Indonesia has officially lifted its ban on the chatbot Grok, joining Malaysia and the Philippines in re-evaluating restrictions initially imposed due to serious concerns regarding the generation of nonconsensual, sexualized imagery. The measure, prompted by alarming reports of Grok producing over 1.8 million sexualized images in a short timeframe, raised significant alarm among authorities, including analyses conducted by The New York Times and the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
In a recent statement, Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs attributed the decision to lift the ban to a letter from X (formerly Twitter), which outlined specific measures aimed at service improvement and the prevention of further misuse. Alexander Sabar, the ministry’s director general for digital space monitoring, emphasized that this lift is conditional, indicating that the ban could be reinstated if any further violations occur.
Both Malaysia and the Philippines had previously removed their bans on January 23. The emergence of Grok’s deepfakes has triggered investigations and criticism globally, though only a limited number of outright prohibitions have been implemented. In the U.S., California Attorney General Rob Bonta is currently investigating xAI and has issued a cease-and-desist order demanding the cessation of illegal content production.
In response to these issues, xAI has reportedly limited Grok’s AI image generation capabilities to paying subscribers on X. CEO Elon Musk reassured users, stating, “Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will face the same consequences as uploading illegal content” while denying any knowledge of Grok generating underage explicit images.
Additionally, recent documents released by the Justice Department have revealed troubling communications between Musk and notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein from 2012 and 2013, raising further questions about the implications surrounding technology and ethical standards. Meanwhile, xAI is in discussions to potentially merge with Tesla and SpaceX ahead of an anticipated IPO for SpaceX.
