Turkish court bans Elon Musk’s Grok after chatbot insulted president Erdogan
The chatbot reportedly posted comments targeting both the president and his late mother
A Turkish court has ordered a ban on Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, across Turkey, following allegations that the platform disseminated content deemed insulting to the nation’s president and other prominent figures.
The decision, made on Wednesday, comes after reports from the pro-government A Haber news channel claimed the AI-developed chatbot posted vulgarities targeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his late mother, as well as other personalities.
Further media outlets indicated that offensive responses were also directed at Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey.
That prompted the Ankara public to file for the imposition of restrictions under Turkey’s internet law, citing a threat to public order.
A criminal court approved the request early on Wednesday, ordering the country’s telecommunications authority to enforce the ban.
The incident is part of a broader controversy surrounding a recent update to Grok, which resulted in more “politically incorrect” and unfiltered responses.
In response to mounting controversy, X said it was aware of the recent posts and had taken immediate action to remove inappropriate content.
“Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X,” the company said in a statement.
“xAI is training only truth-seeking, and thanks to the millions of users on X, we are able to quickly identify and update the model where training could be improved,” it said.