Indonesia suspends Grok AI over sexualized images

Indonesia suspended Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok on Saturday over growing concerns about AI-generated sexualized photos of people without their consent.

Elon Musk’s platform is facing global backlash after reports emerged that its image creation feature allowed users to sexualize pictures of women and children using simple text prompts.

CBS News has verified that Grok fulfilled user requests asking it to edit images of women to show them in bikinis or little clothing, including prominent public figures such as first lady Melania Trump.

Indonesia is the first country to deny all access to the tool, which was restricted to paying subscribers elsewhere following backlash.

“In order to protect women, children, and the public from the risks of fake pornographic content generated using the artificial intelligence technology, the government… has temporarily blocked access to the Grok application,” Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid said in a statement. “The government views non-consensual deepfake practices as a serious violation of human rights, dignity, and the security of citizens in the digital space.”

According to AFP journalists in Jakarta, the Grok X account was still active and replying to queries, including in Bahasa, Indonesia, on Saturday evening.

Musk-owned startup xAI, which developed Grok, told CBS News in a statement on Saturday that “Legacy Media Lies,” without elaborating further. The message appears to be an automatic reply to inquiries from media outlets. 

European officials and tech campaigners slammed the move to limit Grok’s features to paying subscribers, saying it failed to address concerns about sexually explicit deepfake content.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Thursday that he wants “all options on the table,” including a potential ban for Grok in Britain.

“This is disgraceful, it’s disgusting and it’s not to be tolerated. X has got to get a grip of this,” Starmer said in an interview with a U.K. radio station. “It’s unlawful. We’re not going to tolerate it. I’ve asked for all options to be on the table.”

A source in Starmer’s office reiterated to CBS News on Friday that “nothing is off the table” when it comes to regulating X in Britain.

In the U.S., Republican Sen. Ted Cruz  said in a post on X that “many of the recent AI-generated posts are unacceptable and a clear violation of my legislation — now law — the Take It Down Act, as well as X’s terms and conditions.”

“These unlawful images pose a serious threat to victims’ privacy and dignity. They should be taken down and guardrails should be put in place,” Cruz said, adding that he was encouraged by steps taken by X to remove unlawful images.

Musk said last week in response to a post about the explicit images that anyone using Grok to “make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”