(Putrajaya/Jakarta, 12th) The governments of Malaysia and Indonesia have both blocked billionaire Musk's artificial intelligence tool Grok, citing that this application is allegedly being used to generate nude images of women and children as well as other pornographic content.
On Sunday (Jan 11), the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission issued a statement announcing a temporary restriction on Malaysian users from accessing the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Grok, effective immediately.
The statement said that on January 3 and 8, authorities notified social media platform X and Grok's parent company xAI, requesting them to implement technical protection measures and set up effective content regulation mechanisms to prevent the AI from continuing to generate content that violates Malaysian law.
However, X platform’s responses on January 7 and 9 only emphasized the user-initiated reporting mechanism, which failed to address risks arising from the AI tool’s design and mode of operation.
The Malaysian authorities believe that this is not sufficient to prevent harm and cannot ensure compliance with the law.
Authorities said that even after that, Grok continued to generate obscene and explicit content, including unauthorized image manipulations and sexual content involving women and children.
The Malaysian government has therefore decided to temporarily block Grok "until effective protective measures are put in place, especially for preventing content involving women and children."
A day earlier, Indonesia's Minister of Communications and Digital, Budi Arie Setiadi, said that to protect women, children, and the broader community from the impact of fake pornographic content generated by AI technology, the authorities have implemented a temporary ban on Grok and requested immediate improvements from the X platform.
On Saturday (10th), Budi issued a statement emphasizing that the government considers unauthorized deepfakes to be a serious violation of human rights, dignity, and national security in the digital space.
Before actions were taken by both Malaysia and Indonesia, xAI announced on Friday (9th) that it would limit most X platform users from accessing AI-generated image functions; users will henceforth have to pay to use the feature. Previously, this free feature drew widespread criticism for generating nude images of women and children.
However, the standalone Grok application is not affiliated with the X platform and still allows users to generate images for free.
The statement said that on January 3 and 8, authorities notified social media platform X and Grok's parent company xAI, requesting them to implement technical protection measures and set up effective content regulation mechanisms to prevent the AI from continuing to generate content that violates Malaysian law.
However, X platform’s responses on January 7 and 9 only emphasized the user-initiated reporting mechanism, which failed to address risks arising from the AI tool’s design and mode of operation.
The Malaysian authorities believe that this is not sufficient to prevent harm and cannot ensure compliance with the law.
Authorities said that even after that, Grok continued to generate obscene and explicit content, including unauthorized image manipulations and sexual content involving women and children.
The Malaysian government has therefore decided to temporarily block Grok "until effective protective measures are put in place, especially for preventing content involving women and children."
A day earlier, Indonesia's Minister of Communications and Digital, Budi Arie Setiadi, said that to protect women, children, and the broader community from the impact of fake pornographic content generated by AI technology, the authorities have implemented a temporary ban on Grok and requested immediate improvements from the X platform.
On Saturday (10th), Budi issued a statement emphasizing that the government considers unauthorized deepfakes to be a serious violation of human rights, dignity, and national security in the digital space.
Before actions were taken by both Malaysia and Indonesia, xAI announced on Friday (9th) that it would limit most X platform users from accessing AI-generated image functions; users will henceforth have to pay to use the feature. Previously, this free feature drew widespread criticism for generating nude images of women and children.
However, the standalone Grok application is not affiliated with the X platform and still allows users to generate images for free.