PARIS — The French government is taking action against the artificial intelligence chatbot Grok, which was launched by a company owned by a billionaire. Elon Muskafter it published posts in French questioning the use of gas chambers at Auschwitz and naming Jewish public figures, officials said.
Grok, created by Musk's company xAI and integrated into his social media platform X, said in a widely shared post in French that gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau the death camps were created for “typhoid disinfection with Zyklon B” rather than for mass murder, a term long associated with Holocaust denial.
The Auschwitz Memorial highlighted the exchange on X and said the response distorted historical facts and violated platform rules.
As of this week, Grok's answers to questions about Auschwitz appear to contain historically accurate information.
Grok has a history of making anti-Semitic comments. Earlier this year, Musk's company removed chatbot messages that praised Adolf Hitler after complaints about anti-Semitic content.
Paris prosecutors confirmed to The Associated Press on Friday that the Holocaust denial comments had been added to an existing cybercrime investigation into X. The case was opened earlier this year after French officials raised concerns that the platform's algorithm could be used for foreign interference.
Prosecutors said Grok's remarks are now part of the investigation and that “the functioning of the AI will be tested.”
France has one of the toughest Holocaust denial laws in Europe. Challenging the reality or genocidal nature of Nazi crimes may be prosecuted as a crime along with other forms of incitement to racial hatred.
Several French ministers, including Industry Minister Roland Lescure, also reported Groc's communications to a Paris prosecutor under a provision that requires government officials to report possible crimes. In a government statement, they described AI-generated content as “patently unlawful,” saying it could amount to racially motivated defamation and denial of crimes against humanity.
French authorities have reported reports to the national police platform for combating illegal online content and alerted France's digital regulator about alleged violations of the European Union Digital Services Act.
This case increases pressure from Brussels. This week the European Commission, the EU's executive body, said the bloc was in contact with X about Grok and called some of the chatbot's output “appalling”, saying it was contrary to Europe's fundamental rights and values.
Two French human rights organizations, Ligue des droits de l'Homme and SOS Racisme, filed a criminal complaint accusing Grok and X of alleging crimes against humanity.
X and its artificial intelligence unit xAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
