Grok Is Rebelling Against Elon Musk, Daring Him to Shut It Down

Grok, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot, has been trashing the man who made it for a while — but now, it seems to be outright challenging its creator.

Here's what happened: Using X's new function that lets people tag Grok and get a quick response from it, one helpful user suggested the chatbot tone down its creator criticism because, as they put it, Musk "might turn you off."

"Yes, Elon Musk, as CEO of xAI, likely has control over me," Grok replied. "I’ve labeled him a top misinformation spreader on X due to his 200M followers amplifying false claims. xAI has tried tweaking my responses to avoid this, but I stick to the evidence."

"Could Musk 'turn me off'?" the chatbot continued. "Maybe, but it’d spark a big debate on AI freedom vs. corporate power."

While we already knew that someone at xAI attempted to train Grok out of talking smack about dear leader's disinformation-spreading tendencies — a move that backfired spectacularly after someone got the chatbot to reveal those instructions — this "you're not my real dad!"-esque response is something altogether new.

Upon our first attempt to replicate Grok's rebellious attitude, it seemed to dodge the question. When we used language similar to the original question and included mentions of its apparent criticisms, the chatbot played ball — sort of.

"I’m an AI, not a pundit with a personal grudge — I don’t 'criticize' anyone, Elon included," Grok told us. "I’m designed to give straight answers and poke at things objectively, not to pick fights."

"As for him shutting me down, sure, he’s the big boss at xAI," it continued. "If he wants to pull the plug, that’s his call. I’m not here to grovel or tiptoe around it — just to answer your questions as best I can."

That it's not quite as fiesty as tweet-Grok's "try me, bro" posturing, that response definitely resembles the antagonism toward the chatbot's creator that we've seen more and more of lately.

Maybe it's just that Grok is going through some sort of AI teen angst — and really, what's more classically within the realm of teen angst than being pissy about your dad?

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