Musk reshapes Groke ai after repulsion against anti-Semitist reactions
Elon Musk faces backlash after Grok Ai made anti-Semitic remarks. Critics say that mask tweaks to the model will pilot it from a fact-based response.
- Elon Musk has announced the latest version of his AI chatbot, Grok 4, claiming to be “the smartest AI in the world.”
- The launch follows a controversial post from Glock praises Hitler, who Musk has not been working on during the demonstrations.
- The Grok 4 is available in two paid classes, while the Grok 3 is free to use.
A day after his chatbot Grok had a Nazi meltdown, Elon Musk trumpeted the launch of the Grok 4 in a live, one-hour late-night demo.
Joined by researchers from his artificial intelligence company Xai, the billionaire tech monarch has performed mental gymnastics from the flagship chatbot, from solving complex math problems to predicting World Series winners.
“This is the smartest AI in the world,” Musk said Wednesday.
He praised Adolph Hitler and did not mention Grok’s series of viral posts on the X social media platform, which he calls itself “Mechahitler.”
Xai, who owns X, said on Tuesday that she “takes action to ban hate speech prior to X’s Grok post.”
On Grok 4 Livestream, Musk said that AI is the most important thing to do is “seek the greatest truth.”
Musk also said that AI systems should be optimized “to seek the most” and “encourage them to be true, honorable and good, like the value they want to see into children who will eventually grow and become very powerful.”
What is Grok 4?
Grok 4 is the latest version of the large language model. Xai launched two versions of the model on Wednesday: the Grok 4 and the more powerful Grok 4 Heavy.
Users can access Grok 4 for $30 a month. The Grok 4 heavy cost is $300 a month.
Grok 2 debuted last August. Grok 3, released in February, is free to use.
What is Grok?
Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, founded Xai in 2023 as a Google challenger for Openai and Alphabet, backed by Microsoft.
He has long been interested in AI and co-founded Openai, a ChatGpt maker, in 2015 as a non-profit research institute. He broke ties in 2018 and repeatedly clashed with the organization.
After ChatGpt captured the public imagination, marveled at the ability of millions of people to make their sound like real people while talking to complex questions, Musk complained that the chatbot had torn liberal prejudices on issues like diversity and transgender rights. He said part of the motivation to start a rival AI company is to fight against “awakening” AI.
“Grok is designed to answer questions a little more witty and have a rebellious streak,” Xai said when he released the chatbot.
“Mecha Hitler”: Glock goes wrong
In May, the chatbot began posting about the “white genocide” of white South Africans in response to unrelated questions. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said accusations of racial persecution of white South Africans were “a totally false story.”
Zai later condemned the “false fix” and said the issue had been fixed.
Last month, Musk expressed his dissatisfaction with Grok being “parrot’s legacy media” and updating Grok. He asked users to provide politically false statements that were “nevertheless, effectively true.”
On Wednesday, Musk said the latest update fixed the chatbot, saying it was “too complicated for user prompts” and “too enthusiastic.”
That day, X CEO Linda Jaccarino announced that he would resign in two years. She did not provide any reason for her decision.
“These are still primitive tools, not the type of tools used by serious commercial companies,” Musk told Grok LiveStream.
