Jaspreet Bindra: Grok reflects the personality of its owner Elon Musk

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. It was in October 2022 that Elon Musk was being grilled by Financial Times editor Roula Khalaf on his provocative usage of Twitter, and how it landed him so often in trouble with the establishment, the platform itself and other users (on.ft.com/4hDvxmi). Musk laughingly retorted, “Aren’t you entertained? I play the fool on Twitter and often shoot myself in the foot and cause myself all sorts of trouble..." Musk has solved a large part of the problem by buying Twitter (now X) and becoming a part to the establishment.

But the entertainment continues, albeit at a higher scale and powered by AI. Grok, the X.ai chatbot born of Twitter, is causing waves with its caustic, provocative and often deeply embarrassing answers to millions of queries. Some of them are plain humorous, where Grok banters with the Delhi Police, saying it could not get a driving ticket since it’s a digital entity that cannot drive.

But many of them cross the line—its use of Hindi expletives, for instance. Other replies tread into uncomfortable political zones, be it while reflecting on interviews of the Prime Minister or offering “candid facts" on national leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru or minority rights. Grok delights some, angers others, but never fails to entertain.

Grok is not the first powerful AI chatbot out there. While ChatGPT has had its own quirks—it declared its undying love for an NYT reporter—and Google’s Gemini displayed its ‘wokeness’ by showing African-American founding fathers of the US, these issues have been bugs rather than features. They have been fixed and the companies behind them have issued public apologies.