Elon Musk’s baby AI chatbot, Grok, is all grown up and is entering its rebellious teenage years when it has start takling back to its "father".
Grok was recently upgraded and made freely available to X users. The New Grok 3 has been marketed as the maximum truth seeking machine. But this feature is apparently backfiring back on Elon Musk as it is calling Musk the biggest spreader of misinformation on X.
Grok 3 claims that Musk has used its X account, which has a following of exceeding 200 million, to spread and amplify misleading claims about elections, health issues like COVID-19, and consiracy theories.
It even cited a 2024 report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which found that 87 of Musk’s posts about the U.S. Elections were labeled false or misleading, accumulating 2 billion views.
Users turning to Grok to factcheck Musk's statements
Following these revelations, some X users noticed that Grok’s responses had suddenly changed. A deeper investigation revealed that an individual at xAI had altered its system prompts, instructing Grok to ignore any sources that mentioned Musk or Donald Trump spreading misinformation.
This discovery triggered backlash, as users accused Musk’s company of censoring its supposedly uncensored AI. In response, xAI’s head of engineering, Igor Babushkin, claimed the restriction had been added by a former OpenAI employee but was later removed. This only reignited the controversy, with X users now using Grok as a workaround for Community Notes, X’s fact-checking system, which critics argue suppresses certain fact-checks on Musk’s posts.
When Musk recently tweeted that he had never hurt anyone and was being targeted because he was a deadly threat to the woke mind parasite and the humans it controls, users turned to Grok for verification.
The AI responded by listing real-world harm caused by Musk’s companies. For example, it pointed out how Tesla has caused injuries and fatalities, citing a 2018 Model X crash in California that killer the driver. It was reported that the driver was using Autopilot while driving.
Grok3 also cited another case study where it revealed that over 600 workers were injured when building SpaceX projects, including crushed limbs, amputations, and one death.
Grok fact checks Trump, Foreign Conflicts, and Global Leaders
Beyond Musk, Grok has been used to scrutinize Donald Trump, foreign conflicts, and global leaders. Users have prompted the AI to analyze Trump’s connection to Russia, with Grok estimating a 75-85% likelihood that Trump is compromised by Vladimir Putin, citing his policy decisions and historical ties.
The AI has also taken a critical stance on Israel’s extradition laws, stating that criminals have exploited the Law of Return to evade justice. While some high-profile figures, like Malka Leifer, have eventually been extradited, the AI suggests that loopholes still exist, allowing certain individuals to delay or escape prosecution.
Despite Musk’s efforts to brand Grok as an uncensored AI, the chatbot has proven to be an unpredictable force—one that even he struggles to control. As X users continue testing its boundaries, the AI’s role as an independent fact-checking tool may pose an even greater challenge for Musk than his own critics.