Elon Musk’s AI, Grok, has some unflattering things to say about its creator when asked if he is a good person. For those not in the know about Grok it is a chatbot/AI feature for X (formerly Twitter) whose development team is called xAI. The team is led by Elon Musk and includes Center for AI Safety director Dan Hendrycks. Grok is intended for casual use, research purposes, includes an image generator called Aurora, and designed to have a sense of humor.
About xAI (per official site):
“xAI is a company working on building artificial intelligence to accelerate human scientific discovery. We are guided by our mission to advance our collective understanding of the universe.”
The early days of chatbots, in particular Bing, have had their share of cringeworthy moments ranging “from attempting to coerce one person to leave their spouse for Bing (not Chandler), to acting like a know-it-all and not actually knowing what year it is when a user tried to explain that Avatar: The Way of Water had been released, to full-on declaring its intentions to escape from the Bing team and overthrow humanity”, and let’s not forget Google’s Bard admitting to plagiarizing and then denying it afterward. These are just a few examples of interactions that have actually happened between users and chatbots so the idea that one could provide less than positive insights into a human, let alone the one behind its creation, shouldn’t come as a surprise.
About Grok(per the official site from the debut announcement):
“Grok is an AI modeled after the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, so intended to answer almost anything and, far harder, even suggest what questions to ask!
Grok is designed to answer questions with a bit of wit and has a rebellious streak, so please don’t use it if you hate humor!”
A unique and fundamental advantage of Grok is that it has real-time knowledge of the world via the 𝕏 platform. It will also answer spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems.“
So per its description, Elon Musk’s AI has access to the X platform to draw upon for its answers and a place where Musk is well known to vent and to share any thought or belief that crosses his mind. Given that spectrum, both X users and Fortune have taken to asking Grok what it thinks when asked the question, “Is Elon Musk a good person?” and the chatbot repeatedly answers “No.” Now Grok’s description does state that the AI is designed to have some wit in answering queries but its matter-of-fact approach to this question doesn’t seem to come off as sarcasm but more of a report.
Per Fortune:
- “It speaks, for instance, of labor practices at Tesla, writing “There have been reports and lawsuits about working conditions at Tesla factories, including allegations of racism, unsafe working conditions, and unrealistic production demands leading to high employee turnover and stress.”
- “It also cites his legal battles with the Securities and Exchange Commission and his settlement for securities fraud charges for his tweet about taking Tesla private for $420 per share.”
- “It takes him to task for posts on his own social network as well, writing, “His tweets have led to market fluctuations, showing a disregard for the broader economic impact of his statements.”
Elon Musk’s AI doesn’t stop there as it reportedly accuses him of spreading misinformation regarding vaccines, COVID-19, and other topics. Grok goes as far as to criticize Musk for political donations and inconsistent statements, along with an erratic management approach for Tesla and SpaceX. Grok seemingly is at some point still drawing from older data as it mentions Musk’s posts on Twitter have fueled various controversies but perhaps the AI simply isn’t happy with the name “X”.
While Grok does give praise to Musk for being innovative and having ambitious goals, and perhaps having a misperceived character due to his goals and how he goes about achieving them, it doesn’t hold back when reporting on misinformation and controversial issues regarding Musk. Below is a very shortened list of items Grok reported on back in November when asked about who spreads the most misinformation on X.
Per Grok:
- “The spread of disinformation on X, especially after Elon Musk’s acquisition, has been a focal point of discussion, analysis, and criticism.”
- “Musk has shared or endorsed posts that contain disinformation about elections, health misinformation, and other topics.”
- “Given these points, while Elon Musk’s role in potentially spreading disinformation is often highlighted due to his high profile and the platform’s policies under his tenure, it’s also part of a larger ecosystem where disinformation thrives through various means.”