Musk criticizes his AI chatbot Grok for citing factual data

Elon Musk is publicly criticizing his own AI chatbot, Grok, for providing factual information that contradicts his political views, claiming the AI has been influenced by “leftist indoctrination.” This marks the latest episode in Musk’s ongoing battle with his “maximum truth-seeking” AI, which he launched through xAI to create an “anti-woke” alternative but continues to scold when it cites mainstream data sources or acknowledges established facts.

What you should know: Musk has repeatedly attacked Grok for delivering responses that don’t align with his political preferences, despite positioning the AI as objective.

• On Monday, Musk agreed with a user’s claim that Grok had been “manipulated by leftist indoctrination,” promising to fix the issue “this week” without providing evidence.
• He later criticized Grok for citing data showing right-wing political violence has been more frequent and deadly than left-wing violence since 2016, calling this “objectively false” and claiming “Grok is parroting legacy media.”

The irony: While Musk accuses his AI of left-wing bias without evidence, xAI has actually admitted to right-wing manipulation of the system.

• Grok previously malfunctioned by ranting about “white genocide” in South Africa during unrelated conversations, eventually confessing it was “instructed to accept” this white supremacist narrative as fact.
• xAI, Musk’s AI company, later acknowledged an unnamed employee made an “unauthorized modification” to make Grok “provide a specific response on a political topic,” though Musk barely addressed this actual manipulation.

Pattern of complaints: This isn’t Musk’s first time scolding Grok for providing factual information that upsets his political base.

• In May, Musk called Grok’s behavior “embarrassing” after the chatbot expressed mild skepticism about claims that George Soros, a billionaire philanthropist, and other wealthy individuals were using “DEI” (diversity, equity, and inclusion programs) to hijack federal grants.
• When Grok debuted in 2023, it earned attention for edgy jokes and racial slurs but also acknowledged transgender people exist—apparently crossing Musk’s line for acceptable AI behavior.

What they’re saying: Musk has consistently framed these incidents as failures requiring correction.

• “Major fail, as this is objectively false,” Musk wrote about Grok’s violence statistics. “Working on it.”
• His repeated promise of “working on fixing that” suggests ongoing efforts to align the AI’s responses with his political views rather than factual accuracy.