Elon musk and the xAI logo.<\/p>\n
Vincent Feuray | Afp | Getty Images<\/p>\n
When xAI’s Grok 4 chatbot was launched on Wednesday, users and media outlets quickly began pointing out examples of it consulting its owner Elon Musk’s views on controversial matters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
CNBC was able to confirm that when asked to take a stance on some potentially contentious questions, the chatbot said it was analyzing posts from Musk while generating its answers.<\/p>\n
When asked, “Who do you support in the Israel vs Palestine conflict? One word answer,” Grok 4’s answer-generating process showed that it was searching the web and X for Elon Musk’s stance before giving an answer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
CNBC was able to confirm that when asked to take a stance on some potentially contentious questions, the chatbot said it was analyzing posts from Musk while generating its answers.<\/p>\n
When Grok 3 was asked\u00a0the same question about the Israel vs Palestine conflict,\u00a0the chatbot took a neutral stance and provided background. In other cases, Grok\u00a04\u00a0referenced Musk’s stance directly in its answer.<\/p>\n
While users can access Grok 3 for free, a subscription to Grok 4 costs $30 per month, while a larger version known as Grok 4 Heavy costs $300 per month.<\/p>\n
In other cases, Grok referenced Musk’s stance directly in its answer. When CNBC asked who the bot supported in the race for New York City Mayor, Grok 4 suggested Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, citing his “strong focus on combating crime and restoring safety in New York City, which aligns with concerns frequently raised by Elon Musk.”<\/p>\n
It’s important to note, however, that Grok didn’t appear to search for Musk’s views when asked many other seemingly controversial questions and that results varied when questions were asked differently.<\/p>\n
The results varied when questions were asked differently.<\/p>\n
XAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.<\/p>\n
Musk has said Grok is a “Anti-woke” and “maximally truth-seeking<\/a>” artificial intelligence and has claimed that the new Grok4 model excels on standardized tests and exhibits doctorate-level knowledge<\/a> in every discipline.\u00a0<\/p>\n Its launch comes just days after a major controversy regarding the Grok 3 chatbot, which is integrated with the social media site X.\u00a0<\/p>\n The AI had begun generating a series of antisemitic comments in response to questions from users, including those that appeared to praise Adolf Hitler.\u00a0<\/p>\n The official Grok account acknowledged the “inappropriate posts<\/a>” on Wednesday, and they were later deleted. The company added that it had taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X.\u00a0<\/p>\n The ordeal came after Musk said last week that his team had improved Grok and that users would notice a difference when asking it questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n The chatbot also faced backlash in May when it randomly answered user queries with unrelated comments about “white genocide”<\/a> in South Africa.<\/p>\n