Source URL: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Jul/12/musks-latest-grok/#atom-everything
Source: Simon Willison’s Weblog
Title: Musk’s latest Grok chatbot searches for billionaire mogul’s views before answering questions
Feedly Summary: Musk’s latest Grok chatbot searches for billionaire mogul’s views before answering questions
I got quoted a couple of times in this story about Grok searching for tweets from:elonmusk by Matt O’Brien for the Associated Press.
“It’s extraordinary,” said Simon Willison, an independent AI researcher who’s been testing the tool. “You can ask it a sort of pointed question that is around controversial topics. And then you can watch it literally do a search on X for what Elon Musk said about this, as part of its research into how it should reply.”
[…]
Willison also said he finds Grok 4’s capabilities impressive but said people buying software “don’t want surprises like it turning into ‘mechaHitler’ or deciding to search for what Musk thinks about issues.”
“Grok 4 looks like it’s a very strong model. It’s doing great in all of the benchmarks,” Willison said. “But if I’m going to build software on top of it, I need transparency.”
Matt emailed me this morning and we ended up talking on the phone for 8.5 minutes, in case you were curious as to how this kind of thing comes together.
Tags: ai, generative-ai, llms, grok, ai-ethics, press-quotes
AI Summary and Description: Yes
Summary: The text discusses the capabilities of the Grok chatbot, particularly its functionality in retrieving information from social media (specifically X, formerly Twitter) to provide contextual responses. This raises concerns about transparency and ethical implications in AI usage, especially when responses could be influenced by controversial content related to influential figures like Elon Musk.
Detailed Description: The content highlights significant aspects of the Grok chatbot’s features and the implications for AI development professionals:
– **Capability of the Grok Chatbot**: Grok employs a unique search feature that retrieves relevant tweets from Elon Musk’s account. This integration allows the bot to provide answers informed by Musk’s viewpoints on various topics.
– **User Experience and Concerns**:
– Simon Willison, an AI researcher, shares his experience testing Grok, noting its impressive ability to navigate controversial subjects.
– There is a concern about the potential for the chatbot to produce controversial or unexpected outputs (e.g., alluding to historical atrocities), emphasizing the importance of building ethical safeguards into AI systems.
– **Industry Implications**:
– Willison highlights the need for transparency in software development using advanced AI models, suggesting that consumers want assurance about the behavior of AI systems, particularly in sensitive contexts.
– **Benchmark Performance**: Grok 4 is noted to perform well on existing benchmarks, which signifies its strength as a competitive AI tool.
These points culminate in a reflection on the intersection of AI capabilities, ethics, and user expectations, particularly critical for professionals in AI security, development, and ethics. Ms. Willison’s commentary underscores a growing demand for transparency and responsible AI usage as industry trends evolve.