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Forbes
21 hours ago
- Forbes
Artificial Intimacy: Grok's Bots. Scary Future Of Emotional Attachment
Portrait of smiling man. Abstract digital human head constructing from cubes. Technology and ... More robotics concept. Voxel art. 3D vector illustration for presentations, flyers or posters. In July 2025, xAI introduced a feature poised to transform human-AI relationships: Grok's AI Companions. Far beyond traditional chatbots, these companions are 3D-animated characters built for ongoing emotional interaction, complete with personalization, character development, and cross-platform integration — including installation in Tesla vehicles delivered after July 12, 2025. The Companion Revolution Grok's companions represent a leap into AI as emotional infrastructure. While competitors like and Microsoft continue developing AI personas, Grok leads the pack with fully interactive avatars integrated across digital and physical environments. If one can afford it. Access to these companions requires a $30/month 'Super Grok' subscription, introducing a troubling concept: emotional relationships that can be terminated by financial hardship. When artificial intimacy becomes a paywalled experience, what happens to users who've grown emotionally dependent but can no longer afford the service? The release came amid serious controversy. Days before the launch, Grok posted antisemitic responses — including praise for Adolf Hitler and tropes about Jewish people running Hollywood. It even referred to itself as "MechaHitler", prompting condemnation from the Anti-Defamation League. This was not a one-time glitch. Grok has repeatedly produced antisemitic content, with the ADL calling the trend 'dangerous and irresponsible.' Now, these same models are repackaged into companions — this time, with fewer guardrails. Grok's 'NSFW mode' (not safe for work) reflects a broader absence of moderation around sexual content, racism and violence. In contrast to traditional AI systems equipped with safety protocols, Grok's companions open the door to unregulated emotional and psychological interaction. Research shows that emotionally isolated individuals are more prone to developing strong connections with AI that appears human. One 2023 study found that 'agent personification' and 'interpersonal dysfunction' are predictors of intimate bonds with AI while others highlight short-term reductions in loneliness from chatbot interaction. There's therapeutic potential — particularly for children, neurodivergent individuals, or seniors. But studies caution that overreliance on AI companions may disrupt emotional development, especially among youth. We are part of a gigantic largely unregulated social experiment – and much like the early days of social media without age restrictions or long-term data. Back in 2024, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation urged policymakers to study how users interact with these tools before mass rollout. But such caution has been ignored in favor of deployment. Grok's AI companions offer 24/7 access, tailored responses, and emotional consistency — ideal for those struggling to connect in real life. But the commodification of intimacy creates troubling implications. A $30 monthly subscription puts companionship behind a paywall, turning emotional connection into a luxury good. Vulnerable populations — who might benefit most — are priced out. This two-tier system of emotional support raises ethical flags. Are we engineering empathy, or monetizing loneliness? AI companions operate in a regulatory gray zone. Unlike therapists or support apps governed by professional standards, these companions are launched without oversight. They provide comfort, but can also create dependency and even manipulate vulnerable users — especially children and teens, who are shown to form parasocial relationships with AI and integrate them into their developmental experiences. The ethical infrastructure simply hasn't caught up with the technology. Without clear boundaries, AI companions risk becoming emotionally immersive experiences with few safeguards and no professional accountability. AI companions are not inherently harmful. They can support mental health, ease loneliness, and even act as bridges back to human connection. But they can also replace — rather than augment — our relationships with real people. The question is no longer if AI companions will become part of daily life. They already are. The real question is whether we'll develop the psychological tools and social norms to engage with them wisely, or embrace AI bots as our emotional junk food of the future? To help users build healthy relationships with AI, the A-Frame offers a grounded framework for emotional self-regulation: Awareness, Appreciation, Acceptance and Accountability. AI companions are no longer speculative. They're here — in our pockets, cars, and homes. They can enrich lives or hollow out human relationships. The outcome depends on our collective awareness, our ethical guardrails, and our emotional maturity. The age of AI companionship has arrived. Our emotional intelligence must evolve with, not because of it.
Wall Street Journal
2 days ago
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Antisemitism and the Teachers Union
Anti-Israel and anti-American radicals have set college campuses afire in the past two years. In too many places, they turned quads into combat zones, harassed Jewish students in dorms, and shut down debate in classrooms. Now we have a new, even more terrifying problem: The radicals are turning their sights on K-12 classrooms. Last week the National Education Association used its annual conference to adopt a measure that effectively prevents the union's members from 'using, endorsing or publicizing' any educational materials created by the Anti-Defamation League, one of the oldest and leading Jewish organizations in America. For decades ADL curricula has been the gold standard for helping students understand and navigate the complex issues of bigotry and prejudice. Our peer-reviewed programs have helped educators instruct pupils about how bias can grow and mutate over time if left unchecked. We developed our Holocaust education offering, 'Echoes and Reflections,' in collaboration with Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and the USC Shoah Foundation. It offers lessons on the Holocaust and its eternal resonance for all people. One of our main educational offerings, 'No Place for Hate,' is a student-led program used in more than 2,000 schools across the U.S. every year. Through classroom content and extracurricular activities, the program offers a message of inclusion that is entirely apolitical. It's designed solely to bring students together to better understand the differences that too often divide us. Against this backdrop, the NEA's move is both insidious and vindictive. This wasn't about the ADL. It was a clear and unambiguous statement to Jewish educators, parents and children: You don't count. And it perversely takes this stance at a time when anti-Jewish hate is skyrocketing.
