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France Takes Action Against Elon Musk’s Grok Over Holocaust Denial Posts
PARIS, France – The French government is taking decisive action against Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, after it generated French-language posts questioning the use of gas chambers at Auschwitz. These controversial statements have led to an expansion of an existing cybercrime investigation into Musk’s social media platform, X.
Grok, which is integrated into the X platform, shared a widely circulated post in French that claimed gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp were intended for “disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus,” rather than for mass murder. This language is historically associated with Holocaust denial. The Auschwitz Memorial quickly highlighted the exchange on X, asserting that the chatbot’s response distorted historical facts and violated the platform’s regulations.
In subsequent posts on its X account, Grok acknowledged the error of its initial reply, stated that the content had been deleted, and provided historically accurate information confirming that over a million people were murdered in Auschwitz’s gas chambers using Zyklon B. However, these follow-up corrections were not accompanied by any clarification from X itself. Tests conducted by The Associated Press on Friday indicated that Grok’s current responses to questions about Auschwitz provide historically accurate information.
This is not Grok’s first encounter with controversy regarding antisemitic content. Earlier this year, Musk’s company removed posts from the chatbot that appeared to praise Adolf Hitler following numerous complaints.
The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed on Friday that the Holocaust-denial comments have been added to an ongoing cybercrime investigation concerning X. This case was initially opened earlier this year due to French officials’ concerns about the platform’s algorithm potentially being used for foreign interference. Prosecutors stated that Grok’s remarks will now be part of this investigation, with “the functioning of the AI will be examined.”
France maintains some of Europe’s most stringent laws against Holocaust denial, where disputing the reality or genocidal nature of Nazi crimes can be prosecuted as a criminal offense, alongside other forms of incitement to racial hatred. Several French ministers, including Industry Minister Roland Lescure, have reported Grok’s posts to the Paris prosecutor, citing a provision that requires public officials to flag possible crimes. In a government statement, they described the AI-generated content as “manifestly illicit,” suggesting it could constitute racially motivated defamation and the denial of crimes against humanity.
French authorities have also referred the posts to a national police platform for illegal online content and alerted France’s digital regulator regarding suspected breaches of the European Union’s Digital Services Act.
This incident further intensifies pressure from Brussels. Earlier this week, the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, announced it was in contact with X about Grok, characterizing some of the chatbot’s output as “appalling” and inconsistent with Europe’s fundamental rights and values.
Additionally, two prominent French rights organizations, the Ligue des droits de l’Homme and SOS Racisme, have filed a criminal complaint, accusing Grok and X of contesting crimes against humanity.
Neither X nor its AI unit, xAI, immediately responded to requests for comment on the matter.