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."
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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.
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