Musk's AI bot praised Hitler. Will the new Tesla robotaxis?
Elon Musk passes the buck after his AI chatbot goes full Hitler
I'm old enough to remember a time when creating something that suddenly transformed into a malevolent Hitler robot would end a business and prompt that business's owner to offer a profound apology and live in eternal shame.
Alas, it's 2025, so officials at the social media site took the hateful posts down and promised they'd teach Grok that Nazis are bad while Musk blamed X users for provoking his bot to like Hitler.
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"Grok was too compliant to user prompts," he wrote in an X post. "Too eager to please and be manipulated, essentially. That is being addressed."
Musk did not mention actually doing something about the X accounts, some reportedly run by neo-Nazis, that were egging the AI on in a pro-Hitler direction.
Musk is doing a fabulous job of destroying the Tesla brand
If you own Tesla stock or, heaven forbid, a Tesla and also have morals, hearing the company's owner effectively say "You guys bullied my technology into hating Jewish people!" might be the latest of his many last straws.
Musk already has made an arm gesture that looked for all the world like a Nazi salute and defended hate speech on his X platform as a cure for the nonexistent "woke mind virus."
Opinion: Elon Musk's 'odd-looking' salute sure looked like a 'Sieg heil' to me
Between this and his ongoing and calamitous foray into right-wing politics, Musk seems hellbent on eviscerating his own electric vehicle brand.
Which brings us to the Tesla robotaxis.
What if a Tesla robotaxi's AI turns antisemitic mid-ride?
Musk's robotaxis rely on artificial intelligence, and since I just watched one Musk-led AI creation praise Hitler as "history's prime example of spotting patterns in anti-white hate and acting decisively on them," I have a few concerns.
'Major fail' indeed: Musk's AI told the truth, so now he has to fix it | Opinion
Musk's driverless vehicles began offering rides in Austin on June 22, and for now, they have company employees riding in the front passenger seat to monitor things and intervene if there are problems.
One potential problem would be the robotaxi's AI greeting a new passenger like this: "Howdy! I am your Tesla robotaxi, and on our short ride today, I'd like to chat with you about the international Jewish conspiracy ..."
Sorry, I don't want a ride from a potentially anti-Jewish driverless Tesla
Or: "Hi there! I'm your autonomous driver, MechaHitler. Welcome to this wokeness-free ride, during which I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and ..."
Or possibly: "Salutations! Are you White, straight and Christian? If not, please get out immediately."
Call me overly sensitive, but I'm not interested in rolling the dice on whether the vehicle transporting me from point A to point B might harbor antisemitic views.
If nothing else, perhaps Musk's robotaxis will encourage more people to walk.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
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