San Francisco Frontiers - Fury over Grok sexualized images despite new restrictions

The Philippines became the third country to ban Grok, following Southeast Asian neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia, while Britain and France said they would maintain pressure after the chatbot cranked out a flood of lewd photos of women and children.

X announced Wednesday that it would "geoblock the ability" of all Grok and X users to create images of people in "bikinis, underwear, and similar attire" in jurisdictions where such actions are illegal.

It was not immediately clear where the tool would be restricted.

The announcement came after California's attorney general launched an investigation into xAI -- the developer of Grok -- over the sexually explicit material and several countries opened their own probes.

Following an initial uproar last week, Grok said it would restrict image generation and editing to paying subscribers, prompting outraged critics to accuse Musk's company of monetizing the problem rather than solving it.

Bowing to global pressure, X on Wednesday said it would restrict "all users," including paying subscribers, from using the Grok account to edit images of people in "revealing clothes such as bikinis."

But just hours later, the Philippines announced the country's block could be effective by the end of Thursday.

Cybercrime chief Renato Paraiso said that X's announcement would have no effect on the government's plans, adding that authorities will monitor whether the platform follows through on its promises.

"We need to clean the internet now because much toxic content is appearing, especially with the advent of AI," said Philippine telecommunications secretary Henry Rhoel Aguda.

Meanwhile, Malaysia on Thursday said its regulators found that X's measures to prevent Grok from generating revealing images were "not done in totality."

If X can successfully deactivate and prevent the generation of such content, Malaysia will lift the temporary restriction on Grok, communications minister Fahmi Fadzil said.

- 'Zero tolerance' -

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer -- a favourite target of Musk's political posts -- welcomed that X was acting to ensure "full compliance with UK law," but insisted that it "must happen immediately."

"If we need to strengthen existing laws further, we are prepare to do that," Starmer wrote on X.

Pressure has been building on xAI to rein in Grok after its so-called "Spicy Mode" feature allowed users to create sexualized deepfakes using simple text prompts such as "put her in a bikini" or "remove her clothes."

The European Commission, which acts as the EU's digital watchdog, has said it will "carefully assess" measures taken by X to ensure "they effectively protect citizens."

"France and Europe taking action... is producing results," Paris's digital minister Anne Le Henanff told AFP on Thursday, warning that "no platform is above the law."

California Governor Gavin Newsom said that xAI's "vile" decision to allow sexually explicit deepfakes to proliferate prompted him to urge the state's attorney general, Rob Bonta, to hold the company accountable.

"We have zero tolerance for the AI-based creation and dissemination of nonconsensual intimate images or of child sexual abuse material," Bonta said on Wednesday.

He added that the California investigation would determine whether xAI violated state law after the explicit imagery was "used to harass people across the internet."

Further adding pressure on xAI, a coalition of 28 civil society groups submitted open letters to the CEOs of Apple and Google on Wednesday, urging them to ban Grok and X from their app stores amid the surge in sexualized images.

burs-ac/arp

L.Lopez--SFF