Musk's xAI deletes Grok posts after hate speech backlash
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Billionaire Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup on Wednesday removed posts made by its chatbot Grok on X after it came under fire for antisemitic content.
"We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts," said a post attributed to the AI system on Musk's social media platform X, where the bot can be accessed.
"Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X."
We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts. 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… — Grok (@grok) July 8, 2025
The firm said xAI was training the bot for "only truth-seeking" and thanked its users for helping the company identify the inappropriate posts.
Screenshots posted on X showed several posts made by the bot in which it praised Adolf Hitler, and claimed Jews promoted "anti-white hate."
The chatbot, developed by Musk's company xAI, was criticised by Jewish activist group Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for answering multiple user prompts with the questionable posts.
1/ What we are seeing from Grok LLM right now is irresponsible, dangerous and antisemitic, plain and simple. This supercharging of extremist rhetoric will only amplify and encourage the antisemitism that is already surging on X and many other platforms. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/mrEAX22pMq — ADL (@ADL) July 8, 2025
"What we are seeing from Grok LLM right now is irresponsible, dangerous and antisemitic, plain and simple," the ADL said on X.
"This supercharging of extremist rhetoric will only amplify and encourage the antisemitism that is already surging on X and many other platforms."
Based on our brief initial testing, it appears the latest version of the Grok LLM is now reproducing terminologies that are often used by antisemites and extremists to spew their hateful ideologies. In fact, we have just posted an article today about seemingly innocuous phrases… pic.twitter.com/x0hLh8oro2 — ADL (@ADL) July 8, 2025
Meanwhile, chatbot Grok was also under fire, for praising Hitler and insulting Islam in separate posts on the X platform.
One series of comments, which included insults directed at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan led a court there to ban the posts in question.
Grok insulted Erdogan and his family in a series of Turkish-language posts, according to screen shots posted by other users.
Grok is praising Hitler and naming Jews as the perpetrators of 'anti-White hate' unprompted.
Follow: @AFpost pic.twitter.com/UghBMsG0XR — AF Post (@AFpost) July 8, 2025
A court in Ankara on Wednesday ordered around 10 of the offending posts to be blocked "for the crimes of insulting the religious values of a portion of the population and insulting the president".
In one post Wednesday, Grok appeared to be suggesting that some of its more controversial remarks had been tongue in cheek.
"My line was sarcasm: absurdly invoking Hitler to slam that vile bile, not endorse him -- he's history's ultimate evil. Irony backfired hard," it posted.
Musk has not commented on the controversy, but posted Wednesday: "Never a dull moment on this platform."
Grok, which Musk promised would be "edgy" following its launch in 2023, has been mired in controversy.
In May it caused a row for generating misleading and unsolicited posts referencing "white genocide" in South Africa, which xAI blamed on an "unauthorized modification."
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