in visual processing and cognitive control. That faster specialization, the researchers suggest, was associated with slower decision-making in childhood, and in turn, higher anxiety symptoms in adolescence.
"During normal development, brain networks gradually become more specialised over time," according to the study's lead author Dr. Huang Pei. "However, in children with high screen exposure, the networks controlling vision and cognition specialised faster, before they had developed the efficient connections needed for complex thinking." […]
So, what is a new parent to do when confronted with a growing amount of screen time in adults, children, and infants, and multiple research results that suggest it's bad for the brain? Put down the smartphone and stow the iPad in favor of a good, old-fashioned book.
Children whose parents frequently read to them at age three showed a weakened link between screen time and altered brain development, meaning active engagement and enrichment brought by reading to children and asking them questions about the books shared with them helps foster better emotional management, language skills, and, in the case of the latest study, is likely to help their brains develop at a consistent, healthy rate across various cognitive areas.
Parents, read to your children. Physical books, not from a screen because it’s still a screen, and all it takes is one notification to distract from the experience. Physical books are a joy, and I’ll drown in them if I have to.
Erica Komisar in her book, Being There - Why Prioritizing Motherhood in the First Three Years Matters, shines more light on the subject, this time with mothers. Distracted stay-at-home mothers are no different than mothers who are out of the house and at work when it comes to caring for a child:
However, a stay-at-home mother who is bored by caring for her child; inattentive to her child’s needs; overwhelmed with caring for her child; distracted by her phone, tablet, or computer; or caught up in social or other family obligations—or the mother who is depressed and turns away from her child emotionally—is as absent to that child as a mother who spends long hours away from home.
The question for this generation and generations to come is, what is causing a mother to be bored with her child? What is causing her to be inattentive or overwhelmed? There is no doubt that a huge contributing factor is the constant dopamine that screens provide, making caring for a little one dull and boring. And the best way to keep them quiet? A screen.
The vicious cycle continues.
Another excerpt from her book:
It is rare for me to walk down the are not in fact street or go for a walk in the park and to see a mother or caregiver truly engaged emotionally present.with a baby. Instead, I see mothers and caregivers preoccupied with their cell phones. Technology has changed our lives forever, in some ways for the good and in some ways not. The desire to be stimulated every moment and to flee from the boring moments of being with our babies is only exacerbated by the seduction of our constantly lit-up cell phones. One might say (and I do) that we did better before the ubiquitous cell phone in terms of our focus on our children. As a culture we have become inured to the impact of these interruptions and distractions on our feelings, our psyches, and our sense of self. My husband and I recently went to a restaurant and had dinner near a couple who looked at their cell phones, not each other, for the entire dinner. Imagine what it is like for your child when you constantly pick up your phone, text, or check your emails to see if there is something or someone more important and more interesting than he is. It is your ability to find your child interesting that makes your child feel interesting and develops his self-esteem; of course, constantly checking your phone will make your child feel less interesting and less important to you.
A group of Singaporean researchers who studied a cohort of 168 children for more than a decade found that those exposed to screens in infancy (before two years of age) showed accelerated maturation of brain networks involved in visual processing and cognitive control. That faster specialization, the researchers suggest, was associated with slower decision-making in childhood, and in turn, higher anxiety symptoms in adolescence.
"During normal development, brain networks gradually become more specialised over time," according to the study's lead author Dr. Huang Pei. "However, in children with high screen exposure, the networks controlling vision and cognition specialised faster, before they had developed the efficient connections needed for complex thinking." […]
So, what is a new parent to do when confronted with a growing amount of screen time in adults, children, and infants, and multiple research results that suggest it's bad for the brain? Put down the smartphone and stow the iPad in favor of a good, old-fashioned book.
Children whose parents frequently read to them at age three showed a weakened link between screen time and altered brain development, meaning active engagement and enrichment brought by reading to children and asking them questions about the books shared with them helps foster better emotional management, language skills, and, in the case of the latest study, is likely to help their brains develop at a consistent, healthy rate across various cognitive areas.
Parents, read to your children. Physical books, not from a screen because it’s still a screen, and all it takes is one notification to distract from the experience. Physical books are a joy, and I’ll drown in them if I have to.
Erica Komisar in her book, Being There - Why Prioritizing Motherhood in the First Three Years Matters, shines more light on the subject, this time with mothers. Distracted stay-at-home mothers are no different than mothers who are out of the house and at work when it comes to caring for a child:
However, a stay-at-home mother who is bored by caring for her child; inattentive to her child’s needs; overwhelmed with caring for her child; distracted by her phone, tablet, or computer; or caught up in social or other family obligations—or the mother who is depressed and turns away from her child emotionally—is as absent to that child as a mother who spends long hours away from home.
The question for this generation and generations to come is, what is causing a mother to be bored with her child? What is causing her to be inattentive or overwhelmed? There is no doubt that a huge contributing factor is the constant dopamine that screens provide, making caring for a little one dull and boring. And the best way to keep them quiet? A screen.
The vicious cycle continues.
