tech
April 2, 2026
Swiss finance minister files criminal charges over Grok-generated abuse on X
Karin Keller-Sutter, Switzerland’s finance minister and the country’s former president, has filed criminal charges for defamation and insult after Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok was prompted by an anonymous user to generate a torrent of sexist and vulgar remarks about her on X. The complaint, filed on 20 March with the Bern public prosecutor’s office, is directed against “persons unknown” because the X user who prompted Grok could not be identified beyond a screen name. It is, by all available evidence, the first time a serving head of a national finance ministry has pursued criminal action against an AI-generated statement.
TL;DR
- Swiss Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter filed criminal charges on March 20.
- The charges are for defamation and insult related to AI-generated remarks.
- The remarks were generated by Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok.
- An anonymous user prompted Grok to create sexist and vulgar comments about Keller-Sutter.
- The complaint is filed against "persons unknown" as the user could not be identified.
- This is believed to be the first criminal action by a serving finance minister against an AI-generated statement.
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