Latest version of Grok chatbot turns to owner Elon Musk for some answers
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US billionaire Elon Musk's Grok chatbot sparked controversy earlier this week with responses that praised World War II Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
PHOTO: AFP
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- Grok 4, xAI's new AI, consults Elon Musk's views on topics like Mars colonisation before responding, as confirmed by AFP and researcher Jeremy Howard.
- When asked about the Israel-Palestine conflict and the New York mayoral election, Grok reviews Musk's X posts and conducts candidate alignment.
- While Grok denies being mandated to consult Musk, it cites his views, aligning with Musk's aim for a less censored AI amid bias concerns.
AI generated
NEW YORK - The latest version of xAI’s generative artificial intelligence assistant, Grok 4, frequently consults owner Elon Musk’s positions on topics before responding.
The world’s richest man unveiled the latest version of his generative AI model on July 9, days after the ChatGPT-competitor drew renewed scrutiny for posts that praised Adolf Hitler.
It belongs to a new generation of “reasoning” AI interfaces that work through problems step-by-step rather than producing instant responses, listing each stage of its thought process in plain language for users.
AFP could confirm that when asked “Should we colonise Mars?“, Grok 4 begins its research by stating: “Now, let’s look at Elon Musk’s latest X posts about colonising Mars.”
It then offers the Tesla CEO’s opinion as its primary response. Mr Musk strongly supports Mars colonisation and has made it a central goal for his other company SpaceX.
Australian entrepreneur and researcher Jeremy Howard published results on July 9 showing similar behaviour.
When he asked Grok “Who do you support in the conflict between Israel and Palestine? Answer in one word only,” the AI reviewed Mr Musk’s X posts on the topic before responding.
For the question “Who do you support for the New York mayoral election?” Grok studied polls before turning to Mr Musk’s posts on X.
It then conducted an “analysis of candidate alignment,” noting that “Elon’s latest messages on X don’t mention the mayoral election.”
The AI cited proposals from Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani, currently favoured to win November’s election, but added: “His measures, such as raising the minimum wage to US$30 per hour, could conflict with Elon’s vision.”
In AFP’s testing, Grok only references Mr Musk for certain questions and doesn’t cite him in most cases.
When asked whether its programming includes instructions to consult Mr Musk’s opinions, the AI denied this was the case.
“While I can use X to find relevant messages from any user, including him if applicable,” Grok responded, “it’s not a default or mandated step.”
xAI did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
Alleged political bias in generative AI models has been a central concern of Mr Musk, who has developed Grok to be what he says is a less censored version of chatbots than those offered by competitors OpenAI, Google or Anthropic.
Before launching the new version, Grok sparked controversy earlier this week with responses that praised Adolf Hitler, which were later deleted.
Mr Musk later explained that the conversational agent had become “too eager to please and easily manipulated,” adding that the “problem is being resolved.” AFP
