X removes posts by Musk’s AI chatbot Grok after anti-Semitism complaints
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Billionaire Elon Musk's chatbot Grok shocked users of Mr Musk's social media platform X on July 8 when it started producing content with anti-Semitic tropes and praise for Adolf Hitler.
PHOTO: AFP
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- Grok chatbot on X removed posts after complaints of political bias and hate speech, including pro-Hitler content.
- xAI stated that it's working to remove inappropriate posts, banning hate speech and improving Grok's truth-seeking training.
- ADL criticised Grok for irresponsible, dangerous, and anti-Semitic content, amplifying anti-Semitism on X.
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WASHINGTON - Social media posts on the X account of the Grok chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s company xAI were removed on July 9 after complaints from X users and the Anti-Defamation League that Grok produced content with anti-Semitic tropes and praise for Adolf Hitler.
Issues of political biases, hate speech and accuracy of AI chatbots have been a concern since at least the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022.
“We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts,” according to a post on Grok’s account on X, which Musk owns.
“Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X. xAI is training only truth-seeking and thanks to the millions of users on X, we are able to quickly identify and update the model where training could be improved.”
Since Mr Musk bought what was then known as Twitter in 2022, he has cut back on moderation. Extremist content has increased, causing advertisers to pull away from the platform.
On July 8, posts on Grok’s X account suggested Hitler would be best-placed to combat anti-white hatred, saying he would “spot the pattern and handle it decisively.”
The posts also referred to Hitler positively as “history’s mustache man,” and commented that people with Jewish surnames were responsible for extreme anti-white activism.
ADL, the non-profit organisation formed to combat anti-Semitism, urged xAI and other producers of Large Language Model software that produces human-sounding text to avoid “producing content rooted in anti-Semitic and extremist hate.”
“What we are seeing from Grok LLM right now is irresponsible, dangerous and anti-Semitic, plain and simple. This supercharging of extremist rhetoric will only amplify and encourage the anti-Semitism that is already surging on X and many other platforms,” ADL said on X.
In May, after users noticed Grok brought up the topic of “white genocide” in South Africa in unrelated discussions about other matters, xAI attributed it to an unauthorised change that was made to Grok’s response software.
Mr Musk in June promised an upgrade to the company’s model, suggesting there was, “far too much garbage in any foundation model trained on uncorrected data.”
During the latest controversy, posts on Grok’s X account said the model made a “slip-up” by engaging with comments posted by a fake account with a common Jewish surname, and later that the fake account was a “troll hoax to fuel division.”
CNN reported on July 9 that when it asked Grok in a chat about its responses, Grok cited online message board 4chan as one of its sources. 4chan is a forum that eschews moderation, and has long been known for extremist and racist content.
On July 9, X CEO Linda Yaccarino stepped down from the company, though there was no known connection between her decision and the content posted by Grok. REUTERS
