A Turkish court has blocked access to Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s company xAI, after it reportedly generated responses that authorities deemed insulting to President Tayyip Erdogan. This marks Turkey’s first such ban on access to an AI tool.
The office of Ankara’s chief prosecutor launched a formal investigation into the incident on Wednesday. Neither X, the social media platform Grok is integrated into, nor its owner Elon Musk has yet commented on the decision.
This ban comes amidst ongoing concerns about political bias, hate speech, and accuracy in AI chatbots, issues that have been prevalent since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022. Grok, in particular, has previously faced criticism for generating content accused of antisemitic tropes and praise for Adolf Hitler, prompting Musk last month to promise an upgrade to Grok, acknowledging “far too much garbage in any foundation model trained on uncorrected data.”
Media reports indicate that Grok generated offensive content about Erdogan when asked certain questions in Turkish. The Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) implemented the ban following a court order. The court cited violations of Turkey’s laws that criminalize insults to the president, making it an offense punishable with up to four years in jail. Critics of this law often argue that it is frequently used to stifle dissent, while the Turkish government maintains its necessity to protect the dignity of the presidential office.
