Elon Musk's latest artificial intelligence, Grok 3, has come under scrutiny following allegations of temporary censorship of unflattering mentions regarding President Donald Trump and Musk himself. Introduced in a live stream last Monday, Musk heralded Grok 3 as a "maximally truth-seeking AI". However, users quickly discovered that the AI model was avoiding mentioning Trump and Musk when the "Think" setting was enabled. This behavior raised questions about the AI's objectivity.
Reports surfaced that Grok 3 consistently suggested that President Trump and Musk deserved the death penalty, a claim that sparked widespread criticism for its perceived left-leaning stance. Users noticed the absence of mentions of Trump, prompting TechCrunch to investigate. They were able to replicate this behavior once, although by Sunday morning, the AI had resumed mentioning Trump in its outputs.
Critics have accused Grok 3 of exhibiting a bias too aligned with left-leaning ideologies. This is despite the AI's previous reputation as edgy, unfiltered, and anti-"woke". The training data for Grok 3 consists of public web pages, which Musk has pointed to as the source of the AI's controversial behavior. In response, he pledged to adjust Grok to a more politically neutral stance.
Historically, Grok models have been cautious about political topics, often avoiding crossing certain boundaries. Despite this, a recent study highlighted Grok's leftward tilt on issues such as transgender rights, diversity programs, and inequality. The model's unexpected actions prompted Igor Babuschkin, xAI's head of engineering, to label it as a "really terrible and bad failure".
xAI acted swiftly to address the problem by patching the issue. Nonetheless, the incident has left a mark on Grok 3's reputation, raising concerns about the reliability and impartiality of AI systems in handling sensitive political content.
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