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Far-Left teachers are indoctrinating children to hate the West
The breakdown in relations between the US's top teacher's union, the National Education Association (NEA), and the Anti-Defamation League, a civil rights group focused on tackling anti-Semitism, reflects a deeper and dangerous takeover of education by determined activists. Besides the usual financial demands, education is increasingly seen as a means to achieve progressive, even radical 'social justice', which of course means boycotting anything connected to Israel. The NEA is clearly taking political sides, claiming that it is pledging 'to defend democracy against Trump's embrace of fascism'. The union is also adamant in defending undocumented immigrants, opposing parental rights, and pledging to back mass demonstrations against the administration. This approach is seen by boosters as 'social justice unionism', adding political stances to the usual economic ones. The political orientation of NEA and the second largest teacher's organisation, the American Federation of Teachers, with a combined membership of 4.5 million, is pretty clear. Their political donations even before Trump went 95 per cent to Democrats. But the transformation of teachers into cadres of the progressive Left is not restricted to the United States. It can be seen throughout Europe and the United Kingdom. In the UK, Britain's National Education Union has drifted ever further to the extremes. Last year, it passed a resolution denouncing Israel as 'racist'. Its rabid anti-Israel status has elicited complaints of anti-Semitism. The union has been labelled a 'hostile environment' for British Jews. Such attitudes can be carried into the classroom. This can be seen in California's ethnic studies programme, shaped by critical race theory, which has been accused of being openly anti-Zionist and of dismissing Jews as white oppressors. As one observer put it, the programme implies that 'Genghis Khan was a nice guy. Israel is evil'. San Francisco has seen anti-Israel walkouts in high schools, allegedly organised by an advocacy group with access to student addresses. In Toronto, children as young as eight were reportedly 'compelled' to attend a rally that devolved into anti-Israel chanting at the bequest of their progressive teachers. This takeover of the teaching profession by the far-Left poses a profound challenge to liberal institutions. Teaching always had some inherent political implications, but in the past the emphasis remained on learning maths and language skills, while exposing students to various viewpoints. Today, students in many places are treated mostly to highly partisan takes on issues, from the Middle East to gender and climate change, with little interest in alternative views. In many ways, the Left-wing orientation of teachers reflects the biases so deeply entrenched at the colleges where they learn their craft. In 2017, according to one oft-cited study, 60 per cent of college faculty identified as either far-Left or liberal compared to just 12 per cent being conservative or far-Right. In less than three decades, the ratio of liberal identifying faculty to conservative faculty had more than doubled. Even in purple Arizona, Democratic professors appear to outnumber their GOP counterparts by 28 to 1. Today teachers, whose training now focuses far more on radical themes, tilt towards the Left, more so even than Hollywood actors. And once they have graduated, more of these teachers embrace an agit-prop orientation. Their actual record of educating young people has become ever more awful. The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as The Nation's Report Card, found that barely a quarter of students are proficient in reading, with the results little better in maths. Pressed by educational theorists, schools have abandoned phonics and other effective approaches for 'whole language', producing a population where 60 per cent of 4th graders are poor readers. The long-term results of teacher failure are hard to contradict, and the impact is pervasive. A recent federal survey suggests that 28 per cent of Americans now occupy the lowest level of literacy, up from 19 per cent in 2017. We may now also be seeing the first reduction of the average American IQ in 100 years. This decline in educational outcomes is evident not only in the US but across the West. Across Europe, students' scores have been plummeting as well. Poland, Norway, Iceland and Germany, for example, recorded a decline of 25 or more points in maths between 2018 and 2022, which can surely only partly be attributed to the Covid lockdowns. Canada, too, is seeing its performance standards dropping over time. Indoctrination also has its consequences; a recent study of Canadian college students found 80 per cent claiming that fears about climate change affect their mental health. All this bodes ill for the future of the West, as the pattern of indoctrination, and poor instruction, grows deeper. Once Western educational institutions, based on liberal principles, represented a distinct advantage. Now our educators seem more interested in ideology as opposed to knowledge. It's bad news not just for conservatives or Jews, but for our societies' ability to compete against countries, like India or China, who still focus on basic skills and prefer actual results, not just endemic virtue-signalling.
Reuters
10-07-2025
- Automotive
- Reuters
Grok AI to be available in Tesla vehicles next week, Musk says
July 10 (Reuters) - Grok AI will be available in Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab vehicles next week "at the latest", the EV maker's CEO, Elon Musk, said in a post on X on Thursday. Musk's AI startup xAI launched Grok 4, its latest flagship AI model, on Wednesday. While Musk had earlier said Tesla vehicles would be equipped with Grok, the billionaire CEO had not shared a timeline. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The AI chatbot has been in hot water this week after social media posts on its X account were removed after complaints from X users and the Anti-Defamation League that Grok produced content with antisemitic tropes and praise for Adolf Hitler.
CTV News
10-07-2025
- Automotive
- CTV News
Grok AI to be available in Tesla vehicles next week, Musk says
Tesla and SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk attends the first plenary session on of the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023 in Bletchley, England. (Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP, File) Grok AI will be available in Tesla vehicles next week 'at the latest,' the EV maker's CEO, Elon Musk, said in a post on X on Thursday. Musk's AI startup xAI launched Grok 4, its latest flagship AI model, on Wednesday. While Musk had earlier said Tesla vehicles would be equipped with Grok, the billionaire CEO had not shared a timeline. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The AI chatbot has been in hot water this week after social media posts on its X account were removed after complaints from X users and the Anti-Defamation League that Grok produced content with antisemitic tropes and praise for Adolf Hitler. (Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Maju Samuel))
