Philippines Bans Grok Website, Eyes X Talks as Backlash Grows

(Bloomberg) -- The Philippines blocked access to the website of Elon Musk’s Grok artificial intelligence chatbot as a global backlash grows over sexualized images of people generated by the AI system. 

The Philippine government wants Grok to “take away the capability of that app to generate pornographic content, especially child pornography,” Renato Paraiso, head of the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center, said in a text message on Friday. The government is planning talks with the social network X, which hosts Grok.

Grok can still be accessed on X, and “that’s the challenge for us” because the government can only block websites, Paraiso said.

xAI has said it’s disabling the ability for people to use Grok to create sexualized images of real people.

X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about Grok and whether Philippine officials have reached out for discussions. Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, which owns Grok, replied with the message “Legacy Media Lies” when asked to comment on the Philippines’ move. 

Philippine Information and Communications Technology Secretary Henry Aguda said on Friday the government will be in talks with representatives of X “on how to solve the problem.” Aguda said Thursday the government was ordering internet service providers to initiate the blocking of Grok. 

The Philippines’ action follows Indonesia and Malaysia, which restricted access to Grok last weekend. Indonesia said its temporary ban was aimed at protecting “women, children, and the entire community from the risk of fake pornographic content generated using artificial intelligence technology.”

Malaysia said it will take legal action against X and xAI for failing to protect users in the country.

--With assistance from Andreo Calonzo.

(Recasts and adds new comments from government officials.)

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