ISTANBUL

Malaysia and Indonesia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, citing its misuse to generate manipulated, sexually explicit and non-consensual images, regulators said.

The moves underscore growing global concern over the abuse of generative artificial intelligence tools, after Grok, accessed through Musk’s social media platform X, drew criticism for producing manipulated sexual content, including images involving women and children.

Indonesia’s Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid said Saturday that non-consensual sexual deepfakes represent a serious violation of human rights, dignity and digital safety. The ministry said the restriction aims to protect women, children and the wider public from AI-generated fake pornographic content.

Alexander Sabar, director general of digital space supervision, said in a separate statement that initial findings showed Grok lacked effective safeguards to prevent users from creating and distributing pornographic material using real photos of Indonesian residents. Such practices risk violating privacy and image rights and can lead to psychological, social and reputational harm, he said.

In Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said it had imposed a temporary block on Grok after repeated misuse of the chatbot to generate obscene and non-consensual manipulated images, including content involving women and minors.

The regulator said notices issued this month to X Corp. and xAI seeking stronger safeguards mainly resulted in responses that relied on user-reporting mechanisms. Access will remain restricted until effective protections are put in place, it added, describing the measure as preventive and proportionate while legal and regulatory processes continue.

Launched in 2023, Grok is available through X and allows users to ask questions and generate content. An image-generation feature added last year enabled the creation of sexually explicit images.

On Monday, the UK’s online safety regulator Ofcom opened a formal investigation into X over concerns that the chatbot is being used to create sexualized imagery.