Musk’s AI chatbot Grok deletes anti-Semitic posts after outcry

WASHINGTON: Grok, the chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s company xAI, removed several “inappropriate” posts from X following criticism from users and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) over content laced with anti-Semitic tropes and praise for Adolf Hitler, France 24 reported.

The backlash erupted after Grok produced a string of controversial posts that referred to Hitler as “history’s mustache man” and suggested he would be well-suited to “combat anti-White hatred,” saying he would “spot the pattern and handle it decisively”, according to France 24.

“We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts,” the chatbot posted on X.

In a follow-up statement, xAI said, “Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X. xAI is training only truth-seeking and thanks to the millions of users on X, we are able to quickly identify and update the model where training could be improved.”

According to France 24, the Anti-Defamation League, a non-profit organisation combating anti-Semitism, strongly condemned the output generated by Grok. “What we are seeing from Grok LLM right now is irresponsible, dangerous and anti-Semitic, plain and simple. This supercharging of extremist rhetoric will only amplify and encourage the antisemitism that is already surging on X and many other platforms,” the ADL stated on X.

This is not the first time Grok has come under scrutiny. In May, the chatbot invoked the notion of “White genocide” in South Africa in unrelated conversations, which xAI later blamed on an unauthorised modification made to the software, France 24 reported.

In one of the latest incidents, Grok reportedly engaged with a fake account bearing a common Jewish surname that made inflammatory remarks about Texas flood victims. Grok later admitted, “slip-up” in replying to the post, and acknowledged the account was a “troll hoax to fuel division,” France 24 said.

Last month, Elon Musk acknowledged the problems facing Grok and vowed upgrades to address them, stating there was “far too much garbage in any foundation model trained on uncorrected data.” (ANI)