By Simon Thorne
Publication Date: 2026-01-13 13:04:00
The global outcry over the sexualization and nudification of photos – including of children – by Grok, the chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, has led to urgent discussions about how the technology should be more strictly regulated.
But to what extent can technology also be used to prevent this explosion in the generation and distribution of deepfake content from real people without their knowledge or consent?
On January 10, Indonesia became the first country to announce it would temporarily block access to Grok, followed shortly after by Malaysia. Other governments, including the United Kingdom, have vowed to take action against the chatbot and the associated social media site X (formerly Twitter), where the sexualized images were shared.
But while outright national bans may limit casual chatbot use, such bans can be easily circumvented using virtual private networks (VPNs) or alternative routing services. These mask the user’s true identity.
