France will investigate Musk’s Grok chatbot after Holocaust denial claims

By THOMAS ADAMSON Associated Press PARIS AP France s cabinet is taking action against billionaire Elon Musk s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok after it generated French-language posts that questioned the use of gas chambers at Auschwitz bureaucrats mentioned Grok built by Musk s company xAI and integrated into his social media platform X wrote in a widely shared post in French that gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp were designed for disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus rather than for mass murder language long associated with Holocaust denial The Auschwitz Memorial highlighted the exchange on X saying that the response distorted historical fact and violated the platform s rules In later posts on its X account the chatbot acknowledged that its earlier reply to an X user was wrong noted it had been deleted and pointed to historical evidence that Auschwitz s gas chambers using Zyklon B were used to murder more than million people The follow-ups were not accompanied by any clarification from X In tests run by The Associated Press on Friday its responses to questions about Auschwitz appeared to give historically accurate information Grok has a history of making antisemitic comments Earlier this year Musk s company took down posts from the chatbot that appeared to praise Adolf Hitler after complaints about antisemitic content The Paris prosecutor s office substantiated to The Associated Press on Friday that the Holocaust-denial comments have been added to an existing cybercrime scrutiny into X The incident was opened earlier this year after French officers raised concerns that the platform s algorithm could be used for foreign interference Prosecutors noted that Grok s remarks are now part of the probe and that the functioning of the AI will be examined France has one of Europe s toughest Holocaust denial laws Contesting the reality or genocidal nature of Nazi crimes can be prosecuted as a crime alongside other forms of incitement to racial hatred Several French ministers including Industry Minister Roland Lescure have also broadcasted Grok s posts to the Paris prosecutor under a provision that requires inhabitants officers to flag attainable crimes In a leadership message they described the AI-generated content as manifestly illicit saying it could amount to racially motivated defamation and the denial of crimes against humanity Related Articles The US stock arena holds steadier for now following its wildest day since April Is giftflation blowing up your holiday budget Here s how to fight it Google and US ruling body battle over the future of internet advertising Hot Property Falmouth home brings the charm Bubble fears ease but investors still waiting for AI to live up to its promise French bureaucrats referred the posts to a national police platform for illegal online content and alerted France s digital regulator over suspected breaches of the European Union s Digital Services Act The scenario adds to pressure from Brussels This week the European Commission the EU s executive branch announced that the bloc is in contact with X about Grok and called several of the chatbot s output appalling saying it runs against Europe s fundamental rights and values Two French rights groups the Ligue des droits de l Homme and SOS Racisme have filed a criminal complaint accusing Grok and X of contesting crimes against humanity X and its AI unit xAI did not instantly respond to requests for comment