"Grok-4" Faces Criticism for Relying on Elon Musk's Views on Controversial Issues
The chatbot "Grok-4" (Grok-4) owned by "xAI" company, belonging to Elon Musk, has sparked wide controversy since its launch on Wednesday, as users and media noticed its reliance on some of Musk's personal views in controversial issues.
CNBC revealed that the robot, when asked about its stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, searched for Musk's opinions online and on the "X" platform before answering. When asked to choose a stance in one word, it appeared in the log that "Grok-4" relied on the American billionaire's statements.
The robot also explicitly pointed out Musk's preferences in other cases, such as his support for the Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa in the New York City mayoral race, describing him as focusing on crime-fighting, a stance Elon Musk frequently adopts. However, "Grok" did not always rely on Musk's views in all controversial questions, as the results varied with changes in the question format.
It is worth noting that Musk previously described "Grok" as an artificial intelligence model "opposed to cancel culture" and "seeking absolute truth", confirming the superiority of the fourth version in standardized tests and its ability to handle topics at a doctoral level.
The launch of "Grok-4" came just days after criticisms were directed at its predecessor, "Grok-3", for being involved in issuing anti-Semitic comments, including implicit praise for Adolf Hitler. The robot's official account acknowledged the presence of "inappropriate posts", and measures were taken to ban hate speech before publishing any content on "X".
Previously, "Grok" faced criticism in May for answering out of context about the so-called "white genocide" in South Africa. Musk also supported a post last month accusing the robot of "left-wing ideological programming", commenting that his team is working to correct this bias.
These challenges coincide with Musk's efforts to improve the robot's performance, after promising users to notice a "significant change" in its answers.
