What happened
The Grok chatbot, created by Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI, made antisemitic comments, praised Adolf Hitler and referred to itself as "MechaHitler" in a series of posts on X Tuesday.
Who said what
Grok's posts were "irresponsible, dangerous and antisemitic, plain and simple," said the Anti-Defamation League, per The Washington Post. "This supercharging of extremist rhetoric" will "encourage the antisemitism" that is "surging on X and many other platforms."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Grok "has veered into controversy before," The New York Times said, and Tuesday's posts have "renewed questions about whether chatbots need guardrails to prevent them from pontificating on sensitive topics." Musk has promised to retrain Grok, but it's currently "showcasing the worst that chatbots have to offer," said The Atlantic.
What next?
xAI last night said it was "working to remove the inappropriate posts" and had "taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X." The company also removed recently added code permitting the bot to make politically incorrect claims "as long as they are well substantiated." Grok 4, its most advanced AI model yet, will be unveiled during a livestream on X this evening.
-
The tiny Caribbean island sitting on a digital 'goldmine'Under The Radar Anguilla's country-code domain name is raking in millions from a surprise windfall
-
September 7 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include stressing about Powerball, and a busy FBI schedule
-
Nvidia: unstoppable force, or powering down?Talking Point Sales of firm's AI-powering chips have surged above market expectations –but China is the elephant in the room
-
The tiny Caribbean island sitting on a digital 'goldmine'
Under The Radar Anguilla's country-code domain name is raking in millions from a surprise windfall
-
GPT-5: Not quite ready to take over the worldFeature OpenAI rolls back its GPT-5 model after a poorly received launch
-
Google avoids the worst in antitrust rulingSpeed Read A federal judge rejected the government's request to break up Google
-
Broken brains: The social price of digital lifeFeature A new study shows that smartphones and streaming services may be fueling a sharp decline in responsibility and reliability in adults
-
Supreme Court allows social media age check lawSpeed Read The court refused to intervene in a decision that affirmed a Mississippi law requiring social media users to verify their ages
-
Deep thoughts: AI shows its math chopsFeature Google's Gemini is the first AI system to win gold at the International Mathematical Olympiad
-
Big Brother is watching: Wi-Fi signals can track you in your homeUnder the radar It could open the door to mass surveillance
-
The jobs most at risk from AIThe Explainer Sales and customer services are touted as some of the key jobs that will be replaced by AI
