Two of these images were generated using the artificial intelligence tool Grok, which is free to use and belongs to Elon Musk. I've never worn the rather fetching yellow ski suit, or the red and blue jacket - the middle photo is the original - but I don't know how I could prove that if I needed to, because of those pictures. Of course, Grok is under fire for undressing rather than redressing women. It made pictures of people in bikinis, or worse, when prompted by others. And shared the results in public on the social network X.

The UK government says it will ban so-called nudification apps as part of efforts to tackle misogyny online. New laws - announced on Thursday as part of a wider strategy to halve violence against women and girls - will make it illegal to create and supply AI tools letting users edit images to seemingly remove someone's clothing. The new offences would build on existing rules around sexually explicit deepfakes and intimate image abuse, the government said. Women and girls deserve to be safe online as well as offline, said Technology Secretary Liz Kendall. We will not stand by while technology is weaponised to abuse, humiliate and exploit them through the creation of non-consensual sexually explicit deepfakes.

'Architects of AI' named Time Magazine's Person of the Year Time Magazine's Person of the Year for 2025 is not a single person. Instead, the magazine has recognised the year's most influential figure as the architects of artificial intelligence (AI). Nvidia boss Jensen Huang, Meta head Mark Zuckerberg, X owner Elon Musk and AI godmother Fei-Fei Li are among those depicted on one of the magazine's two covers. Experts say it highlights how quickly AI, and the firms behind it, are reshaping society. It comes as a boom in the technology, ushered in by OpenAI's launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, continues at pace.

If you need me after this newsletter publishes, I will be busy poring over photos from Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's wedding, the gaudiest and most star-studded affair to disrupt technology news this year. I found it a tacky and spectacular affair. Everyone who was anyone was there, except for Charlize Theron, who, unprompted, said on Monday: "I think we might be the only people who did not get an invite to the Bezos wedding. Judge William Alsup compared the Anthropic model's use of books to a "reader aspiring to be a writer." And the next day, Meta: The US district judge Vince Chhabria, in San Francisco, said in his decision on the Meta case that the authors had not presented enough evidence that the technology company's AI would cause "market dilution" by flooding the market with work similar to theirs. Judging by the rulings in favor of Meta and Anthropic, the authors are facing an uphill battle. Three weeks ago, Disney and NBCUniversal sued Midjourney, alleging that the ...

Social media firms could be ordered to use facial recognition technology to check children's ages. Millions of children could have their online profiles banned by the tech giants under plans to be set out by online regulator Ofcom next spring. Social media executives have been warned they could face huge fines and even prison sentences if they fail to follow guidance designed to ensure their users are not underage. John Higham, Ofcom's head of online safety policy, said platforms would be expected to remove children's accounts from their sites by using'highly accurate and effective' AI age checks. The regulator estimates that up to 60 per cent of eight to 11-year-olds have social media profiles, despite sites such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat having minimum age limits of 13.

Tinder and Grindr are about to face close scrutiny over their age policies. The UK's Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Jeremy Wright, plans to ask the dating app giants about their age verification and safety systems after a Sunday Times report revealed dozens of incidents of sexual assault and exploitation against children who managed to sign up for the app, including over 30 instances of rape. He wanted to know what tools Tinder and Grindr had in place to "keep children safe from harm," and vowed "further action" if the dating services didn't provide adequate answers. The two companies said they already use a mix of automated and human oversight to keep underage people off their apps. Grindr in particular was "constantly working to improve" its screening process, according to a spokesperson.