Philippines To End Short-Lived Ban On Musk's Grok Chatbot

Manila: The Philippines said Wednesday it will end its ban on Elon Musk's Grok, less than a week after blocking the AI chatbot over its ability to generate deepfakes.

The decision follows developer xAI agreeing to modify the tool for the local market and eliminate its ability to create "pornographic content", the Philippines' Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) said in a statement.

Musk's social media platform X announced last week 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 archipelago nation on January 15 became the third country in Southeast Asia -- following Indonesia and Malaysia -- to block the chatbot amid a global backlash.

• Philippines says plans to to ban Grok 'by tonight' over deepfakes
• Malaysia suspends access to Musk's Grok AI: regulator
• Indonesia suspends access to Grok over AI-generated explicit content

"The Grok AI app has reached out to us and stated that its platform will no longer use any content manipulation," CICC undersecretary Renato Paraiso was quoted as saying in Wednesday's statement.

"The company has pledged to modify the tool specifically for the local market, including the omission of image/content manipulation features that allowed for deepfake creation," the statement said.

The new changes would also include the "total exclusion of pornographic content, particularly child sexual abuse material," it added.

A formal meeting with xAI will determine a timeline for the tool's reinstatement, according to the statement.

At a press briefing announcing the ban last Thursday, Philippine telecommunications secretary Henry Rhoel Aguda said the government needed to "clean the internet now, because much toxic content is appearing, especially with the advent of AI".

The X platform's geoblocking move came after California's attorney general launched an investigation into xAI over the explicit material, and several countries opened their own probes.

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