Malaysia’s communications regulator lifted its temporary ban on Elon Musk’s AI service Grok after the social media platform X added safety measures to prevent the generation of deepfake images of people.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, or MCMC, said the decision followed a meeting between the regulator and X aimed at getting a commitment from X regarding preventive measures and compliance with Malaysian laws. X confirmed that the necessary security measures had been implemented for the Grok application, the MCMC noted, according to a Google-translated press release.
The regulator noted that the temporary restriction on Grok has been lifted subject to continuous monitoring by the authorities.
On Jan. 11, the MCMC had directed a temporary restriction on access to Grok for users in Malaysia. The Southeast Asian country joined other countries in the region, such as the Philippines and Indonesia, in imposing a temporary ban on Grok.
Later the regulator also said it will take legal action against Musk’s X and AI startup xAI (X.AI) due to concerns over user safety. The MCMC had said that it “identified the misuse of Grok to generate and disseminate harmful content. This includes obscene, sexually explicit, indecent, grossly offensive, and non-consensual manipulated images.”
Earlier this week, the Philippines said it will restore access to Grok after xAI vowed to remove features that enabled the creation of deepfake images.
Several countries, including Japan, the U.K., Canada, and Malaysia, had started probes related to Grok’s generation of deepfake images.
Last week, xAI said it implemented technological measures to prevent AI chatbot Grok from editing images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis, and the restriction will apply to all users, including paid subscribers. “We now geoblock the ability of all users to generate images of real people in bikinis, underwear, and similar attire via the Grok account and in Grok in X in those jurisdictions where it’s illegal.”