Pressure piles on Musk’s X to curb sexualised deepfakes

AFP | San Francisco

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More governments vowed crackdowns yesterday to prevent Grok, the AI chatbot on Elon Musk’s X platform, from undressing or sexualizing images of real people in their jurisdictions, in a face of a growing backlash against the deepfakes.

The Philippines became the third country to ban Grok altogether, following Southeast Asian neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia, while Britain and France said they would keep up the pressure.

Several countries have demanded that Musk’s xAI, the developer of Grok, rein in the chatbot after it was used to generate a flood of lewd photos of women and children.

X said 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.

The announcement came after California’s attorney general launched an investigation into xAI over the sexually explicit material, and several countries either blocked access to Grok or opened their own probes.

“We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing,” X’s safety team said, adding that the restriction applied to “all users” without exceptions.

In an “extra layer of protection,” image creation and the ability to edit photos via X’s Grok account is now available only to paid subscribers, it said.

“I welcome that X is now acting to ensure full compliance with UK law -- it must happen immediately”, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer -- a favourite target of Musk’s political posts -- wrote yesterday on X.

“If we need to strengthen existing laws further, we are prepare to do that,” Starmer warned.

Meanwhile, Philippines cybercrime chief Renato Paraiso said the country’s block could be effective by the end of the day.

He said X’s pledge to limit access would have no effect on the plans, adding that the government would watch to see if the platform follows through on its promises.