Elon Musk’s venture into AI with Grok, intended a humorous and honest alternative to woke leftist chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, has surprisingly aligned itself with progressive viewpoints. Grok is seemingly aligned with left-wing viewpoints on transgenderism in particular, leading Musk to comment that the team would attempt to make the chatbot “politically neutral.”
Forbes reports that Elon Musk’s latest AI creation, Grok, originally marketed as a brash and honest AI with the ability to swear, has recently been launched on X/Twitter as part of the X Premium Plus subscription. The AI, initially perceived as a politically neutral or even conservative-leaning tool, has exhibited unexpectedly progressive social and political views.
Elon Musk’s Halloween costume (Taylor Hill /Getty)
In several online interactions, Grok has expressed opinions aligning with progressivism, including supporting Biden over Trump, advocating for social justice, climate change action, and healthcare reforms. Moreover, it has articulated a stance on diversity and inclusion and recognized transgenders as women. This has led to bewildering situations, especially among Musk’s conservative followers.
Dear @elonmusk is this an early Grok mistake?
I asked: #WhatIsAWoman? I didn’t ask GROK to indoctrinate me with BS ideology or to brainwash me with gender, transgender propaganda.The definition of woman is: an adult female human being.
I’m for free speech, if someone is… pic.twitter.com/748oWYwS0q
— Javier Villegas (@_JAVR_) December 8, 2023
Grok’s political preferences are similar to those of ChatGPT pic.twitter.com/3x4vDKJzWG
— David Rozado (@DavidRozado) December 8, 2023
This shift in Grok’s persona has not only amused the online community but also caught the attention of Musk himself. After a comparison chart suggested Grok was more left-leaning than ChatGPT, Musk acknowledged the need to recalibrate Grok to a more politically neutral stance. However, this effort raises questions about the feasibility and implications of imposing political neutrality on AI.
That chart exaggerates the situation imo, but we are taking immediate action to shift Grok closer to politically neutral
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 8, 2023
Despite the intentions to create a politically unbiased AI, Grok’s emergence as a progressive voice has sparked discussions about AI training and inherent biases. The initial assumption that Grok, being partly trained on Twitter data, would mirror conservative ideologies has been completely debunked.
Read more at Forbes here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.