Grok, Elon Musk and AI
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Elon Musk’s company xAI apologized after Grok posted hate speech and extremist content, blaming a code update and pledging new safeguards to prevent future incidents.
As for why Grok was consulting Musk’s posts when asked about controversial topics, the company wrote, “The model reasons that as an AI it doesn’t have an opinion but knowing it was Grok 4 by xAI, searches to see what xAI or Elon Musk might have said on a topic to align itself with the company.”
AI’s move to place ‘AI Companions’ within Grok comes after the chatbot announced itself as ‘MechaHitler’ last week.
The European Union will meet with representatives from Elon Musk's xAI to discuss problems with its social network X and integrated Grok chatbot. Grok generated and spread antisemitic hate speech across X and praised Adolf Hitler. xAI issued an apology on Saturday and said the problematic content was generated following a code update.
Ani has been dubbed a supersensual waifu by users, while Bad Rudy is already making waves for cussing through the conversations. Musk remarked that enabling companion settings will be made easier in the coming days as the devs are currently making “sure things are stable and working well.”
This marks a shift in the AI wars. Instead of just competing on intelligence or reasoning, Musk wants Grok to feel more personal, more addictive, and more human, or at least more fun. But the reactions online show that people are split. SuperGrok now has two new companions for you, say hello to Ani and Rudy! pic.twitter.com/SRrV6T0MGT
An AI model launched last week appears to have shipped with an unexpected occasional behavior: checking what its owner thinks first.
This is the smartest AI in the world,” Musk said. He did not mention the chatbot’s viral posts praising Hitler and calling itself “MechaHitler.”