Swiss finance minister sues over Grok’s sexist outburst
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Swiss finance minister Karin Keller-Sutter specifically asked the prosecutor in her complaint to assess whether X also bears responsibility in the case.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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BERN - Swiss finance minister Karin Keller-Sutter has filed a criminal complaint after being insulted with vulgar and sexist speech by Grok, the AI chatbot featured on Mr Elon Musk’s social media platform X.
Ms Keller-Sutter is seeking charges of defamation and verbal abuse, according to a spokesperson. As the X user prompting Grok could not be identified beyond their online name, the complaint is directed against “persons unknown”.
But Ms Keller-Sutter, the president of Switzerland until 2025, specifically asked the prosecutor in her complaint to assess whether X also bears responsibility in the case, her spokesperson added.
“We’re not talking about a statement protected by the freedom of speech or a political debate here, but solely about a blatant denigration of a woman,” the finance ministry said in a statement. “Such misogyny must not be seen as normal or acceptable.”
Since its debut, the chatbot has provoked public and political outrage in several cases because of harsh insults – so-called roasts – of celebrities and others it generated in response to prompts from users. It has also been criticised for creating faked nude images of unsuspecting victims.
A spokesman for the Bern attorney-general’s office confirmed the complaint had been filed on March 24, declining to give further details. A spokesperson for X in London did not immediately reply to an email.
Grok is already the subject of a probe by the British data protection watchdog which is examining whether individuals’ private data was mishandled to create sexualised images. The social media plaform’s offices in Paris were searched by French cybercrime officers in February and X also faces an EU probe.
While the White House has been broadly supportive of Mr Musk and X, the city of Baltimore in the US reportedly sued Mr Musk, arguing that a lack of protections on the platform allowed Grok to sexualise thousands of apparent minors by altering otherwise legitimate photos.
Ms Keller-Sutter is one of two women in Switzerland’s Federal Council, the country’s collegiate government. As Swiss president, she made international headlines for a heated phone call with Mr Donald Trump amid the two nations’ tariff spat. BLOOMBERG
