{"id":436091,"date":"2026-05-11T11:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/436091\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T11:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:03:15","slug":"elon-musks-ai-firm-directs-complaints-to-dodgy-address-in-estonia-follow-the-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/436091\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk\u2019s AI firm directs complaints to dodgy address in Estonia &#8211; Follow the Money"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Elon Musk\u2019s AI company that runs X chatbot Grok has quietly moved its official European point of contact for users to Estonia \u2013 to a building whose owner says it has no contract with the company or its representatives.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The company xAI, set up by Musk to challenge rivals like OpenAI, operates the controversial Grok chatbot embedded in X. It added an Estonian address to its terms of service in mid-February, historical versions of its website show.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This came just weeks after the European Commission opened a major <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/ip_26_203\">investigation<\/a> into X over concerns that Grok could be used to generate illegal content, specifically child sexual abuse material.<\/p>\n<p>                    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Videobeeld_04.webp.webp\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                            Bureau Brussels<\/p>\n<p class=\"summary\">Insights from our EU specialists and news from the Brussels bubble.<\/p>\n<p>In apparent response to the Commission\u2019s probe, xAI swiftly updated its <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/x.ai\/legal\/terms-of-service\">terms of service<\/a>: it appointed European Digital Services Representatives (EDSR) \u2013 a Brussels-based legal firm for non-EU companies \u2013 as its new legal point of contact for matters related to the bloc\u2019s online safety laws, the Digital Services Act (DSA).<\/p>\n<p>EDSR, which also lists messaging service Telegram among its clients, is co-owned by Olivier Willocx, a liberal politician in the Brussels regional parliament.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Estonian office appears to be not an address of an office. Despite the address being listed in xAI\u2019s terms, EDSR has no registered presence there.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A local reporter with partner media Eesti Ekspress confirmed that there are no actual EDSR or xAI offices or subsidiaries in the Baltic country\u2019s company register.<\/p>\n<p>There also doesn\u2019t appear to be an office in the building with the number 35, listed as point of contact by xAI. There is a mailbox with that number in the lobby.<\/p>\n<p>But the company that owns the building said it did not rent out mailboxes to firms that had no office in the building. \u00a0Management director Gerly Kreek told Eesti Ekspress further said that it has no rental agreement with either xAI or EDSR. Number 35 was a locked room in the basement, Kreek said. \u201cThis space is not leased out for business purposes and is not used as a mailing address,\u201d she said. \u201cThe company has listed this address as its contact address for reasons unknown to us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"description-text\">\n                        The building used as xAI\u2019s new registered address\n                    <\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright\">\u00a9 Eesti Ekspress<\/p>\n<p class=\"description-text\">\n                        The building used as xAI\u2019s new registered address\n                    <\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright\">\u00a9 Eesti Ekspress<\/p>\n<p class=\"description-text\">\n                        The building used as xAI\u2019s new registered address\n                    <\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright\">\u00a9 Eesti Ekspress<\/p>\n<p>Our journalism is only possible thanks to the trust of our <a name=\"memberCount\"\/> paying members. Not a member yet? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftm.eu\/trial\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Sign up now<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Another business also lists an address in the building. That business retains the services of ClevverMail, a Berlin-based company, to forward mail. Yet, the building\u2019s owner says it has no business arrangement with Clevver \u2013 how, exactly, EDSR\u2019s post may be forwarded remains unknown.<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"collection-link\" aria-label=\"The EU Files\" href=\"\/files\/the-eu-files\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                     Follow these files<br \/>\n                     Unfollow these files<\/p>\n<p>            <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"collection-image\" src=\"\/uploads\/media_filter\/56d423827fa4d\/article_800_nocrop\/EU_vlaggen.webp?v=0?v4302\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"object-position: 50% 50%;\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Neither xAI nor EDSR responded to repeated requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier stressed that switching points of contact \u201cdoes not affect the Commission\u2019s investigation into Grok\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Experts FTM spoke with appear puzzled by xAI\u2019s move.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because, said DSA expert Joris van Hoboken, a legal scholar at the University of Amsterdam, the company wouldn\u2019t gain any advantages for the Commission investigation into Grok.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t expect it will ultimately help the firm to try to make it harder to communicate [with its representatives],\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After FTM contacted xAI last week for a request for comment, the company changed the contact address in its terms of service to another address in Tallinn.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This article was updated on 11.05.2026 at 12:22 to reflect the most recent change of address.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elon Musk\u2019s AI company that runs X chatbot Grok has quietly moved its official European point of contact&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[345,343,344,85,46,125],"class_list":["post-436091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}