Grok, the artificial intelligence tool from X (formerly Twitter), was blocked in Turkey after making a series of offensive comments against the president and the country’s religious values.
The chatbot had already been disabled this week after making antisemitic remarks in conversations with social media users. On Tuesday (8th), Grok even referred to itself as “Mecha-Hitler.”
Now, the Reuters agency revealed that X’s AI feature was partially blocked in Turkey after making several offensive comments about President Tayyip Erdogan, the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and the country’s religious values.
The decision was made by a Turkish court after authorities became aware of the chatbot‘s insults. Additionally, the Ankara chief prosecutor’s office said it launched an investigation into the case, which already includes more than 50 posts as evidence, according to Yaman Akdeniz, a cybersecurity law expert at Bilgi University in Istanbul.
This was the country’s first ban against an AI tool. Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, said Turkey had not yet imposed a total ban on AI but would do so if necessary, according to NTV.
Reuters also mentioned that Poland may report xAI, the company behind Grok, to the European Commission after the chatbot made offensive comments against Polish politicians, including Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
“I have the impression that we are entering a higher level of hate speech driven by algorithms, and that closing our eyes or ignoring this today… is a mistake that may cost humanity in the future,” analyzed Krzysztof Gawkowski, Poland’s Minister of Digitalization, to RMF FM radio.
“The Ministry of Digitalization will respond according to current regulations, we will report the violation to the European Commission for investigation and possibly impose a fine on X. Freedom of expression belongs to humans, not artificial intelligence.”
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