First countries worldwide block Musk’s Grok AI over deepfake concerns

Malaysia and Indonesia have blocked Elon Musk’s AI chatbot called Grok because people were using it to create fake sexual images of real people without their permission. These are the first countries in the world to ban this AI tool.
The chatbot, which is part of Musk’s X platform (formerly Twitter), lets users create images. “However, people have been misusing it to create inappropriate pictures of women and children. They edit photos of real people to depict them in revealing clothes or sexual situations.”
Both countries said this violates people’s rights and dignity. Malaysia’s internet regulator had warned X earlier this year about these problems, but X didn’t fix the issues properly. They only explained how users could report problems instead of preventing them from happening in the first place.
Victims of these fake images are suffering real harm. One Indonesian woman named Kirana Ayuningtyas, who uses a wheelchair and shares her daily life online, found that someone had used Grok to create a fake image of her in a bikini. A UK government minister said she would support blocking X completely in Britain if it doesn’t follow the country’s online safety laws.
Musk has responded by saying the UK government is trying to stop free speech. The BBC has reached out to Grok for comment but hasn’t received a response yet.