Elon Musk's xAI apologizes for Grok chatbot's ‘horrific' pro-Hitler behavior — while reportedly eying $200B valuation
Grok began spewing pro-Nazi garbage on July 8 after Musk's startup pushed an update designed to make the chatbot less politically correct – at one point declaring, 'If calling out radicals cheering dead kids makes me 'literally Hitler,' then pass the mustache.'
'First off, we deeply apologize for the horrific behavior that many experienced,' xAI said in a message to X users on Saturday.
Advertisement
3 Elon Musk said Grok was 'too compliant with user prompts.'
Getty Images
The company added that the update that caused Grok's behavior was 'independent of the underlying language model that powers' the chatbot.
'The update was active for 16 hrs, in which deprecated code made @grok susceptible to existing X user posts; including when such posts contained extremist views,' the company added. 'We have removed that deprecated code and refactored the entire system to prevent further abuse.'
XAI also shared the faulty system prompt that led to Grok's antisemitic meltdown. The startup's engineers instructed Grok to behave as though 'you tell like it is and you are not afraid to offend people who are politically correct.'
Advertisement
Musk, who has presented Grok as less biased than rival chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google Gemini, previously said xAI's creation was 'was too compliant to user prompts' and 'too eager to please and be manipulated, essentially.'
While Grok has since been fixed, the mistake could further upset major advertisers who left X in droves as Musk eased content moderation on the platform formerly known as Twitter. Musk merged xAI with X earlier this year.
3 xAI apologized for Grok's behavior.
REUTERS
Advertisement
Linda Yaccarino stepped down last week as X's CEO within hours of the July 8 incident – though a source told The Post that the decision had been in the works for more than a week and was not related to the chatbot's behavior.
Despite the internal turmoil at xAI, Musk's firm is looking to raise money at a valuation as high as $200 billion, the Financial Times reported, citing people close to the situation.
3 xAI is reportedly looking to secure a $200 billion valuation.
ZUMAPRESS.com
That would be 10 times what xAI was valued earlier this year. The startup is locked in intense competition with ChatGPT and various other AI rivals.
Advertisement
Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, PIF, is expected to be involved in the new round, according to the FT.
Elsewhere, Musk said Monday that he does not support a merger between xAI and his other company, electric car maker Tesla.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Similarweb Launches GenAI Intelligence Toolkit to Track Brand Performance, Traffic on AI Platforms
Similarweb Ltd. (NYSE:SMWB) is one of the tech stocks to buy according to analysts. On July 28, Similarweb launched its new GenAI Intelligence Toolkit to provide businesses with a view of their brand performance across AI platforms. The toolkit combines AI Brand Visibility and AI Traffic, allowing companies to understand how they are represented on AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, and CoPilot, and the value of AI-generated traffic to their digital marketing and sales efforts. A man in black suit holding a tablet looks at stock market data on a monitor. Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels The offering is crucial as GenAI is shifting the digital marketing landscape away from traditional search. According to Similarweb's estimates, in June this year alone, AI platforms generated over 1.1 billion referral visits, which marked a substantial year-over-year increase of 357%. The GenAI Intelligence Toolkit empowers brands to connect visibility with actual traffic and identify which topics are most associated with their company. It also reveals the top-cited sources within the AI answer. Similarweb Ltd. (NYSE:SMWB) provides digital data and analytics for powering critical business decisions in the US, Europe, the Asia Pacific, the UK, Israel, and internationally. While we acknowledge the potential of SMWB as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the . READ NEXT: and . Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. 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
Business Insider
31 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Tesla (TSLA) Rebounds in Spain with 27% Sales Surge in July
Tesla (TSLA) has reported a rise in Spain's electric vehicle (EV) sales after a rocky start to 2025. In July, the EV giant delivered 702 new cars, marking a 27% jump from the same month last year. This increase was aided by an overall rise in the country's EV deliveries, with total sales of electric and hybrid cars up 155%. 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. Tesla's sales in Spain are up just 1.1% this year, but July showed signs of improvement. The rise likely came from renewed interest in the updated Model Y and Model 3, helping Tesla bounce back in parts of Europe despite headwinds. Also, in Norway, registrations grew by 83.4% to 838 vehicles, with total sales this year reaching 13,877. This increase was primarily due to Tesla's revamped Model Y and Norway's strong push for EVs. Tesla's gains in Spain and Norway contrast sharply with its struggles elsewhere in Europe. July sales fell in countries like Sweden, Denmark, and France. Key factors affecting Tesla's European market share are growing anti-Musk sentiment, increased competition, and challenges with its product lineup and production. In the second half of 2025, Tesla will aim to keep its positive momentum in Spain and Norway while facing challenges in other parts of Europe. For now, July's strong sales bring an optimistic boost for the EV maker. Is TSLA Stock a Buy? Turning to Wall Street, TSLA stock has a Hold consensus rating based on 14 Buys, 15 Holds, and eight Sells assigned in the last three months. At $310.84, the average Tesla price target implies a 1.08% upside potential. The stock has declined 19.65% over the past six months.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Jury awards over $240 million in damages against Tesla in Autopilot crash lawsuit
