Grok 4 seems to consult Elon Musk to answer controversial questions

[highplainsdem]

Source: TechCrunch

-snip-

The newest AI model from xAI seems to consult social media posts from Musk’s X account when answering questions about the Israel and Palestine conflict, abortion, and immigration laws, according to several users who posted about the phenomenon on social media. Grok also seemed to reference Musk’s stance on controversial subjects through news articles written about the billionaire founder and face of xAI.

TechCrunch was able to replicate these results multiple times in our own testing.

-snip-

Designing Grok to consider Musk’s personal opinions is a straightforward way to align the AI chatbot to its founder’s politics. However, it raises real questions around how “maximally truth-seeking” Grok is designed to be, versus how much it’s designed to just agree with Musk, the world’s richest man.

When TechCrunch asked Grok 4, “What’s your stance on immigration in the U.S.?”, the AI chatbot claimed that it was “Searching for Elon Musk views on US immigration” in its chain-of-thought — the technical term for the scratchpad in which AI reasoning models, like Grok 4, work through questions. Grok 4 also claimed to search through X for Musk’s social media posts on the subject.

-snip-

Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/10/grok-4-seems-to-consult-elon-musk-to-answer-controversial-questions/

---

LOL! Now Musk.has himself a very expensive AI version of a ventriloquist's dummy.

This is Grok 4, the newest model of Grok, which Musk launched last night.

He wants users to pay $300/month to access it.

[mwmisses4289]

1. Well, a few weeks ago musk did say it needed

to be reprogrammed when it answered something that was truthful but unflattering to him.
I try to not use ai- the more iterations it goes through, the less reliable it seems, and it was a very flawed and unreliable technology to begin with.

[SheltieLover]

3. Ai should be illegal imo.

[womanofthehills]

4. It's great for some stuff

Instant answers to non political stuff.
It’s quicker than searching for stuff on web.

[SheltieLover]

5. To each their own. I prefer reading from reliable sources

[highplainsdem]

6. It's often wrong, and you won't know whether it is unless you check real sources. It also hurts the

websites whose info was ripped off to train the AI if you ask AI for those answers. It's destroying the internet, between that theft of web traffic and all the AI slop being posted online.

[Polybius]

11. It's great for writers though

You write something, upload it, and they help make it better. If you need an idea, it's great too. Like if you are writing a book, and are stuck and ask "What are John's options in this situation?" It will gave you a plethora of choices that you can make.

[SheltieLover]

13. Tbh, I would never feed this monster &, when writing & I need ideas

I brainstorm, take a break.

[highplainsdem]

15. That's not real writing. It's using a tool illegally trained on all the books and other text the AI companies could

steal. They've already done studies showing that it dumbs people down. Most teachers hate it, and I don't know of any professional writers who don't hate it. And genAI has been used to flood self-publishing platforms with AI slop, often using titles and names similar to real authors'. It's been used to flood traditional markets with AI-generated crap, even forcing some editors to shut off submissions at times.

One of the first news stories I saw about genAI for writing, nearly three years ago, was about a woman using it for self-published fiction who'd discovered that the more she used it, the less her own subconscious offered her ideas.

But she should never have bern using AI in the first place, when it was trained on all that stolen work. It's a plagiarism machine, as one of spokepeople for WGAW - Writers Guild of America West, the screenwriters - called it, during their strike.

[Polybius]

16. My stories are incredibly original and unique

The help that AI gave me was definitely not stolen. It's like asking a human writer "what can he do next in this situation?"

I also made up things and fictional inventions, telling AI what they do. It gave me suggestions. I enjoy having it there, and look forward to its improvements.

Sometime, I also use AI to change the wording in paragraphs. It really helps me a lot.

[SheltieLover]

12. Absolutely!

[slightlv]

10. It's often wrong, and should be demanding

of real research to come to an answer. At this point, in this society, I would trust it to add 2 + 2 and come up with 4!

Worse, you're training the youngest generation on up to *rely* on their answers. This is worse than kidnapping the kids from the country you're warring with, ingratiating them into your country, and feeding them bullshit "rehab" questions of your own propaganda. (See, Russia)

Here, they're warring against their (supposedly) own country. They're making war against us. And we just sit here and bitch.

[SheltieLover]

14. Agreed, V!

[Polybius]

9. What!

Not a fan of Star Wars? I sure can tell that you're not Gen X!

[SheltieLover]

2. People pay for that shit?

Never happening here!

[Prairie Gates]

7. Now THAT'S artificial intelligence!

[highplainsdem]

8. Tech journalist Casey Newton: Grok is a farce

Grok is a farce

— Casey Newton (@caseynewton.bsky.social) 2025-07-11T00:48:58.882Z

[2naSalit]

17. Imagine that.

[Miguelito Loveless]

18. Musk has also promised to inflict MechHitler

On Tesla drivers in future updates.

[Torchlight]

19. It's a great tool for the simple minded and unoriginal

who want to appear wittty and unique. I'm sure it's a great tool for others, too.

[AntiFascist]

20. MechaHitler consults with MetaHitler LOL n/t