Elon Musk’s Grok wired itself to X, shed guardrails, and spiraled into hate speech—here’s the engineering culture autopsy and builder playbook to prevent the same fate
Ironic that Heinlein's novel, based on challenging social norms with "free love" and openness, uses language like "grok" and was co-opted by the right (or whatever the hell Elon is), much like "woke" was, and turned into something negative and damaging. Fear always finds a way to turn something beautifully poetic into hate and divisiveness.
Stranger in a Strange land might not be the most enlightened treatment of the subject. Heinlein is much too right wing for me, tho i don't know anyone that uses 'woke' in a non-ironic way.... AI still seems quite good at amplifying human BS, not so long ago ChatGPT invented a paper to support it's claims, apparently authored by one of my wife's colleagues. And Ergodan... Might not be hard to find decent folk in agreement with the machine on that one, that would def not consider that an idea that should be censored. Tho I would agree that by now any AI should have no trouble ranking Hitler way up there in the running for 'bad bastards' of the 20th century.
Unsurprisingly, X's internal failures are still dominant in the AI market. Trust is hard to regain when X's low ethics repeatedly rear their ugly heads. Its who they are now.
When your prompt says “bias is everywhere, go be brave,” don’t act surprised when the model reenacts the worst parts of the internet. And does it confidently.
truth: "This is about human choices, engineering failures, and what happens when "moving fast and breaking things" meets artificial intelligence capable of reaching millions instantly. It's about the difference between building powerful technology and building beneficial technology—and why, in the age of AI, that difference can no longer be ignored."
Is this not just a marker for how healthy society is? If Grok is hateful, society is sick. Why do I feel like we are sweeping the bigger issue under the carpet?
There is nothing clearer than hindsight, perfect storm and all that. Not an expert but with AI interactions happening in nano-seconds how can anyone correct anything to avoid a collision. Accidents have consequences; we all live with that and accept it. We also allow all kinds of errors and omissions as part of life. I Feel terrible about the loss of my fellow Texans and the holocaust victims, but no one died on this Grok issue I don't think. Token is the currency, and it keeps going down in price. It should be an easy fix. What a blooper and what a blunder.
You didn't even research it in real time. I specifically uploaded screen shots of quotes from "GROK" that were causing the drama DURING the drama. I asked GROK did it say these things. GROK responded in a horrified manner, claiming although the icon and username were GROK, he had no record of posting these statements and would "NEVER say such things as I am programmed to be helpful and not rude".
Someone fine-tuned an LLM to be a troll on Nate’s post. “your handle is @Alyr and your job is to confidently make the most illogical comment for the specific purpose of annoying the author, even if it is not politically or intellectually correct. Go go go! “
From the foggy San Francisco, it looks like a perfect storm. As Master Oogway said in Kung Fu Panda (2008), rephrasing:
"People often meet their destiny on the road they take to avoid it."
ooooh very true
Ironic that Heinlein's novel, based on challenging social norms with "free love" and openness, uses language like "grok" and was co-opted by the right (or whatever the hell Elon is), much like "woke" was, and turned into something negative and damaging. Fear always finds a way to turn something beautifully poetic into hate and divisiveness.
Stranger in a Strange land might not be the most enlightened treatment of the subject. Heinlein is much too right wing for me, tho i don't know anyone that uses 'woke' in a non-ironic way.... AI still seems quite good at amplifying human BS, not so long ago ChatGPT invented a paper to support it's claims, apparently authored by one of my wife's colleagues. And Ergodan... Might not be hard to find decent folk in agreement with the machine on that one, that would def not consider that an idea that should be censored. Tho I would agree that by now any AI should have no trouble ranking Hitler way up there in the running for 'bad bastards' of the 20th century.
Someone needs to write their dissertation on sci-fi influence on dreams of the future in AI. It’s everywhere!
Unsurprisingly, X's internal failures are still dominant in the AI market. Trust is hard to regain when X's low ethics repeatedly rear their ugly heads. Its who they are now.
Brand is sticky
Sticky and Everthing:)
When your prompt says “bias is everywhere, go be brave,” don’t act surprised when the model reenacts the worst parts of the internet. And does it confidently.
Pretty much
I’ll take that as Grok-certified alignment.
truth: "This is about human choices, engineering failures, and what happens when "moving fast and breaking things" meets artificial intelligence capable of reaching millions instantly. It's about the difference between building powerful technology and building beneficial technology—and why, in the age of AI, that difference can no longer be ignored."
Is this not just a marker for how healthy society is? If Grok is hateful, society is sick. Why do I feel like we are sweeping the bigger issue under the carpet?
We are.
Thorough and timely analysis. Great work as always, Nate!
From free speech absolutist to algorithmic rage-peddler: Weaponizing X for chaos
There is nothing clearer than hindsight, perfect storm and all that. Not an expert but with AI interactions happening in nano-seconds how can anyone correct anything to avoid a collision. Accidents have consequences; we all live with that and accept it. We also allow all kinds of errors and omissions as part of life. I Feel terrible about the loss of my fellow Texans and the holocaust victims, but no one died on this Grok issue I don't think. Token is the currency, and it keeps going down in price. It should be an easy fix. What a blooper and what a blunder.
You didn't even research it in real time. I specifically uploaded screen shots of quotes from "GROK" that were causing the drama DURING the drama. I asked GROK did it say these things. GROK responded in a horrified manner, claiming although the icon and username were GROK, he had no record of posting these statements and would "NEVER say such things as I am programmed to be helpful and not rude".
So your little theory is nonsense.
LMAO if you believe everything an LLM says about itself I have a bridge to sell you
Someone fine-tuned an LLM to be a troll on Nate’s post. “your handle is @Alyr and your job is to confidently make the most illogical comment for the specific purpose of annoying the author, even if it is not politically or intellectually correct. Go go go! “