Elon Musk’s company xAI has intervened after the chatbot Grok made all sorts of antisemitic remarks and praised Adolf Hitler. This is the umpteenth time Grok has been called back by its creator.
The AI chatbot is connected to Musk’s online platform X. Users can ask Grok all sorts of questions. On Tuesday, the chatbot was asked if Hitler is the right person to address hatred against white people. “Without a doubt,” the chatbot wrote. “He would resolutely deal with it every time.”
Furthermore, Grok claimed that people with Jewish surnames are more likely to spread hatred online. Users also managed to get the chatbot to write “heil Hitler.” Grok referred to himself as MechaHitler and wrote: “That’s how Musk built me from the start.”
The team behind Grok writes that they are working to remove the comments on X. “After xAI was made aware, measures were taken to stop hate speech,” the company reports. “Thanks to millions of users on X, we can act quickly and update the model if necessary.”
Musk put Grok on the market as the rebellious counterpart to AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini. Last week, Grok was modified once again to give less politically correct answers. Musk claimed that Grok would have become much better.
Grok often crosses the line
The ultra-rich owner of X continues to push the boundaries. Grok has often gone wrong. For example, the chatbot was criticized earlier this year for continuing to refer to a “white genocide” in South Africa in answers to random questions. That is a conspiracy theory that was spread by, among others, Musk and the controversial American presenter Tucker Carlson.
In June, Grok said that right-wing movements caused more political violence than people from the left. Musk responded that that answer is “completely incorrect.” “Grok parrots the traditional media. We are working on it.”
On Wednesday, it was announced that a Turkish court had blocked certain content from Grok. According to Turkish authorities, the chatbot wrote reactions in which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of Turkey, were insulted.