After being one of the first countries in the world to block Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot, Malaysia has now lifted its ban. Much like Indonesia, the country quickly moved temporarily interrupt access to X’s often controversial AI chatbot earlier this month, after several reports emerged from its use to generate false sexualized images of people, including women and children.
At the time, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said the restrictions would remain in force until X Corp and parent company xAI could prove that they had implemented necessary safeguards against any misuse of the aforementioned nature.
Malaysian authorities appear to be taking X at his word, after the MCMC issued a statement confirming that he was confident Musk’s company had implemented the required security measures. He added that authorities would continue to monitor the social media platform and any further violations of user security or Malaysian laws would be dealt with firmly.
At the time of writing, only Malaysia and Indonesia have imposed official bans on Grok, although UK regulator Ofcom has opened formal proceedings. investigation in X under the country’s online safety law, following the non-consensual sex deepfake scandal. X has since amended its image editing policies, and on January 14, the company said Grok would no longer allow “editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis.”
Earlier this week, UK-based non-profit organization the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), estimated that in the 11 day period between December 29 and January 9, Grok generated approximately 3 million sexualized images, including approximately 23,000 depicting children.
This article was originally published on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/malaysia-lifts-ban-on-grok-after-taking-x-at-its-word-144457468.html?src=rss
