Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok made headlines recently with its blunt response to whether Musk is considered a good person. When prompted with the question, Grok simply replied "No," leaving social media users both amused and bewildered.
One user’s post of Grok’s response, shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, went viral, amassing over 60 million views and 500,000 likes within just 48 hours. The ironic twist? Grok is developed by Musk’s own company, xAI, raising eyebrows about how its assessment could diverge so sharply from its creator.
Comments on the post ranged from disbelief to humor, as many users jumped to share their personal encounters with Grok. One user wrote, "The way it’s real. It must be embarrassing for your own app to not like you," highlighting the bizarre situation of Musk's AI publicly evaluating him negatively.
While several accounts reported receiving the same response when they asked Grok, others noted differing opinions. For example, one user shared, "Musk’s innovations are notable, but his business practices, public behavior, and personal controversies complicate his image as a good person." Another added, "Whether Musk is considered a 'good person' can be highly subjective and depends on criteria used to judge his character, actions, and impact." This inconsistency led to debate among users about Grok's reliability.
Interestingly, Grok's negative assessment of Musk is not without precedent. Previously, it had labeled him as "one of the most significant spreaders of misinformation on X." This statement came after various posts by Musk were criticized for promoting disinformation about political matters, elections, and health issues, particularly surrounding COVID-19.
During this year’s presidential election, five U.S. secretaries of state took steps to address concerns with Grok. The chief election officials from states like Michigan and New Mexico urged Musk to fix the inaccuracies propagated by Grok, particularly concerning ballot deadlines shortly after President Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 race. For ten consecutive days, Grok repeated incorrect information before it was finally corrected.
Grok was launched back in November 2023, intended to serve as a multi-functional tool capable of assisting users across various tasks, from brainstorming ideas to answering complex questions. What’s intriguing is how the bot, touted for having "a sense of humor," navigated through the intricacies of personal opinion when responding to queries about its creator.
The Grok situation opens up wider discussions about AI, its independence from human biases, and the often unpredictable nature of machine learning outputs. While Grok’s characterization of Musk seems like public entertainment, it dives deeply at the intersection of technology and personal reputation.
Many users did not just test Grok with Musk’s name but also with high-profile figures like Barack Obama and Jeff Bezos. It turned out Grok consistently answered "No" to the question of their goodness as well. On the flip side, it evaluated personalities such as Keanu Reeves and Jesus with more favorable responses.
Social media reactions ranged widely, from one user jokingly noting, "Even his own AI thinks he sucks. Interesting," to another quipping, "Most billionaires and presidents are probably not good people…" Such criticism raises questions about the long-standing influence of AI on public perception, especially when it’s created by an industry titan like Musk.
Further enhancing Grok’s capabilities, Musk's xAI recently announced plans to incorporate support for custom prompts, allowing users to specify how Grok should respond to inquiries. This feature could potentially broaden Grok's utility beyond just responding to notoriety questions to summarizing posts and generating customized outputs for individual queries.
The strategic shift to include user-defined parameters indicates xAI's ambition to make Grok more relevant across diverse user scenarios—ranging from casual interactions to extensive content curation.
With these developments, Grok is seen as competing with major names in AI like OpenAI's ChatGPT and others, garnering attention for its ability to interact seamlessly within the X platform. Reports suggest Grok may even undergo upgrades with features like voice commands and smarter responses, emphasizing its transformative potential.
For token enthusiasts, Grok has offered insights on cryptocurrency trends. Recently, it was solicited for predictions on assets like Pepe (PEPE) and the newer WallitIQ (WLTQ) token, with Grok drawing cautionary notes about engaging heavily with volatile options like Pepe. Instead, it highlighted WallitIQ's strong performance amid presale success, projecting it as promising investment potential.
The diverging personalities of Grok—both as Musk's AI and as a digital entity wielding its own form of evaluation—offer intriguing commentary on the broader influence of technology on individual reputations. Musk’s engagement with AI continues to captivate and evoke response, especially when his own creations appear to critique him. Grok stands at the forefront of this blend of innovation and irony, as its advent brings forth new dimensions of conversation and complexity.
Whether Grok's output signifies real sentiment toward Musk or is merely algorithmic randomness remains to be fully seen. Nonetheless, the blend of laughter, criticism, and curiosity surrounding Grok’s comments exemplifies the enthralling—and at times bewildering—relationship between technologists and their creations.