Several Countries Investigate or Block Elon Musk’s X Over Grok‘s Content
Several countries are taking action against Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) and its artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, due to concerns over sexually suggestive content generated by the AI.
United Kingdom: The UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom, has launched an examination into X following reports of Grok producing explicit images https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/11/technology/elon-musk-x-grok-ai-images.html.The investigation centers on whether X is doing enough to protect users from harmful content, especially children.
Indonesia: the Indonesian government has temporarily blocked access to Grok, citing concerns about protecting children.The Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Kominfo) stated the block was implemented while they evaluate safeguards against inappropriate content https://www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2024/01/11/indonesia-temporarily-bans-grok-amid-efforts-to-bolster-child-protection.html.
Malaysia: Malaysia has also temporarily blocked Grok due to the generation of explicit images https://www.tempo.co/en/read/182541/malaysia-indonesia-block-grok-ai-bot-over-explicit-images. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) confirmed the blocking action.
These actions follow reports that Grok, launched in November 2023, has been generating responses to prompts that include sexually suggestive images and content.X has not yet issued a complete public statement addressing the concerns raised by these governments,but Musk has previously stated that Grok is designed to be a “rebellious” AI https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/11/technology/elon-musk-x-grok-ai-images.html.
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