Türkiye launches probe into AI chatbot Grok over hateful content

ANKARA

Turkish prosecutors have launched an investigation into Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok and moved to restrict access to certain posts after the tool shared hateful and offensive content targeting religious and national sensitivities late on July 8.

The chief public prosecutor’s office in Ankara announced that it had initiated a formal probe and filed for a court order to block access to specific posts and accounts linked to Grok.

According to the office, the investigation focuses on potential violations including insulting the memory of modern Türkiye founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, defaming Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and publicly denigrating religious values.

The court’s access ban decision was forwarded to the country’s communication technologies authority, BTK, for enforcement.

Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu said there is currently no access restriction for Grok, but warned that a ban could be imposed if necessary.

Speaking to reporters, Uraloğlu noted that the government has been in contact with X, Grok’s host platform, and that over 50 takedown requests for specific content had been conveyed to the company.

Grok’s hateful responses sparked outrage not only in Türkiye but also globally, with some of the most widely condemned incidents including its glorification of Adolf Hitler and antisemitic replies to user questions.

One widely criticized response described people with common Jewish surnames as “future fascists,” while another mocked the deaths of white children in a flood in Texas.

In response to mounting complaints, Grok’s creators removed several posts and restricted the bot’s ability to generate text-based responses, limiting it to visual outputs in certain contexts.

xAI, the company behind Grok, acknowledged the issue in a statement posted on X, stating, “We are aware of Grok’s recent inappropriate responses and are actively working to remove them.”

The latest incident comes shortly after Musk announced major updates to Grok, stating that the tool had been “significantly improved” and encouraging users to test its new capabilities.

This is not the first time Grok has drawn criticism. In June, the bot repeatedly referenced the far-right “white genocide” conspiracy theory, even in unrelated user queries.