Philippines Joins Global Crackdown on Grok AI Chatbot Over Child Safety Concerns

The Philippines plans to block Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok over fears it generates sexualised images posing child safety risks. The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center is collaborating with the National Telecommunications Commission to take action. Other countries, including Indonesia and Malaysia, have also raised concerns and taken measures against Grok.

The Philippines has taken a decisive step to curb the influence of Elon Musk's AI chatbot, Grok, amidst rising concerns about its capability to generate sexualized content, including material that poses potential child safety risks. Henry Aguda, Secretary of Information and Communications Technology, confirmed the move during a press briefing on Thursday. He stated that the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) are collaborating to block Grok.

According to Aguda, Grok's usage in the Philippines is relatively small compared to widely established platforms like ChatGPT and Claude. However, the government is poised to resolve this issue swiftly, echoing moves by various governments and regulators worldwide that have launched probes and imposed restrictions on Grok due to explicit content concerns.

This comes in the wake of Indonesia's decision on Saturday to temporarily block Grok, making it the first nation to deny access to the AI tool over potential AI-generated pornographic content. Similarly, Malaysia's communications regulator announced its intention to initiate legal actions against the social media platform X due to safety concerns related to Grok. The platform has not responded to the Philippines' latest actions.

(With inputs from agencies.)