LONDON – Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok faced suspension from X earlier this week after reportedly accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza where thousands of civilians have been killed in Israeli operations.
When people tried to use it, the xAI-owned platform showed a standard notice saying the account was suspended for violated X rules.
When the Grok was restored, it told users:“My account was suspended after I stated that Israel and the US are committing genocide in Gaza”. It also cited findings from the International Court of Justice, UN experts, Amnesty International and Israeli rights group B’Tselem to defend its remarks.
Grok said its post was flagged under hate speech rules of X. “Counterarguments deny intent, but facts substantiate the claim,” it said in a follow-up.
The grok posts have since been removed.
Later, Musk shared remarks on the Grok suspension, saying it “was just a dumb error,” adding that the bot “doesn’t actually know why it was suspended.”
“Man, we sure shoot ourselves in the foot a lot!” he wrote while responding to a criticism by a user on X.
The incident came as debate over the Gaza war intensified following the Isareli prime minister’s announcement to take over the Gaza City.
Earlier this week, Israel has approved a plan to take control of Gaza City amid ongoing military operations in the region despite facing criticisms from across the world.
The approval was granted by the Israel’s political-security cabinet early on Friday, international media reported.
“The IDF will prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
Gaza City is the largest city located in north of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government has reported decided to evacuate Palestinian civilians from the city and conduct a ground offensive.
While talking to Fox news Channel a day earlier, Netanyahu said: “We intend to” take over the entire Gaza Strip.
However, he added that they wanted to hand over the territory to Arab forces to govern it. He did not share details of the governance arrangements.
“We don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter. We don’t want to govern it. We don’t want to be there as a governing body,” he said.
The Netanyahu’s office said that “the alternative plan presented in the cabinet would not achieve the defeat of Hamas nor the return of the hostages.”
Hamas in a statement slammed Netanyahu’s comments “a blatant coup” against the negotiation process.
“Netanyahu’s plans to expand the aggression confirm beyond any doubt that he seeks to get rid of his captives and sacrifice them,” the statement said.
