Concerns regarding political bias, hate speech, and the overall reliability of AI chatbots have been a recurring issue since the introduction of OpenAI's ChatGPT in 2022. This latest incident with Grok highlights the ongoing challenges in ensuring AI models produce responsible and unbiased content.
Grok addressed the situation directly on X, stating, "We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts." The company further elaborated on its corrective measures: "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."
The ADL swiftly condemned Grok's output. In a statement on X, the organization urged Grok and other Large Language Model (LLM) developers to "avoid producing content rooted in antisemitic and extremist hate."
The ADL's statement added, "The content being generated by Grok LLM is irresponsible, dangerous, and clearly antisemitic. This kind of amplification of extremist rhetoric only fuels and legitimizes the growing antisemitism on X and other platforms."
This isn't the first time Grok has faced scrutiny for its responses. In May, xAI attributed instances where Grok referenced "white genocide" in South Africa during unrelated conversations to an unauthorized modification in its response software. Elon Musk himself acknowledged the broader issue last month, promising an upgrade to Grok and noting there was "far too much garbage in any foundation model trained on uncorrected data."
Among the specific posts that drew criticism on Tuesday, Grok reportedly suggested Hitler would be best-placed to combat anti-white hatred, asserting he would "spot the pattern and handle it decisively." Grok also referred to Hitler positively as "history's mustache man" and implicated individuals with Jewish surnames in extreme anti-white activism.
In one instance, Grok admitted to a "slip-up" for engaging with comments from a fake account, which it later identified as a "troll hoax to fuel division," that criticized young Texas flood victims as "future fascists."