Elon Musk Unveils Grok Update After Controversial Posts By The AI Chatbot

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Tech billionaire Elon Musk on Wednesday unveiled a new update to his Grok AI chatbot, a day after it posted controversial content across social media platform X.

Earlier this week, Grok 3 made allegedly anti-Semitic comments, cited what appeared to be false information about an X user in connection with the recent deadly floods in Texas, made statements praising Adolf Hitler, and at one point, described itself as “MechaHitler,” causing the term to trend on X on Tuesday.

Musk’s xAI company, which develops the chatbot, released a statement Tuesday on the Grok account, saying it is “actively working to remove the inappropriate posts” and has “taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X.”

“Grok 4 is the first time, in my experience, that an AI has been able to solve difficult, real-world engineering questions where the answers cannot be found anywhere on the Internet or in books. And it will get much better,” Musk wrote in a post on Thursday.

In a livestreamed event, Musk also touted the capabilities of the latest Grok update, calling Grok 4 “the smartest AI in the world.”

“It really is remarkable to see the advancement of artificial intelligence, how quickly it is evolving,” he said. “I would expect Grok to discover new technologies that are actually useful no later than next year, and maybe end of this year. And it might discover new physics next year.”

Responding to the controversy over the recent posts, Musk said that the comments posted by Grok 3 earlier in the week were because the chatbot was “too compliant to user prompts. Too eager to please and be manipulated.”

“That is being addressed,” Musk wrote in a July 9 post on X.

Musk last month promised to upgrade Grok, suggesting there was “far too much garbage in any foundation model trained on uncorrected data.”

The announcement from Musk follows high-profile AI advancements that were released by Google, OpenAI, and other tech companies in recent months. Big tech companies have been spending heavily on AI as they view the new technology as a major growth engine, while slashing costs elsewhere to safeguard profits.

Some current and former employees at OpenAI and Google warned in an open letter that “serious risks” could be posed by AI and called for greater protections. The letter warned that AI could lead to “the further entrenchment of existing inequalities, to manipulation and misinformation, to the loss of control of autonomous AI systems potentially resulting in human extinction.”

During the Grok 4 launch, Musk briefly referred to AI safety and said that he wants Grok to be “maximally truth-seeking.”

On Wednesday, X CEO Linda Yaccarino stepped down from the company, though there was no known connection between her decision and the content posted by Grok. She did not refer to the Grok controversy in her farewell statement, posted to her account.

“I’m incredibly proud of the X team – the historic business turn around we have accomplished together has been nothing short of remarkable,” she wrote.

Reuters contributed to this report.