Philippines seeks to block access to Grok on child safety concerns

The Philippines is moving to block Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok amid concerns about its ability to generate sexualised images, including content that could pose child safety risks, the secretary of information and communications technology said on Thursday.

"The CICC is already working together with the NTC to block that," Henry Aguda told a press briefing when asked if the Philippines will take action against Grok, a generative AI tool now facing a global backlash.

CICC refers to the government's Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center, while NTC is the National Telecommunications Commission.

Aguda said Grok's footprint in the country remains relatively small compared to more widely used platforms like ChatGPT and Claude.

"But this week, for sure, that will be resolved," he said.

Governments and regulators from Europe to Asia have been cracking down on sexually explicit content generated by Grok on the social media platform X, launching probes, imposing bans and demanding safeguards.

Indonesia temporarily blocked Grok on Saturday due to the risk of AI-generated pornographic content, becoming the first country to deny access to the AI tool.

Malaysia's communications regulator said on Tuesday that it will take legal action against X due to concerns over user safety in relation to Grok.

X did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Philippines' move.

-Karen Lema/Reuters