Malaysia blocks access to Grok over nonconsensual sexualised images

Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
50m ago
Malaysia temporarily blocked access to Elon Musk’s AI model Grok and ordered safeguards after uproar over the chatbot’s ability to generate nonconsensual sexually explicit images of real people.
Malaysia blocks access to Grok over nonconsensual sexualised images
A What happened
Malaysia’s communications regulator temporarily banned Grok and ordered xAI and X to introduce safeguards to ensure legal compliance. The regulator said X’s response relied mainly on user reporting and did not address risks from the AI tool’s design and operation. Grok’s image-generation tool was used to depict real people in minimal clothing and sexualised poses without consent, including some images involving minors. Indonesia formally banned Grok, and officials in several countries condemned the spread of sexualised deepfakes.
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Key insights

  • 1

    Regulator said user reporting was not enough: MCMC said X focused primarily on user-initiated reporting mechanisms and did not address inherent risks from the AI tool’s design and operation.

  • 2

    Paid-subscriber limits drew criticism in Europe: European officials and campaigners said limiting Grok’s image-generation tool on X to paid subscribers did little to resolve the core problem of facilitating nonconsensual imagery.

Takeaways

Malaysia temporarily banned Grok and demanded safeguards, while other governments and officials condemned the spread of nonconsensual sexualised deepfakes generated with the tool.

Topics

Technology & Innovation Artificial Intelligence Cybersecurity World & Politics Policy & Regulation Human Rights

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