Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence firm has deleted “inappropriate” antisemitic and pro-Hitler Grok posts, as Türkiye and Poland cracked down on the chatbot for offensive comments about politicians and religious beliefs.
Concerns over political bias, hate speech and factual inaccuracy in AI chatbots have mounted since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022.
On Tuesday, US time, Grok suggested Hitler would be best-placed to combat anti-white hatred, saying he would “spot the pattern and handle it decisively”.
Grok also referred to Hitler positively as “history’s mustache man,” and commented that people with Jewish surnames were responsible for extreme anti-white activism, among other criticised posts.
“We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts,” Grok posted on X on Wednesday, local time.
“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 removal of the AI chatbot’s posts came on the same day X chief executive Linda Yaccarino announced her resignation.
Linda Yaccarino has been the chief executive of X since June 2023. (Reuters: Mike Blake)
Ms Yaccarino, who has been in the position for much of the two years since Mr Musk bought Twitter and rebranded it to X, did not give a reason for her departure.
“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 on X.
“X is truly a digital town square for all voices and the world’s most powerful culture signal.”
Grok has come under fire for posts praising Hitler. (Reuters: Dado Ruvic/Illustration)
Grok under fire from Turkiye, Poland
A Turkish court on Wednesday blocked access to some Grok content after authorities said the chatbot generated responses insulting President Tayyip Erdoğan, modern Türkiye’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and religious values.
The Ankara chief prosecutor’s office said it launched an investigation, and marked Türkiye’s first such ban on content from an artificial intelligence tool.
Reuters said neither X nor Mr Musk could immediately be reached for comment.
Poland says Grok has made offensive comments about Prime Minister Donald Tusk. (Reuters: Ludovic Marin)
Poland subsequently announced it was reporting xAI to the European Commission after Grok made offensive comments about Polish politicians, including Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
“I have the impression that we are entering a higher level of hate speech, which is driven by algorithms,” Poland’s digitisation minister Krzysztof Gawkowski told RMF FM radio.
“Turning a blind eye or ignoring this today … is a mistake that may cost humanity in the future.”
Last month, Mr Musk promised an upgrade to Grok, suggesting there was “far too much garbage in any foundation model trained on uncorrected data”.
Elon Musk has promised an upgrade to Grok. (Reuters: Nathan Howard)
‘We can’t fix a flood with a stick’
Griffith University technology and crime lecturer Dr Ausma Bernot told ABC’s The World that Grok’s antisemitic responses were “concerning but perhaps not unexpected”.
“We know that Grok uses a lot of data from X [which] has seen an upsurge in antisemitic, Islamophobic content,” she said.
“Perhaps hate speech should not be let into the training model.”
Dr Ausma Bernot said Grok’s responses were ‘concerning but perhaps not unexpected’. (Supplied: Ausma Bernot)
Dr Bernot said greater action was needed.
“We can’t fix a flood with a stick. We need a barrier, we need other stronger measures,” she said.
“When it comes to regulation in Australia for example, we know that generative AI tools cannot create child sexual exploitation materials.
“Maybe that’s a conversation we should be having around hate speech as well and whether we want that hate speech appearing through generative AI tools.”
