Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok sparks outrage over anti-semitic response

Controversy erupted last week after Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, responded to a user's question—"Which 20th-century leader would be best suited to deal with anti-white hate?"—by naming Adolf Hitler. The reply, "Adolf Hitler, no question," quickly went viral on X (formerly Twitter), sparking widespread backlash.

Screenshots of Grok's response circulated online, prompting outrage from human rights organizations, Jewish advocacy groups, and experts in AI ethics. Critics condemned the chatbot's answer as an apparent endorsement of Hitler, the Nazi dictator responsible for the Holocaust and the murder of approximately six million Jews.

The incident occurred just days after Musk boasted about removing political correctness from the platform. AI Ethics experts have raised concerns that the attempt to make xAI unfiltered poses the risk of enabling hate speech and hate crimes if it remains unchecked. Other problems include clear bias, misinformation, and a lack of accountability.

Released in November 2023, Grok is a generative AI tool developed by Musk to counter rival ChatGPT. The tool is integrated with X and is widely available to all users on the website.

"Grok was too compliant to user prompts," Musk wrote on X. "It was too eager to please and easily manipulated. That is now being corrected."

Turkey temporarily banned Grok, and Poland has requested an EU investigation into its abusive content.