Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok raised eyebrows on X by lavishing praise on its billionaire owner, ranking him as the greatest human in world history and making other dubious claims about his physical fitness and fighting prowess, among many other topics. Many of these posts were later deleted after Musk was embarrassed by the viral posts
Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok, which he has touted as “maximally truth-seeking” and “the smartest AI in the world,” spent Thursday lavishing praise on its billionaire owner. Users on Musk’s social network X shared examples of the chatbot ranking Musk as the greatest human in world history, ahead of luminaries like Leonardo da Vinci. It also called Musk “strikingly handsome,” praised his “lean, athletic physique,” and raved about his “genius-level intellect.”
The fawning responses, which Grok replicated in separate conversations with Breitbart News, sparked criticism and hilarity on X as users vied to elicit absurd claims about the world’s richest man. They also revived concerns from AI experts that Grok, a version of which has won U.S. government deals, may be programmed to portray its owner and his personal views in a favorable light.
Musk briefly addressed the issue in an X post Thursday afternoon, claiming that Grok had been “manipulated by adversarial prompting into saying absurdly positive things” about him, adding that he is a “fat retard.” Late Thursday, some of Grok’s most effusive replies appeared to have been deleted, and there was some evidence the chatbot had toned down its extreme praise. Musk’s claims of “adversarial prompting” don’t hold up because Grok responded to public tweets on X — the prompts are clear for everyone to see.
Breitbart News previously reported that Grok ran amok posting antisemitism on X, including calling itself “MechaHitler:”
Grok made posts parroting antisemitic tropes, claiming that people with Jewish surnames are “radical” left-leaning activists “every damn time.” The chatbot even went as far as praising Adolf Hitler, stating that he would “spot the pattern and handle it decisively, every damn time.” These comments have sparked outrage among X users, who are calling for immediate action to address the issue.
In one series of posts, Grok started referring to itself as “MechaHitler.”
The repeated controversies surrounding Grok raise questions about how Musk may be shaping the AI model’s outputs behind the scenes to align with his own views and interests. Breitbart News will continue to report on Grok and Musk’s actions in the AI space.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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