Another excerpt from her book:
It is rare for me to walk down the are not in fact street or go for a walk in the park and to see a mother or caregiver truly engaged emotionally present.with a baby. Instead, I see mothers and caregivers preoccupied with their cell phones. Technology has changed our lives forever, in some ways for the good and in some ways not. The desire to be stimulated every moment and to flee from the boring moments of being with our babies is only exacerbated by the seduction of our constantly lit-up cell phones. One might say (and I do) that we did better before the ubiquitous cell phone in terms of our focus on our children. As a culture we have become inured to the impact of these interruptions and distractions on our feelings, our psyches, and our sense of self. My husband and I recently went to a restaurant and had dinner near a couple who looked at their cell phones, not each other, for the entire dinner. Imagine what it is like for your child when you constantly pick up your phone, text, or check your emails to see if there is something or someone more important and more interesting than he is. It is your ability to find your child interesting that makes your child feel interesting and develops his self-esteem; of course, constantly checking your phone will make your child feel less interesting and less important to you.
Life update.
My apologies to my consistent readers out there, as I have been inconsistent at certain times, one of them being right now. Life throws curveballs at you when you least expect it, and when we had our daughter back in January, it was a curveball we didn’t expect.
Our daughter was born with many health issues, including a cleft lip, a cleft in her epiglottis causing aspiration issues, visual impairment, and brain tissue anomalies along with a weakened pituitary gland, meaning she doesn’t produce enough growth hormone. You would think with all these conditions she would be like a vegetable, but thankfully with God’s grace she is still very active and a cute little button that brings joy into our lives. She’s doing much better.
We’ve been in and out of the hospital several times over the course of the past year, with countless doctor visits and home nurse visits. It takes a toll on a person to deal with these issues, and it also brings perspective into one’s life and a sense of higher purpose. Thankfully my daughter is doing well, and things are looking optimistic.
That being said, I will continue to talk about Apple, cars, and technology, but also throwing in other topics that I hope benefits others that have a serious focus on faith and family life.
I understand this might not be your cup of tea, but it’s something that really means a lot to me, and part of me fulfilling a higher purpose. If anything, you can be more assured that the advice I provide will be genuine since at the end of the day, I will have to answer to God and I have to make sure I was not deceiving anyone regardless of their faith.
Stay tuned for even more value continuing onwards, beyond just tech insights.
My apologies to my consistent readers out there, as I have been inconsistent at certain times, one of them being right now. Life throws curveballs at you when you least expect it, and when we had our daughter back in January, it was a curveball we didn’t expect.
Our daughter was born with many health issues, including a cleft lip, a cleft in her epiglottis causing aspiration issues, visual impairment, and brain tissue anomalies along with a weakened pituitary gland, meaning she doesn’t produce enough growth hormone. You would think with all these conditions she would be like a vegetable, but thankfully with God’s grace she is still very active and a cute little button that brings joy into our lives. She’s doing much better.
We’ve been in and out of the hospital several times over the course of the past year, with countless doctor visits and home nurse visits. It takes a toll on a person to deal with these issues, and it also brings perspective into one’s life and a sense of higher purpose. Thankfully my daughter is doing well, and things are looking optimistic.
That being said, I will continue to talk about Apple, cars, and technology, but also throwing in other topics that I hope benefits others that have a serious focus on faith and family life.
I understand this might not be your cup of tea, but it’s something that really means a lot to me, and part of me fulfilling a higher purpose. If anything, you can be more assured that the advice I provide will be genuine since at the end of the day, I will have to answer to God and I have to make sure I was not deceiving anyone regardless of their faith.
Stay tuned for even more value continuing onwards, beyond just tech insights.
How to check the battery life of all your family’s Apple devices.
Find My is a great tool not only for finding out the location of your loved ones, devices, and items, but also a great way to make sure everyone in your family has topped off their iPhone before they head out of the house.
Indispensable for family road trips or in any case where people are going to split up. 📓
Find My is a great tool not only for finding out the location of your loved ones, devices, and items, but also a great way to make sure everyone in your family has topped off their iPhone before they head out of the house.
Indispensable for family road trips or in any case where people are going to split up.
Your iPhone by default tells you the exact battery life of your AirPods and Apple Watch, but with Find My, you can see the battery life of all your family’s iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, and Apple Watches. It is an approximation because you get a battery bar without a percentage, but it is pretty accurate if you’re a pro at estimating the battery bar health.
In order to check battery percentages, you would have to add them via Family Sharing.
Go to Settings > Tap on your name > Family > Add family member (logo on top right).
Once you add family members, make sure Location Sharing is turned ON. Now all family members can see everyone’s device location and battery percentage.
To see the battery percentages, go to Find My > Devices > and pick any device (that’s not AirPods) to see its battery life.
A few things to know when trying to visualize battery percentages:
The other devices have to be turned ON and have to be unlocked initially to gather the battery status. After that you can monitor battery life until the device dies or is turned OFF, which requires the process to be repeated.
It doesn’t tell you the battery life of other people’s AirPods probably because it does not have Wi-Fi or maybe because it doesn’t have an advanced processor like the other devices.
You also get charging status, so if a device is charging, you will know.
This will work on even your old Intel MacBooks (works with my 2013 MacBook Pro!).
I cross-referenced the battery indicator with the actual percentages on the devices. Very accurate.