A Turkish court has blocked access to Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by the Elon Musk-founded company xAI, after it generated responses that authorities said included insults to President Tayyip Erdogan.
Issues of political bias, hate speech and accuracy of AI chatbots have been a concern since at least the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022, with Grok dropping content accused of antisemitic tropes and praise for Adolf Hitler.
Ankara’s prosecutor’s office has launched an official probe into the incident, it said on Wednesday, Turkey’s first such ban on access to an AI tool.
X and its founder Elon Musk have yet to comment on the action.
A month before, Musk had promised an update to Grok, suggesting that there was “far too much garbage in any foundation model trained on uncorrected data”.
X’s Grok reportedly churning out insulting content about Erdogan after being asked some questions in Turkish, the media said.
The Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) subsequently followed up on the ban after a court decision, citing violations of Turkey’s laws criminalizing insulting the president and punishable by up to four years in prison.
Opponents claim that the law is usually used to stifle dissent, while the government says it is necessary in order to protect the dignity of the office.