French authorities have expanded a cybercrime investigation into X, formerly Twitter, after Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok generated a French-language response that echoed Holocaust denial.
According to The Associated Press, the controversy began when Grok, which is developed by Musk’s company xAI and integrated into X, responded to a user by suggesting that gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp were used for “disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus” rather than for mass murder.
The claim mirrors long-debunked narratives associated with Holocaust denial.
The Auschwitz Memorial flagged the exchange publicly, warning that the chatbot’s response distorted established historical facts and violated the platform’s content rules.
Grok later posted corrections in French, acknowledging the earlier reply was inaccurate, stating it had been deleted, and citing clear historical evidence that more than 1 million people were murdered in Auschwitz’s gas chambers. X did not post any accompanying clarification about the error.
Tests conducted on Friday by the Associated Press showed Grok offering accurate historical explanations when asked about Auschwitz. Still, the episode revived concerns about the chatbot’s reliability.
Earlier this year, xAI removed other Grok-generated messages that appeared to praise Adolf Hitler after complaints about antisemitic content.
The Paris prosecutor’s office told the Associated Press the Auschwitz-related comments have now been added to an ongoing probe into X’s content moderation and potential foreign interference. Prosecutors said investigators will examine “the functioning of the AI” as part of the expanded review.
France enforces some of Europe’s toughest laws against Holocaust denial, and contesting the genocidal nature of Nazi crimes can lead to criminal prosecution.
Several senior ministers, including Industry Minister Roland Lescure, reported Grok’s posts to prosecutors, calling the content “manifestly illicit” and suggesting it could constitute racially motivated defamation and denial of crimes against humanity.
Authorities referred the matter to France’s national portal for reporting illegal online content and notified the country’s digital regulator of possible violations of the European Union’s Digital Services Act, which requires major platforms to limit the spread of harmful or illegal material.
The incident has also drawn scrutiny from Brussels. The European Commission said it is in contact with X over Grok’s output, calling some of the AI’s responses “appalling” and inconsistent with the EU’s core values.
Two 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.
