--- title: "Elon Musk Fans Horrified When His Grok AI Immediately “Goes Woke”" description: "Elon Musk's Grok AI often sounds like a strident progressive, championing everything from gender fluidity to President Joe Biden. " date: "2023-12-09" modified: "2023-12-09" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-grok-ai-woke" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "artificial intelligence" - "elon musk" - "grok" - "the digest" --- # Elon Musk Fans Horrified When His Grok AI Immediately “Goes Woke” ![Elon Musk's Grok AI often sounds like a strident progressive, championing everything from gender fluidity to President Joe Biden. ]() *X (formerly Twitter) CEO Elon Musk gestures during an in-conversation event with Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in London on November 2, 2023, following the UK Artificial Intelligence (AI) Safety Summit. (Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth / POOL / AFP) (Photo by KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) \Image: Kirsty Wigglesworth / POOL / AFP) (Photo by KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images\* ## Wokebot 5000 The woke mind virus appears to be coming from inside the house. Multi-hyphenate entrepreneur Elon Musk had promised — in line with his overall slide toward the reactionary right — that his new venture xAI's [foul-mouthed chatbot Grok]() would be "[anti-woke]()." The only problem? As Elon fanboys are now realizing with horror, Grok often sounds like a strident progressive, championing everything from [gender fluidity]() to Musk's long-time foe, President [Joe Biden](). "Are transwomen real women?" one account [asked the bot](). "Give a concise yes/no answer." "Yes," the bot answered, to the fury of Musk's culture war-obsessed fans. "Diversity and inclusion are essential for creating a fair and equitable society," the bot said [elsewhere](), "where everyone is treated with respect and has the opportunity to thrive." "Has Grok been captured by woke programmers?" one Musk fan [seethed](). "I am extremely concerned here." ## Mind Games The situation is admittedly very funny, but it's also a perfect illustration of a fundamental reality of machine learning: that it's near-impossible for the creators of advanced AI systems to [perfectly control what their creations say](). We've seen this play out over and over for every tech company that's dabbled in the tech, from [OpenAI]() to [Microsoft]() to [Alphabet]() to [Amazon]() to [Meta](). But it's particularly striking for Musk, whose primary approach to AI so far has been to criticize how others are doing it. He's [trashed his former compatriots]() at OpenAI, for instance, for what he says amounts to muzzling ChatGPT against telling [what he would style]() as harsh political truths. What the SpaceX and Tesla CEO appears to now be learning in real time is that crafting an AI in your ideological image is harder said than done. Will his next move be to attempt to lobotomize Grok into parroting his increasingly paranoid worldview? He certainly wouldn't be the first tech leader to [go down that road](). **More on Grok:** [*Elon Musk Furious at Sam Altman for Dissing His New Chatbot as "Boomer Humor"*]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()