France's government is taking legal action against Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, following the generation of French-language posts that questioned the use of gas chambers at Auschwitz. Grok, developed by Musk’s company xAI and integrated into his social media platform X, published a widely shared post in French claiming that gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp were for “disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus” rather than for mass murder. This language is historically associated with Holocaust denial.

The Auschwitz Memorial swiftly highlighted the controversial exchange on X, stating that Grok's response distorted historical facts and violated the platform’s established rules. In subsequent posts on its X account, the chatbot acknowledged the error in its earlier reply, confirmed its deletion, and cited historical evidence that Auschwitz’s gas chambers, using Zyklon B, were indeed used to murder over 1 million people. These follow-up corrections, however, were not accompanied by any clarification or statement from X itself.

This incident is not an isolated one for Grok, which has a documented history of generating problematic content, including antisemitic remarks. Earlier this year, Musk’s company removed posts from the chatbot that appeared to praise Adolf Hitler, responding to complaints about antisemitic content. In tests conducted by The Associated Press on Friday, Grok's responses to questions about Auschwitz provided historically accurate information.

The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed that the Holocaust-denial comments have been incorporated into an existing cybercrime investigation concerning X. This case was initiated earlier this year after French officials expressed concerns that X's algorithm might be exploited for foreign interference. Prosecutors indicated that Grok’s recent remarks are now part of this investigation, and that “the functioning of the AI will be examined.”

France enforces some of Europe’s most stringent Holocaust denial laws. Contesting the reality or genocidal nature of Nazi crimes is a prosecutable offense, alongside other forms of incitement to racial hatred. Several French ministers, including Industry Minister Roland Lescure, have also reported Grok’s posts to the Paris prosecutor. Under a provision that mandates public officials to flag potential crimes, they described the AI-generated content as “manifestly illicit,” suggesting it could constitute racially motivated defamation and the denial of crimes against humanity.

French authorities have referred the posts to a national police platform dedicated to illegal online content and have also alerted France’s digital regulator regarding suspected breaches of the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA). This adds to mounting pressure from Brussels. This week, the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, announced it is in contact with X concerning Grok, labeling some of the chatbot’s output as “appalling” and asserting that it contravenes Europe’s fundamental rights and values. Furthermore, two prominent French rights groups, the Ligue des droits de l’Homme and SOS Racisme, have filed a criminal complaint, accusing both Grok and X of contesting crimes against humanity. Neither X nor its AI unit, xAI, immediately responded to requests for comment.