Malaysia and Indonesia have banned AI tools for the first time in the world. Regulators and experts have commented that X has seriously neglected platform-level security to prevent obscene AI content.
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Two Southeast Asian countries have decided to block access to Grock, an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot created by Elon Musk's company XAI, after it began creating obscene deepfake content.
Grok, which is part of the microblogging site ‘X’, generates and edits photos according to the user’s ‘commands’. In the past few days, some users have been uploading photos of women, celebrities, children and ordinary users and making them semi-nude by giving objectionable commands like ‘put her in a bikini’ or ‘take off her clothes’. The controversy erupted after Grok complied with such commands instead of refusing them.
Malaysia and Indonesia have announced that they will ban Grok, citing the risk of using photos of women and children to create pornographic or non-consensual images, the BBC reported.
The communications ministries of both countries have announced the ban on Grok in their respective statements. According to information given by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission on Sunday, Malaysia instructed X to take strict action against the harmful content being created through Grok earlier this year. X also failed to comply with the directive.
Similarly, Indonesia's Minister of Communications and Digital Affairs Meutya Hafid posted on Instagram that using Grok to produce sexual content is a violation of human rights, dignity and online safety. The ministry has sought an explanation from X on this issue. Indonesia has previously banned platforms such as OneFans and Pornhub that present sexual online content.
There has also been criticism and calls for a ban on Grok in the UK. The BBC has reported that the British communications regulator Ofcom will make a decision on this soon. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has commented that Grok generated sexual images as 'disgusting' and 'offensive'.
