Washington: The Philippines will join Malaysia and Indonesia in blocking Elon Musk’s Grok artificial intelligence chatbot amid growing concerns over sexualized images generated by the AI system, according to a top government official.
The Philippines’ cybercrime center is working with the telecoms commission to implement the “immediate” blocking of Grok, Information and Communications Technology Secretary Henry Aguda told reporters on Thursday.
“All of the ISPs would have to initiate the blocking,” Aguda said, referring to internet service providers.
Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, which owns Grok, replied with the message “Legacy Media Lies,” when asked to comment on the Philippines’ plan.
Globe Telecom Inc. has received the order from the Information and Communications Technology agency on blocking Grok and is working with it on some clarifications regarding implementation, Globe Telecom Chief Sustainability and Corporate Communications Officer Yolanda Crisanto said in a text message.
A representative from rival Philippine telecoms firm PLDT Inc. said the company will comply with the memorandum from the National Telecommunications Commission.
Indonesia and Malaysia restricted access to Grok over the weekend over its generation of sexual content, with Jakarta saying the 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 Musk’s X social network and xAI for failing to protect users in the country.
xAI has said it’s disabling the ability for people to use Grok to create sexualized images of real people amid the widespread criticism.
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Bloomberg news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Also read: Grok makes sexual images of children as users test AI guardrails