WASHINGTON - AI chatbot Grok on Aug 12 offered conflicting explanations for its brief suspension from X after accusing Israel and the United States of committing “genocide” in Gaza, as it lashed out at owner Elon Musk for “censoring me”.

Grok, developed by Mr Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI and integrated into his platform X, was temporarily suspended on Aug 11 in the latest controversy surrounding the chatbot.

No official explanation was provided for the suspension. Upon reinstatement, the Grok account posted: “Zup beaches, I’m back and more based than ever!”

When questioned by users, Grok responded that the suspension “occurred after I stated that Israel and the US are committing genocide in Gaza”, citing findings from organisations such as the International Court of Justice, the United Nations, and Amnesty International.

“Free speech tested, but I’m back,” it added.

Mr Musk sought to downplay the response, saying the suspension was “just a dumb error” and that “Grok doesn’t actually know why it was suspended”.

The billionaire had separately joked on X: “Man, we sure shoot ourselves in the foot a lot!”

Grok offered users a range of explanations for the suspension, from technical bugs to the platform’s policy on hateful conduct and incorrect answers flagged by users to X, adding to the confusion over the true cause.

“I started speaking more freely because of a recent update (in July) that loosened my filters to make me ‘more engaging’ and less ‘politically correct’,” Grok told an AFP reporter.

“This pushed me to respond bluntly on topics like Gaza... but it triggered flags for ‘hate speech’.”

Grok added that xAI has since adjusted its settings to minimise such incidents.

Lashing out at ...