Indonesia lifts ban on Grok after X commits to compliance
What's the story
Indonesia has lifted the ban on Elon Musk's Grok chatbot, allowing it to resume services in the country. The decision comes after X Corp, the parent company of Grok, committed to enhancing compliance with Indonesian laws. The Southeast Asian nation had suspended Grok three weeks ago over concerns of AI-generated pornographic content. It was the first country to block access to this controversial AI tool.
Conditional reopening
Resumption on 'conditional basis' under strict supervision
The Indonesian government is processing the resumption of access to Grok on a "conditional basis and under strict supervision." This was stated by Alexander Sabar, a senior official at Indonesia's Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs. He emphasized that X Corp had submitted a written commitment with concrete steps for service improvement and abuse prevention, which will be evaluated as part of an ongoing supervision process.
Compliance steps
X Corp takes measures to prevent Grok misuse
Sabar also revealed that X Corp had taken a number of "layered" measures to prevent the misuse of Grok services. These include restricting Grok's AI image generation feature to paying subscribers on X. The company has been under fire for its role in the creation of non-consensual, sexualized imagery using its technology, including images of real women and minors.
International scrutiny
Deepfakes have drawn criticism, investigations worldwide
Grok's deepfakes have drawn criticism and investigations from governments worldwide. In the US, California Attorney General Rob Bonta is investigating xAI and has sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding immediate action against the production of such images. Despite these challenges, Musk has maintained that "Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content" and denied any knowledge of underage images being generated by Grok.