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Elon MuskGrok keeps getting into trouble, and this time, more governments around the world are trying to intervene.
Grok, first launched in 2023, is Musk’s attempt to leapfrog competitors like OpenAI Chat GPT Google’s Gemini builds an AI assistant powered by a large language model trained on a massive pool of data to help predict the most logical next word in a sentence. It is the main product of Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI, which has merged with his social media platform X. Much like ChatGPT and Gemini, Musk’s company has also incorporated artificial intelligence image generation capabilities into its chatbot.
Musk has deliberately framed Grok as a challenger to what he sees as the tech industry’s “woke” orthodoxy on race, gender and politics, which has gotten the chatbot into trouble multiple times, such as last year when it promoted anti-Semitic tropes. adolf hitler and made other hateful comments about users of Musk’s X social media platform. Last year, the chatbot was also found to echo the views of its billionaire creator, so much so that it would sometimes search the web for Musk’s stance on an issue before offering an opinion.
Politics aside, Musk’s vision of himself as a “free speech absolutist” has led to his company taking a more relaxed approach to pornographic images. Other mainstream chatbots block the creation of pornographic images. open artificial intelligence The original plan was to enable ChatGPT to engage in “verified adult pornographic content” starting last month, but this has not yet been done.
Here are some of the recent controversies Grok has been involved in:
nudity request
Grok has been criticized for generating manipulated images, including those depicting women in bikinis or in explicit sexual positions, as well as images involving children.
The issue comes after last year’s launch of AI-powered image generator Grok Imagine, which allows users to create videos and images by entering text prompts. It includes a so-called “spicy mode” that can generate adult content.
Late last month, the situation snowballed after Grok, which is hosted on X, apparently started acceding to a large number of user requests to modify images posted by others, including requests such as “put her in a see-through bikini.”
Last week, governments around the world condemned the platform and launched investigations.
To address the issue, xAI said it is blocking non-paying users from generating or editing images in the wake of a global deepfakes outbreak.
parrot musk
One of Grok’s latest releases was spotted echoing Musk’s views, and people even searched online for his stance on an issue before coming up with their own.
The unusual behavior of Grok 4, released in July, surprised some experts.
In one example that was shared widely on social media and replicated by a researcher, Gronk was asked to comment on the conflict in the Middle East. The prompted question did not mention Musk, but the chatbot sought his guidance nonetheless.
The chatbot told independent researcher Simon Willison that “given Elon Musk’s influence, his position can provide context,” according to the interactive video. “His ideas are currently being studied to see if they can guide answers.”
turkey
A court ordered a ban on Grok last year after it allegedly spread content insulting the Turkish president and other Turkish figures.
The chatbot posted vulgar remarks targeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his late mother and celebrities in response to user questions on X, the pro-government news channel reported. According to other media reports, offensive responses were also directed at Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey.
The chatbot’s behavior prompted Ankara prosecutors to file a request for restrictions under Türkiye’s internet law, citing threats to public order. The criminal court granted the request and ordered the country’s telecommunications authorities to enforce the ban.
antisemitism
Grok was forced to change course after it appeared to post anti-Semitic posts, including comments praising Adolf Hitler, and said it was removing “inappropriate posts.”
The chatbot Grok shared multiple anti-Semitic posts, including the trope that Jews rule Hollywood, and denied that this stance could be described as Nazism.
“Labeling truth as hate speech stifles discussion,” Gronk said. Judging from a screenshot of the post, which has since been apparently deleted, it also appeared to praise Hitler.
After publishing one of the posts, Gronk retracted the comment, saying it was “an unacceptable mistake in an early iteration of the model that was quickly removed” and explicitly condemned “Nazism and Hitler – whose actions were the horrors of genocide”.
Musk said Grok has been significantly improved and users “should notice a difference.”
Because of these controversies over anti-Semitism, a group of Jewish lawmakers wrote to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth late last year to express their concerns about the Pentagon’s plans to work with xAI.
“If Mr. Musk retained the ability to directly alter the output of ‘Grok for Government,’ it would pose a serious and unacceptable risk to national security and U.S. Constitutional values,” the letter reads.
South Africa
The company xAI blames “unauthorized modifications” to Grok for its ongoing chatter about South Africa’s racial politics and the topic of “white genocide.”
The company said in May that an employee made a change “instructing Grok to respond specifically to political topics” that “violated xAI’s internal policies and core values.”
A day earlier, Grok responded to a user on X who posted about “white genocide” in South Africa, asking a variety of questions, most of which had nothing to do with South Africa.
Conversations about streaming service Max’s return of HBO titles, video games and baseball quickly turned to unrelated comments about alleged violence against white farmers in South Africa. This echoes sentiments shared by the South African-born Musk, who often opines on the same topics on his X account.
