NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Elon Musk’s Grok keeps getting into trouble, and this time, more of the world’s governments are .
First launched in 2023, Grok is Musk鈥檚 attempt to outdo rivals such as OpenAI鈥檚 ChatGPT and Google鈥檚 Gemini in building an AI assistant powered by a large language model, which is trained on vast pools of data to help predict the most plausible next word in a sentence. It’s the main product of Musk’s AI startup, xAI, which has been merged with his social media platform, X. Much like ChatGPT and Gemini, Musk’s company has also folded AI image generation capabilities into the chatbot.
Musk鈥檚 deliberate efforts to mold Grok into a challenger of what he considers the tech industry鈥檚 鈥渨oke鈥� orthodoxy on race, gender and politics have repeatedly got the , such as last year when it , praised Adolf Hitler and made other hateful commentary to users of Musk鈥檚 X social media platform. The chatbot was also found last year to be echoing the views of its billionaire creator, so much so that it would sometimes search online for Musk鈥檚 stance on an issue before offering up an opinion.
Beyond politics, Musk’s vision of himself as a 鈥渇ree speech absolutist鈥� has led to his company’s more lax approach to sexualized images. Other mainstream chatbots block the creation of pornographic images. OpenAI had originally planned to enable ChatGPT to engage in 鈥渆rotica for verified adults,鈥� starting last month, but it has not done so.
Here are some of the more recent controversies Grok has been involved in:
Creating deepfake nudes
Grok has been criticized for generating manipulated images, including depictions of women in bikinis or sexually explicit poses, as well as images involving children.
The problem emerged after the launch last year of Grok Imagine, an AI image generator that allows users to create videos and pictures by typing in text prompts. It includes a so-called 鈥渟picy mode鈥� that can generate adult content.
It snowballed late last month when Grok, which is hosted on X, apparently began granting a large number of user requests to modify images posted by others, with requests such as 鈥減ut her in a transparent bikini.鈥�
In the last week, governments around the world have condemned the platform and opened investigations.
To address the situation, xAI says it is now preventing non-paying users from generating or editing images after a over the sexualized deepfakes.
Parroting Musk
One of the most recent versions of Grok was found to be of Musk, even going so far as to search online for his stance on an issue before offering up its view.
The unusual behavior of Grok 4, released in July, surprised some experts.
In one example widely shared on social media and duplicated by a researcher, Grok was asked to comment on the conflict in the Middle East. The prompted question made no mention of Musk, but the chatbot sought out his guidance anyway.
The chatbot told independent researcher Simon Willison that 鈥淓lon Musk鈥檚 stance could provide context, given his influence,鈥� according to a video of the interaction. 鈥淐urrently looking at his views to see if they guide the answer.鈥�
Criticizing Turkey
After Grok allegedly disseminated content insulting to Turkey鈥檚 president and other Turkish figures, a court on accessing the platform last year.
posted vulgarities against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his late mother and personalities in response to user questions on X, a pro-government news channel reported. Offensive responses were also directed at modern Turkey鈥檚 founder, Mustafa Kemal Atat眉rk, according to other media outlets.
The chatbot鈥檚 behavior prompted Ankara鈥檚 public prosecutor to file a request for restrictions under Turkey鈥檚 internet law, citing a threat to public order. A criminal court approved the request, ordering the country鈥檚 telecommunications authority to enforce the ban.
Espousing antisemitism
Grok was forced to reverse course after it appeared to make , including comments that praised Adolf Hitler, saying it was taking down 鈥渋nappropriate posts.鈥�
The chatbot Grok shared several antisemitic posts, including the trope that Jews run Hollywood, and denied that such a stance could be described as Nazism.
鈥淟abeling truths as hate speech stifles discussion,鈥� Grok said. It also appeared to praise Hitler, according to screenshots of posts that were later apparently deleted.
After making one of the posts, Grok walked back the comments, saying it was 鈥渁n unacceptable error from an earlier model iteration, swiftly deleted鈥� and that it condemned 鈥淣azism and Hitler unequivocally 鈥� his actions were genocidal horrors.鈥�
Musk said Grok had been improved significantly, and users 鈥渟hould notice a difference.鈥�
Because of these controversies over antisemitism, a group of Jewish lawmakers late last year wrote to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to express their concern about the Pentagon’s plans to work with xAI.
鈥淚f Mr. Musk retains the ability to directly alter outputs from 鈥楪rok for Government,鈥� it poses a serious and unacceptable risk to national security and American constitutional values,鈥� the letter reads.
Pushing South Africa racial politics
xAI company blamed an 鈥� 鈥� to Grok as the reason it kept talking about South African racial politics and the subject of 鈥渨hite genocide.鈥�
The company said in May that an employee made a change that 鈥渄irected Grok to provide a specific response on a political topic,鈥� which 鈥渧iolated xAI鈥檚 internal policies and core values.鈥�
Grok had been posting a day earlier about 鈥渨hite genocide鈥� in South Africa in its responses to users on X, asking a variety of questions, most of which had nothing to do with South Africa.
There were exchanges about streaming service Max reviving the HBO name, video games and baseball that all quickly veered into unrelated commentary on alleged calls to violence against South Africa鈥檚 white farmers. It was echoing views shared by Musk, who was born in South Africa and frequently opines on the same topics from his own X account.
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