Philippines blocks Elon Musk’s Grok AI

The Philippines has blocked access to Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot website Grok, citing concerns over sexualised images generated by the AI system.

The government is calling out the company to remove the capability for the app to create pornographic content, particularly involving minors.

The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center Head Renato Paraiso said during a news conference that the government intends to coordinate with social network X, on which Grok is hosted, to resolve the matter. "Grok can still be accessed on X, and that’s the challenge for us,” he said, explaining authorities can block only standalone websites.

xAI, the company behind Grok, has since said it's disabling the ability to generate sexualised images of real people. Asked to comment on the Philippines' move, xAI replied with the statement "Legacy Media Lies." X did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Philippine Secretary of Information and Communications Technology Henry Aguda verified that the government has instructed internet service providers to block Grok and will engage in discussions with X to “solve the problem”.

This move by the Philippines is in line with similar restrictions by Indonesia and Malaysia. Indonesia's blockage is attributed to the need to shield women, children, and the whole community against the threat of counterfeit pornographic content produced by the use of artificial intelligence technology. Malaysia plans to take legal action against X and xAI for their inability to shield citizens.

With the increasing popularity of AI-generated content, governments in Southeast Asia are clamping down on apps such as Grok.