The Philippines has ordered the ban of Grok, the generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by X.AI Corp. (xAI), owned by Elon Musk over deepfake and growing threats involving women and minors.
This got here after the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) through its Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) ordered the National Telecommunications Technology (NTC) to dam and take down access to Grok within the Philippines.
ICT Secretary Henry Rhoel R. Aguda said the agency is now working on a policy measure, through a department order, that might require users within the country to have their account verified.
“That is currently under review, I believe, we will issue the department order next week which is able to require users [to have their] account verified,” Mr. Aguda said, adding that it will allow easy tracing of those that will abuse the usage of AI.
In a media release, CICC said that the move to dam Grok is in accordance with Republic Act 10175 or also often called the Cybercrime Prevention Act.
“This measure is meant to forestall the abuse of the tool and to safeguard the general public from being exploited by its ability to control content, produce sexually explicit materials, and generate deepfakes of real individuals without their consent,” CICC said.
It said that Grok AI enables the creation of pornographic content, especially child pornography which is against the law.
Further, Mr. Aguda said that Grok AI’s affiliate has reached out to the DICT, and is ready to fulfill with the agency, and NTC to provide you with a possible solution.
“We don’t need to block innovation. We don’t need to stifle or hinder progress… Other countries have shown the sorts of harm Grok AI may cause. So, the following query is: after we block Grok AI, what’s next?,” he said.— Ashley Erika O. Jose