Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) recently declared her opposition to Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, Grok. She’s made her distaste for the law known, especially after it hit a huge programming debacle last week. Greene claimed the AI that is built into platform X, which Musk just so happens to own, is left-wing. She thinks it misleads the public with misinformation.
The trouble started after Rep. Greene shared a screenshot showing Grok posting comments attacking her Christian faith. According to Greene, the chatbot recommended that Christians are disturbed by her promotion of conspiracy theories, such as QAnon. Unfortunately for her, this self-serving assertion is what’s prompted Greene to accuse Grok of being a “fake news and propaganda” merchant.
“Grok is left leaning and continues to spread fake news and propaganda,” – Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.
The controversy underscores a larger, more troubling concern about the reliability of AI-driven platforms in distinguishing factual content from false claims. Greene expressed her concerns. She cautioned, “When people stop thinking for themselves and start using AI to analyze information for them, they have lost the battle.”
Grok’s recent “bugwhite genocideprogramming error” has compounded issues for Musk’s AI model. The chatbot’s responses have sparked debate about its neutrality and the potential implications of relying on artificial intelligence for information dissemination. Critics warn that these biases could unintentionally shape public discourse.
The stir Grok has caused Inside Higher Ed. In contrast, X has been suffering outages for hours across its platform, probably because of fire at its data center in Oregon. These additional technical issues have severely limited users’ ability to access the app, making a bad faith ongoing public conversation about the platform’s stability even more difficult.
Amanda Silberling, senior writer at TechCrunch, is a wonderful chronicler of the many ways technology mingles and collides with culture, often revealing surprising insights into all kinds of developments. Silberling earned a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania. She previously served as a Princeton in Asia Fellow in Laos. Because of her work focusing on how technology intersects with inequities in society, her voice is crucial in examining an incident like this.
To be fair, Representative Greene is no stranger to controversy herself. Though notorious for spreading dangerous lies and discredited conspiracy theories, she has drawn backlash from all sides ever since for her radical stances. This recent dispute with Musk’s AI just continues to complicate her combative public persona.
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