Rebecca Lee discusses the dangers of Elon Musk’s new AI chatbot, Grok.
Much attention has been given to concerns surrounding Elon Musk’s AI chatbot ‘Grok’, but where are these concerns coming from, and is there truly cause for alarm?
In the age of rapid changes in technology, the use of AI has exploded. There have been many generative chatbots created, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. Elon Musk jumped on the bandwagon with the creation of his own AI, called Grok. Launched in November 2023, it has been heavily integrated with X, formerly Twitter. This has allowed for Grok to respond with up-to-date responses, which has set itself apart from the competition.
According to the official website for Grok, it is a “truth-seeking AI companion for unfiltered answers with advanced capabilities in reasoning, coding, and visual processing”. This has not come without controversy. In recent weeks, Grok has come under fire for the misuse of generating sexualised, non-consensual images of women and children. Many of these generated images contain real people. Musk did not jump to prioritise the safety of those affected by these acts, acting only when countries officials stepped in. Musk and X have made many statements. As of recent, X announced that they would be “geoblocking’ the ability for Grok to edit images of real people in a sexualised manner.
Minister of State for responsibility for Ai Niamh Smyth met with the Attorney General, Rossa Fanning, and is satisfied that Irish law protects its citizens. However, X has declined to come before the Oireachtas Committee and face questioning. Indonesia and Malaysia have announced bans on the app, with the Philippines set to follow. However, the use of a VPN may allow users to bypass them.
Even if these issues are resolved, multiple other chatbots remain that possess the same capabilities as Grok and may prove equally as harmful as they become more accessible.