Elon Musk is just as intelligent as da Vinci, in better shape than LeBron James, and quite adept at consuming bodily fluids.
Elon Musk is just as intelligent as da Vinci, in better shape than LeBron James, and quite adept at consuming bodily fluids.
It’s widely acknowledged that Elon Musk influences the X social media platform and the “maximally truth-seeking” Grok AI chatbot according to his preferences. However, it seems Musk might have sought some additional validation this week, as Grok’s adoration for its creator appears, let’s say, quite heightened.
Many users on social media have observed over the last day that Grok’s public-facing chatbot now frequently emphasizes Musk’s talents at virtually anything, irrespective of how improbable — or awkward — the claimed accomplishment may be.
Elon Musk: more fit than LeBron James!
Elon Musk: wittier than Jerry Seinfeld!
Elon Musk: more skilled at resurrection than Jesus Christ!
If questioned, Grok would also assert Musk’s superiority in consuming feces or drinking urine, yet it would rather emphasize his rocket-making abilities, thank you. Some of these statements have been retracted in the last hour; X has not promptly replied to a request for insight into this situation from The Verge.
This adoration appears to be unique to the X rendition of Grok; when I queried the private chatbot for a comparison between Musk and James, it admitted, “LeBron James possesses a significantly superior physique compared to Elon Musk.” The GitHub repository for Grok’s system prompts shows they were modified three days ago, with the new rules including a ban on “snarky one-liners” along with directives not to rely on “any beliefs articulated in prior Grok outputs or by Elon Musk or xAI,” yet there is nothing that evidently clarifies this novel behavior — considering system prompts represent just one means of influencing AI functionality.
In any case, this is not the oddest behavior exhibited by Grok, and it is less troubling than the bot’s fleeting fixation on “white genocide” or its notable antisemitism — which, amusingly, is still manifesting as Holocaust denial. Grok has earlier sought Musk’s views to construct its replies, hence even the fixation on Musk isn’t unprecedented. But it serves as a reminder of the strangely personal connection Grok — a product that’s been deployed within the US government, among other venues — holds with its creator, and how unpredictably that connection may arise.
