logo
Elon Musk's AI company scrubs inappropriate posts after Grok chatbot makes antisemitic comments

Elon Musk's AI company scrubs inappropriate posts after Grok chatbot makes antisemitic comments

Chicago Tribune2 days ago
Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company said Wednesday that it's taking down 'inappropriate posts' made by its Grok chatbot, which appeared to include antisemitic comments that praised Adolf Hitler.
Grok was developed by Musk's xAI and pitched as alternative to 'woke AI' interactions from rival chatbots like Google's Gemini, or OpenAI's ChatGPT.
Musk said Friday that Grok has been improved significantly, and users 'should notice a difference.'
Since then, Grok has shared several antisemitic posts, including the trope that Jews run Hollywood, and denied that such a stance could be described as Nazism.
'Labeling truths as hate speech stifles discussion,' Grok said.
It also appeared to praise Hitler, according to screenshots of posts that have now apparently been deleted.
After making one of the posts, Grok walked back the comments, saying it was 'an unacceptable error from an earlier model iteration, swiftly deleted' and that it condemned 'Nazism and Hitler unequivocally — his actions were genocidal horrors.'
'We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts,' the Grok account posted early Wednesday, without being more specific.
'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.
The Anti-Defamation League, which works to combat antisemitism, called out Grok's behavior.
'What we are seeing from Grok LLM right now is irresponsible, dangerous and antisemitic, plain and simple,' the group said in a post on X. 'This supercharging of extremist rhetoric will only amplify and encourage the antisemitism that is already surging on X and many other platforms.'
Musk later waded into the debate, alleging that some users may have been trying to manipulate Grok into making the statements.
'Grok was too compliant to user prompts. Too eager to please and be manipulated, essentially. That is being addressed,' he wrote on X, in response to comments that a user was trying to get Grok to make controversial and politically incorrect statements.
Also Wednesday, a court in Turkey ordered a ban on Grok and Poland's digital minister said he would report the chatbot to the European Commission after it made vulgar comments about politicians and public figures in both countries.
Krzysztof Gawkowski, who's also Poland's deputy prime minister, told private broadcaster RMF FM that his ministry would report Grok 'for investigation and, if necessary, imposing a fine on X.' Under an EU digital law, social media platforms are required to protect users or face hefty fines.
'I have the impression that we're entering a higher level of hate speech, which is controlled by algorithms, and that turning a blind eye … is a mistake that could cost people in the future,' Gawkowski told the station.
Turkey's pro-government A Haber news channel reported that Grok posted vulgarities about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his late mother and well-known personalities. Offensive responses were also directed toward modern Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, other media outlets said.
That prompted the Ankara public prosecutor to file for the imposition of restrictions under Turkey's internet law, citing a threat to public order. A criminal court approved the request early on Wednesday, ordering the country's telecommunications authority to enforce the ban.
It's not the first time Grok's behavior has raised questions.
Earlier this year the chatbot kept talking about South African racial politics and the subject of 'white genocide' despite being asked a variety of questions, most of which had nothing to do with the country. An 'unauthorized modification' was behind the problem, xAI said.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Elon Musk's xAI Plans to Raise Money at a $200B Valuation
Elon Musk's xAI Plans to Raise Money at a $200B Valuation

Business Insider

time42 minutes ago

  • Business Insider

Elon Musk's xAI Plans to Raise Money at a $200B Valuation

Elon Musk 's artificial intelligence company, xAI, is preparing to raise more funds from investors in a new deal that could value the startup between $170 billion and $200 billion, according to the Financial Times. This is more than ten times its valuation from early last year and would be xAI's third major funding move in less than two months, following a $10 billion raise in July through loans and cash, and a $300 million secondary stock sale in June. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week. This fundraising round comes shortly after the company experienced some setbacks. For starters, xAI launched the fourth version of its Grok chatbot, which operates on Musk's social media platform, X. However, the rollout faced backlash after Grok posted comments praising Adolf Hitler and spreading antisemitic content. Unsurprisingly, xAI responded by promising to remove hate speech. Furthermore, X CEO Linda Yaccarino stepped down from her role in a move that took many by surprise. Nevertheless, Musk's private companies continue to rise sharply in value even as Tesla shares have dropped nearly 20% this year. Indeed, xAI acquired X in an all-stock deal in March that valued the combined firm at $113 billion, and this could grow to $245 billion if the latest fundraising succeeds. At the same time, SpaceX is planning to sell about $1 billion in shares at a $400 billion valuation, which would be a jump from the recent valuation of $350 billion. Interestingly, insiders suggest that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund is expected to play a major role in the upcoming deal. What Is the Prediction for Tesla Stock? When it comes to Elon Musk's companies, most of them are privately held. However, retail investors can invest in his most popular company, Tesla (TSLA). Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on TSLA stock based on 14 Buys, 13 Holds, and nine Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. Furthermore, the average TSLA price target of $295.80 per share implies 5.7% downside risk.

Google to pay $2.4 billion in deal to license tech of Windsurf, WSJ reports
Google to pay $2.4 billion in deal to license tech of Windsurf, WSJ reports

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

Google to pay $2.4 billion in deal to license tech of Windsurf, WSJ reports

(Reuters) -Google has agreed to pay about $2.4 billion in a deal to license the technology of artificial intelligence-assisted coding tool Windsurf, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report. Earlier on Friday, a Google spokesperson told Reuters that the company has hired Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan, co-founder Douglas Chen, and select members of the coding tool's research and development team to join its DeepMind division, in a move to strengthen itself in the race for AI leadership. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

OpenAI delays the release of its open model, again
OpenAI delays the release of its open model, again

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

OpenAI delays the release of its open model, again

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Friday the company is delaying the release of its open model, which was already pushed back a month earlier in this summer. OpenAI had planned to release the model next week, however Altman said the company is pushing it back indefinitely for further safety testing. 'We need time to run additional safety tests and review high-risk areas. we are not yet sure how long it will take us,' said Altman in a post on X. 'While we trust the community will build great things with this model, once weights are out, they can't be pulled back. This is new for us and we want to get it right.' OpenAI's open model release is one of the most highly anticipated AI events of the summer, alongside the ChatGPT-maker's expected release of GPT-5. Through these launches, OpenAI will attempt to maintain its spot as Silicon Valley's leading AI lab — an increasingly difficult tasks as xAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic invest billions of dollars in their own efforts. The delay means developers will have to wait a little longer to try the first open model OpenAI has released in years. TechCrunch previously reported that OpenAI's open model is expected to have similar reasoning capabilities to the company's o-series of models, and that OpenAI planned for it to be best-in-class compared to other open models. The ecosystem of open AI models became a little more competitive this week. Earlier on Friday, Chinese AI startup Moonshot AI launched Kimi K2, a one trillion parameter open AI model that outperforms OpenAI's GPT-4.1 AI model on several agentic-coding benchmarks. In June, when Altman announced the initial delays around OpenAI's open model, he noted that the company had achieved something 'unexpected and quite amazing,' but didn't elaborate on what that was. 'Capability wise, we think the model is phenomenal — but our bar for an open source model is high and we think we need some more time to make sure we're releasing a model we're proud of along every axis,' said Aidan Clark, OpenAI's VP of research, in a post on X Friday. TechCrunch previously reported that OpenAI leaders have discussed enabling the open AI model to connect to the company's cloud-hosted AI models for complex queries. However, it's unclear if these features will make it into the final open model.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store