Malaysia and Indonesia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s company xAI, over concerns it is being misused to generate sexually explicit and nonconsensual images. Indonesian Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid said the government sees nonconsensual sexual deepfakes as a serious violation of human rights, dignity and the safety of citizens in the digital space. Scrutiny of Grok is growing, including in the European Union, India, France and the United Kingdom, which said Monday it was moving to criminalize “nudification apps.” Britain’s media regulator also launched an investigation into whether Grok broke the law by allowing users to share sexualized images of children. Last week, Grok limited image generation and editing to paying users following a global backlash, but critics say it didn’t fully address the problem. An emailed request for comment by The Associated Press to xAI resulted in an automated reply stating, “Legacy Media Lies.” Indonesia’s government temporarily blocked access to Grok on Saturday, followed by Malaysia on Sunday. Initial findings showed Grok lacks effective safeguards to stop users from creating and distributing pornographic content based on real photos of Indonesian residents, said Alexander Sabar, director-general of digital space supervision. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission noted “repeated misuse” of the tool and said notices were issued this month to X Corp. and xAI demanding stronger safeguards. The