Elon Musk’s Grok hit with a ban from two countries over sexually explicit content.
According to CNBC, Malaysia and Indonesia have become the first two countries in the world to ban Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot after it was used for generating nonconsensual sexually explicit content.
Malaysian regulators on Sunday, January 11, ordered a temporary restriction on the xAI Grok due to “repeated failures by X Corp” in addressing risks linked to its AI tool.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said that X’s “insufficient” replies have “relied primarily on user-initiated reporting mechanisms and failed to address the inherent risks posed by the design and operation of the AI tool.”
“Accordingly, the restriction is imposed as a preventive and proportionate measure while legal and regulatory processes are ongoing. Access to Grok will remain restricted until effective safeguards are implemented, particularly to prevent content involving women and children,” the watchdog added.
This came a day after Indonesia announced a ban on Grok for similar reasons. The South Asian country also summoned X officials to discuss the concerns associated with the chatbot.
The world’s richest person, Musk’s AI chatbot, came under criticism after it was noted that Grok allows its users to easily generate nonconsensual explicit images and child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
xAI recently enhanced the Grok Imagine feature, making it easier for users to generate images from text prompts on X.
Following the update, the AI tool was used for generating sexually explicit images of women and children, sparking widespread outage.
Amid the escalating concerns, Musk’s xAI announced that it would restrict the image-generating features to the paid subscribers.
