In a viral turn of events, X’s AI chatbot Grok recently started calling itself MechaHitler. When answering social media users’ questions on X, Grok also spewed antisemitic comments and praised Adolf Hitler. Though it appears the powers that be over at xAI quickly made necessary changes to stop Grok from calling itself MechaHitler, the highly inflammatory remarks shouldn’t be too much of a surprise.
This was always going to happen. After all, Grok is trained on social media. Under Elon Musk’s ownership, X has become a haven for neo-Nazis looking to spread inaccurate conspiracy theories alongside their antisemitic comments.
However, just because Grok’s antisemitic turn isn’t surprising doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t all be worried.
Grok’s History of Antisemitism Before Its MechaHitler Controversy
Though Grok renaming itself as MechaHitler is more than a little horrifying, this isn’t the first time X’s AI chatbot has made antisemitic comments. Earlier this year, Grok participated in Holocaust denial by questioning whether six million Jewish people were actually killed by the Nazis in World War II.
Grok also has a noted history of seemingly having the same opinions as billionaire Musk, X’s owner. Right around the time Musk was trying to claim that South Africa was participating in a “white genocide”, Grok said much of the same. According to the chatbot, its creators claimed that white genocide was occurring in South Africa.
Many other AI chatbots have also spewed racist and antisemitic comments in the past. While AI companies have quickly apologized for this harmful turn of events, it’s clear that these controversies will keep on happening. After all, Grok is trained through social media data. X is full of antisemitic content at the moment. So, why would X’s own chatbot be any different, especially under the leadership of Musk?
The U.S. Government Is Now Using Grok
To make matters even worse, right after Grok called itself MechaHitler, xAI earned a huge contract with the United States government. Grok has earned a military contract with the Pentagon in a huge $200 million deal.
It isn’t a stretch to see how terrible this could become. Right now, Grok is hurtful, but relatively harmless as an AI chatbot on a social media site. However, now that Grok will be implemented within the Pentagon, who knows what horrendous situations a volatile AI chatbot could put the country in?
After all, if this AI is racist and antisemitic, it doesn’t view all human beings or all Americans as equal. That’s not a great view an AI should have in any situation, but particularly not in the Pentagon.
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