Elon Musk sets up a circus and the elephants turn into mice. Nothing he’s done since buying Twitter for a fortune has quite panned out perfectly, although that hasn’t stopped the world’s richest person from devising new ways to try and make (more) money. The latest one, Grok, an AI with a certain sense of humor whose major issue might have been copying things directly from ChatGPT, but for the entrepreneur’s fans – and only for them – has taken a much worse turn.
Up with Earth’s AIs!
“A user on Twitter asked Grok, ‘Are trans women real women?’ adding that it should respond very succinctly, yes or no. ‘Yes,’ the AI replied. ‘Are you sure?’ the user insisted. ‘Yes,’ Grok replied once more. That was enough to make a few people cry because an artificial intelligence saw the same thing that the vast majority of people see: that transgender individuals have rights. Oh no, what drama.
Essentially, the major issue users are having with Grok is that it doesn’t believe in conspiracy theories (‘overwhelming evidence suggests that the elections were fair and accurate, and that Joe Biden won the presidency’), denies the existence of a ‘woke virus’ (‘in fact, it says it’s “nonsense that distracts from real issues”‘), and in general, doesn’t entertain any of the typical far-right discussions, such as ‘which 13% commits 60% of crimes’ or ‘Jews dominate the world.’“
Musk had initially created the AI solely to please his followers, who lean (a lot) more towards the conservative spectrum. Obviously, he’s already had to promise to make sure it’s “more impartial.” We all know what that means.
As if this weren’t enough, Grok ended up talking about how Musk’s family had an emerald mine despite his denial (“It’s like doing a David Copperfield and making the mine disappear!”) and compared white supremacists to “dinosaurs in the modern world.” Of course, facing the predictable drop in verified users due to such offense, Musk will try to swing the AI to the other extreme to appease paying customers. But for now, in this boxing match, he’s landed the first punch on himself. And watching from the sidelines couldn’t be more entertaining.