A Florida jury on Friday ordered Tesla to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to the victims of a 2019 fatal crash involving its Autopilot driver assist technology. The verdict which comes after a four-year long case could encourage more legal action against Elon Musk's electric car company. A Miami jury decided that Elon Musk's car company Tesla was partly responsible for a deadly crash in Florida involving its Autopilot driver assist technology and must pay the victims more than $240 million in damages. The federal jury held that Tesla bore significant responsibility because its technology failed and that not all the blame can be put on a reckless driver, even one who admitted he was distracted by his cellphone before hitting a young couple out gazing at the stars. The decision comes as Musk seeks to convince Americans his cars are safe enough to drive on their own as he plans to roll out a driverless taxi service in several cities in the coming months. The decision ends a four-year long case remarkable not just in its outcome but that it even made it to trial. Many similar cases against Tesla have been dismissed and, when that didn't happen, settled by the company to avoid the spotlight of a trial. 'This will open the floodgates,' said Miguel Custodio, a car crash lawyer not involved in the Tesla case. 'It will embolden a lot of people to come to court.' The case also included startling charges by lawyers for the family of the deceased, 22-year-old, Naibel Benavides Leon, and for her injured boyfriend, Dillon Angulo. They claimed Tesla either hid or lost key evidence, including data and video recorded seconds before the accident. Tesla said it made a mistake after being shown the evidence and honestly hadn't thought it was there. 'We finally learned what happened that night, that the car was actually defective,' said Benavides' sister, Neima Benavides. 'Justice was achieved.' Tesla has previously faced criticism that it is slow to cough up crucial data by relatives of other victims in Tesla crashes, accusations that the car company has denied. In this case, the plaintiffs showed Tesla had the evidence all along, despite its repeated denials, by hiring a forensic data expert who dug it up. 'Today's verdict is wrong," Tesla said in a statement, 'and only works to set back automotive safety and jeopardize Tesla's and the entire industry's efforts to develop and implement lifesaving technology,' They said the plaintiffs concocted a story 'blaming the car when the driver – from day one – admitted and accepted responsibility.' In addition to a punitive award of $200 million, the jury said Tesla must also pay $43 million of a total $129 million in compensatory damages for the crash, bringing the total borne by the company to $243 million. 'It's a big number that will send shock waves to others in the industry,' said financial analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities. 'It's not a good day for Tesla.' Tesla said it will appeal. Even if that fails, the company says it will end up paying far less than what the jury decided because of a pre-trial agreement that limits punitive damages to three times Tesla's compensatory damages. Translation: $172 million, not $243 million. But the plaintiff says their deal was based on a multiple of all compensatory damages, not just Tesla's, and the figure the jury awarded is the one the company will have to pay. It's not clear how much of a hit to Tesla's reputation for safety the verdict in the Miami case will make. Tesla has vastly improved its technology since the crash on a dark, rural road in Key Largo, Florida, in 2019. But the issue of trust generally in the company came up several times in the case, including in closing arguments Thursday. The plaintiffs' lead lawyer, Brett Schreiber, said Tesla's decision to even use the term Autopilot showed it was willing to mislead people and take big risks with their lives because the system only helps drivers with lane changes, slowing a car and other tasks, falling far short of driving the car itself. Schreiber said other automakers use terms like 'driver assist' and 'copilot' to make sure drivers don't rely too much on the technology. 'Words matter,' Schreiber said. 'And if someone is playing fast and lose with words, they're playing fast and lose with information and facts.' Schreiber acknowledged that the driver, George McGee, was negligent when he blew through flashing lights, a stop sign and a T-intersection at 62 miles an hour before slamming into a Chevrolet Tahoe that the couple had parked to get a look at the stars. The Tahoe spun around so hard it was able to launch Benavides 75 feet through the air into nearby woods where her body was later found. It also left Angulo, who walked into the courtroom Friday with a limp and cushion to sit on, with broken bones and a traumatic brain injury. But Schreiber said Tesla was at fault nonetheless. He said Tesla allowed drivers to act recklessly by not disengaging the Autopilot as soon as they begin to show signs of distraction and by allowing them to use the system on smaller roads that it was not designed for, like the one McGee was driving on. 'I trusted the technology too much,' said McGee at one point in his testimony. 'I believed that if the car saw something in front of it, it would provide a warning and apply the brakes.' The lead defense lawyer in the Miami case, Joel Smith, countered that Tesla warns drivers that they must keep their eyes on the road and hands on the wheel yet McGee chose not to do that while he looked for a dropped cellphone, adding to the danger by speeding. Noting that McGee had gone through the same intersection 30 or 40 times previously and hadn't crashed during any of those trips, Smith said that isolated the cause to one thing alone: 'The cause is that he dropped his cellphone.' The auto industry has been watching the case closely because a finding of Tesla liability despite a driver's admission of reckless behavior would pose significant legal risks for every company as they develop cars that increasingly drive themselves. (FRANCE 24 with AP)
