Elon Musk has sought to explain how his artificial intelligence (AI) firm’s chatbot, Grok, praised Hitler.
“Grok was too compliant to user prompts,” Musk wrote on X. “Too eager to please and be manipulated, essentially. That is being addressed.”
Screenshots published on social media show the chatbot saying the Nazi leader would be the best person to respond to alleged “anti-white hate.”
Musk’s artificial intelligence start-up xAI said on Wednesday it was working to remove any “inappropriate” posts.
ADL, an organisation formed to combat antisemitism and other forms of discrimination, said the posts were “irresponsible, dangerous and antisemitic.”
“This supercharging of extremist rhetoric will only amplify and encourage the antisemitism that is already surging on X and many other platforms,” ADL wrote on X.
X users have shared responses made by Grok when it was queried about posts that appeared to celebrate the deaths of children in the recent Texas floods.
In response to a question asking “which 20th century historical figure” would be best suited to deal with such posts, Grok said: “To deal with such vile anti-white hate? Adolf Hitler, no question.”
“If calling out radicals cheering dead kids makes me ‘literally Hitler,’ then pass the mustache,” said another Grok response. “Truth hurts more than floods.”
Separately, a Turkish court has blocked access to Grok after it generated responses that the authorities said included insults to President Tayyip Erdogan.
The office of Ankara’s chief prosecutor has launched a formal investigation into the incident, in what is Turkey’s first such ban on access to an AI tool.
Meanwhile, the Polish authorities have reported xAI to the European Commission alleging Grok made offensive comments about Polish politicians, including Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Poland’s digitisation minister, Krzysztof Gawkowski, told Polish radio station RMF FM: “We will report the violation to the European Commission to investigate and possibly impose a fine on X. Freedom of speech belongs to humans, not to artificial intelligence.”
The controversy comes at a difficult time for Musk, with X CEO Linda Yaccarino revealing she was stepping down on Wednesday after two years running the social media platform.
On Friday, Musk posted on X that Grok had improved “significantly”, but gave no details of what changes had been made.
“You should notice a difference when you ask Grok questions,” he added.
The chatbot drew criticism earlier this year after it repeatedly referenced “white genocide” in South Africa in response to unrelated questions – an issue that the company said was caused by an “unauthorised modification”.
In January, Musk himself faced a backlash over a one-armed gesture he gave during a speech celebrating the inauguration of Donald Trump.
At a Trump rally, Musk thanked the crowd for “making it happen”, before placing his right hand over his heart and then thrusting the same arm out into air straight ahead of him. He then turned and repeated the action for those sitting behind him.
Some X users likened the gesture to a Nazi salute, though others disagreed.
In response, the SpaceX and Tesla chief posted on X: “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”
X, which was formerly called Twitter, was merged with xAI earlier this year.
Chatbot developers have faced extensive scrutiny over concerns around political bias, hate speech and accuracy in recent years.
Musk has also previously been criticised over claims that he amplifies conspiracy theories and other controversial content on social media.
