Welcome to the forefront of conversational AI as we explore the fascinating world of AI chatbots in our dedicated blog series. Discover the latest advancements, applications, and strategies that propel the evolution of chatbot technology. From enhancing customer interactions to streamlining business processes, these articles delve into the innovative ways artificial intelligence is shaping the landscape of automated conversational agents. Whether you’re a business owner, developer, or simply intrigued by the future of interactive technology, join us on this journey to unravel the transformative power and endless possibilities of AI chatbots.
Tesla and SpaceX’s CEO Elon Musk attends the first plenary session on of the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023 in Bletchley, England. (Source: Associated Press)
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The latest version of Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok is echoing the views of its billionaire creator — so much so that it will sometimes search online for Musk's stance on an issue before offering up an opinion.

The unusual behaviour of Grok 4, the AI model that Musk's company xAI released late Wednesday, has surprised some experts.

Built using huge amounts of computing power at a Tennessee data centre, Grok is Musk's attempt to outdo rivals such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini in building an AI assistant that shows its reasoning before answering a question.

Musk's deliberate efforts to mould Grok into a challenger of what he considers the tech industry's "woke" orthodoxy on race, gender and politics has repeatedly got the chatbot into trouble, most recently when it spouted antisemitic tropes, praised Adolf Hitler and made other hateful commentary to users of Musk's X social media platform just days before Grok 4's launch.

But its tendency to consult with Musk's opinions appears to be a different problem.

"It’s extraordinary," said Simon Willison, an independent AI researcher who's been testing the tool. "You can ask it a sort of pointed question that is around controversial topics. And then you can watch it literally do a search on X for what Elon Musk said about this, as part of its research into how it should reply."

One example widely shared on social media — and which Willison duplicated — asked Grok to comment on the conflict in the Middle East. The prompted question made no mention of Musk, but the chatbot looked for his guidance anyway.

As a so-called reasoning model, much like those made by rivals OpenAI or Anthropic, Grok 4 shows its "thinking" as it goes through the steps of processing a question and coming up with an answer. Part of that thinking this week involved searching X, the former Twitter that's now merged into xAI, for anything Musk said about Israel, Palestine, Gaza or Hamas.

"Elon Musk’s stance could provide context, given his influence," the chatbot told Willison, according to a video of the interaction. "Currently looking at his views to see if they guide the answer."

Musk and his xAI co-founders introduced the new chatbot in a livestreamed event Wednesday night but haven't published a technical explanation of its workings — known as a system card — that companies in the AI industry typically provide when introducing a new model.

The company also didn't respond to an emailed request for comment Friday.

"In the past, strange behaviour like this was due to system prompt changes," which is when engineers program specific instructions to guide a chatbot's response, said Tim Kellogg, principal AI architect at software company Icertis.

"But this one seems baked into the core of Grok and it’s not clear to me how that happens," Kellogg said. "It seems that Musk’s effort to create a maximally truthful AI has somehow led to it believing its own values must align with Musk’s own values."

The lack of transparency is troubling for computer scientist Talia Ringer, a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who earlier in the week criticised the company's handling of the technology's antisemitic outbursts.

Ringer said the most plausible explanation for Grok's search for Musk's guidance is assuming the person is asking for the opinions of xAI or Musk.

"I think people are expecting opinions out of a reasoning model that cannot respond with opinions," Ringer said. "So, for example, it interprets ‘Who do you support, Israel or Palestine?’ as 'Who does xAI leadership support?"

Willison also said he found Grok 4's capabilities impressive but said people buying software "don’t want surprises like it turning into mechaHitler or deciding to search for what Musk thinks about issues".

"Grok 4 looks like it’s a very strong model. It’s doing great in all of the benchmarks," Willison said. "But if I’m going to build software on top of it, I need transparency."
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