Philippines to ban Grok over deepfakes

Grok is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by xAI, the American company founded by Elon Musk. [AFP]

The Philippines said Thursday it plans to block Elon Musk's Grok "by tonight", joining Southeast Asian neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia in barring access to the chatbot that has drawn fire over AI-generated sexualised deepfakes.

The news came hours after social media platform X said it was taking measures to prevent its chatbot from undressing images of real people -- including children -- amid a growing global backlash and the launch of an investigation in the US state of California.

"We need to clean the internet now, because much toxic content is appearing, especially with the advent of AI," telecommunications secretary Henry Rhoel Aguda told a press briefing announcing the decision.

Renato Paraiso, acting executive director of the country's cybercrime centre, told AFP the block would take effect within the day.

"By tonight or within today, we are expecting (Grok) to be blocked in the entire Philippines," Paraiso said.

"We are expecting the telcos to immediately comply with the (National Telecommunications Commission) order, so of course we will monitor it."

He added that X's pledge to limit access would have no effect on the government's plans.

"We cannot make decisions based on announcements," Paraiso said, adding they would watch to see if the platform carries through with its promises.

Indonesia on Saturday became the first country to block access to Grok entirely, with Malaysia following the next day.