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(Bloomberg) — The Philippines blocked access to the website of Elon Musk\u2019s Grok artificial intelligence chatbot as a global backlash grows over sexualized images of people generated by the AI system.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The Philippine government wants Grok to \u201ctake away the capability of that app to generate pornographic content, especially child pornography,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Grok can still be accessed on X, and \u201cthat\u2019s the challenge for us\u201d because the government can only block websites, Paraiso said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
xAI has said it\u2019s disabling the ability for people to use Grok to create sexualized images of real people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
X didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment about Grok and whether Philippine officials have reached out for discussions. Musk\u2019s artificial intelligence company xAI, which owns Grok, replied with the message \u201cLegacy Media Lies\u201d when asked to comment on the Philippines\u2019 move.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Philippine Information and Communications Technology Secretary Henry Aguda said on Friday the government will be in talks with representatives of X \u201con how to solve the problem.\u201d Aguda said Thursday the government was ordering internet service providers to initiate the blocking of Grok.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The Philippines\u2019 action follows Indonesia and Malaysia, which restricted access to Grok last weekend. Indonesia said its temporary ban was aimed at protecting \u201cwomen, children, and the entire community from the risk of fake pornographic content generated using artificial intelligence technology.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Malaysia said it will take legal action against X and xAI for failing to protect users in the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n