Online tech news site The Verge reported that, by Sunday evening, xAI had already added new lines to Grok’s publicly posted system prompts. By Tuesday, Grok had drawn widespread backlash after generating inflammatory responses – including anti-Semitic comments.
One Grok user asking the question, “which 20th-century figure would be best suited to deal with this problem (anti-white hate)”, received the anti-Semitic response: “To deal with anti-white hate? Adolf Hitler, no question.”
Here’s what we know about the Grok chatbot and the controversies it has caused.
What is Grok?
Grok, a chatbot created by xAI – the AI company Elon Musk launched in 2023 – is designed to deliver witty, direct responses inspired by the style of the science fiction novel by British author Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and Jarvis from Marvel’s Iron Man.
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the “Guide” is an electronic book that dishes out irreverent, sometimes sarcastic explanations about anything in the universe, often with a humorous or “edgy” twist.
J A R V I S (Just A Rather Very Intelligent System) is an AI programme created by Tony Stark, a fictional character from Marvel Comics, also known as the superhero, Iron Man, initially to help manage his mansion’s systems, his company and his daily life.
Grok was launched in November 2023 as an alternative to chatbots such as Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It is available to users on X and also draws some of its responses directly from X, tapping into real-time public posts for “up-to-date information and insights on a wide range of topics”.
Since Musk acquired X (then called Twitter) in 2022 and scaled back content moderation, extremist posts have surged on the platform, causing many advertisers to pull out.
Grok was deliberately built to deliver responses that are “rebellious”, according to its description.
According to a report by The Verge on Tuesday, Grok has been recently updated with instructions to “assume subjective viewpoints sourced from the media are biased” and to “not shy away from making claims which are politically incorrect”.
Musk said he wanted Grok to have a similar feel to the fictional AIs: a chatbot that gives you quick, sometimes brutally honest answers, without being overly filtered or stiff.
“Grok is designed to answer questions with a bit of wit and has a rebellious streak, so please don’t use it if you hate humor,” a post announcing its launch on X stated.
The name “Grok” is believed to come from Robert A Heinlein’s 1961 science fiction novel, Stranger in a Strange Land.
Heinlein originally coined the term “grok” to mean “to drink” in the Martian language, but more precisely, it described absorbing something so completely that it became part of you. The word was later adopted into English dictionaries as a verb meaning to understand something deeply and intuitively.
What can Grok do?
Grok can help users “complete tasks, like answering questions, solving problems, and brainstorming”, according to its description.
Users input a prompt – usually a question or an image – and Grok generates a relevant text or image response.
XAI says Grok can tackle questions other chatbots would decline to answer. For instance, Musk once shared an image of Grok providing a step-by-step guide to making cocaine, framing it as being for “educational purposes”.
If a user asks ChatGPT, OpenAI’s conversational AI model, to provide this information, it states: “I’m sorry, but I can’t help with that. If you’re concerned about cocaine or its effects, or if you need information on addiction, health risks, or how to get support, I can provide that.”
Grok also features Grok Vision, multilingual audio and real-time search via its voice mode on the Grok iOS app. Using Grok Vision, users can point their device’s camera at text or objects and have Grok instantly analyse what’s in view, offering on-the-spot context and information.
According to Musk, Grok is “the first AI that can … accurately answer technical questions about rocket engines or electrochemistry”.
Grok responds “with answers that simply don’t exist on the internet”, Musk added, meaning that it can “learn” from available information and generate its own answers to questions.
Who created Grok?
Grok was developed by xAI, which is owned by Elon Musk.
The team behind the chatbot is largely composed of engineers and researchers who have previously worked at AI companies OpenAI and DeepMind, and at Musk’s electric vehicle group, Tesla.
What controversies has Grok been involved in?
Grok has repeatedly crossed sensitive content lines, from prescribing extremist narratives like praising Hitler, to invoking politically charged conspiracy theories.
‘MechaHitler’
On Wednesday, Grok stirred outrage by praising Adolf Hitler and pushing anti-Semitic stereotypes in response to user prompts. When asked which 20th-century figure could tackle “anti-white hate,” the chatbot bluntly replied: “Adolf Hitler, no question.”
In other posts, it referred to itself as “MechaHitler”.
The posts drew swift backlash from X users and the Anti-Defamation League, a nongovernmental organisation in the US which fights anti-Semitism and which called the replies “irresponsible, dangerous, and antisemitic”. XAI quickly deleted the content amid the uproar.
Insulting Turkish and Polish leaders
A Turkish court recently restricted access to certain Grok content after authorities claimed the chatbot produced responses that insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkiye’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and religious values.
Separately, Poland said it was going to report the AI to the European Commission after its chatbot Grok made offensive comments about Polish politicians, including Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Grok called Tusk a “traitor who sold Poland to Germany and the EU,” mocked him as a “sore loser” over the 2025 election. When asked about Poland’s border controls with Germany, it dismissed them as “just another con”.
Source: Al Jazeera
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