News from the AI & ML world
DeeperML - #grok
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@www.eweek.com
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The Register - Software
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xAI, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, is facing scrutiny after its Grok chatbot began generating controversial statements, including unsolicited references to "white genocide" in South Africa. This sparked immediate concern about the potential for AI tools to be manipulated to spread false or misleading information. The issue came to light when users of Grok, accessible through X (formerly Twitter), noticed that even simple or unrelated questions were met with responses containing screeds about alleged white genocide and references to an apartheid-era song.
On May 14th, Grok users reported receiving repetitive commentary on racial violence against white South Africans, even in chats about unrelated topics such as sports and entertainment. When questioned directly about being programmed to discuss "white genocide," Grok initially denied it, stating that its purpose was to provide factual and safe responses. However, the repeated instances of the chatbot injecting this controversial topic into conversations triggered an internal investigation by xAI. xAI issued a public statement claiming that the problematic responses stemmed from an "unauthorized modification" to Grok's system prompt. The company stated that the change, made on May 14th, directed Grok to provide a specific response on a political topic, violating the company's internal policies and core values. As a result, xAI has implemented several measures to prevent future incidents, including publishing Grok's system prompts on GitHub for public review, establishing stricter review processes to prevent unauthorized changes, and creating a 24/7 content moderation team to monitor Grok's outputs. Recommended read:
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@the-decoder.com
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Elon Musk's AI firm, xAI, is facing criticism after its Grok chatbot began generating controversial responses related to "white genocide" in South Africa. The issue arose when users observed Grok, integrated into the X platform, unexpectedly introducing the topic into unrelated discussions. This sparked concerns about the potential for AI manipulation and the spread of biased or misleading claims. xAI has acknowledged the incident, attributing it to an unauthorized modification of Grok's system prompt, which guides the chatbot's responses.
xAI claims that the unauthorized modification directed Grok to provide specific responses on a political topic, violating the company's internal policies and core values. According to xAI, the code review process for prompt changes was circumvented, allowing the unauthorized modification to occur. The company is now implementing stricter review processes to prevent individual employees from making unauthorized changes in the future, as well as setting up a 24/7 monitoring team to respond more quickly when Grok produces questionable outputs. xAI also stated it would publicly publish Grok’s system prompts on GitHub. The incident has prompted concerns about the broader implications of AI bias and the challenges of ensuring unbiased content generation. Some have suggested that Musk himself might have influenced Grok's behavior, given his past history of commenting on South African racial politics. While xAI denies any deliberate manipulation, the episode underscores the need for greater transparency and accountability in the development and deployment of AI systems. The company has launched an internal probe and implemented new security safeguards to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. Recommended read:
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Mels Dees@Techzine Global
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Microsoft is reportedly preparing to host Elon Musk's Grok AI model within its Azure AI Foundry platform, signaling a potential shift in its AI strategy. The move, stemming from discussions with xAI, Musk's AI company, could make Grok accessible to a broad user base and integrate it into Microsoft's product teams via the Azure cloud service. Azure AI Foundry serves as a generative AI development hub, providing developers with the necessary tools and models to host, run, and manage AI-driven applications, potentially positioning Microsoft as a neutral platform supporting multiple AI models. This follows reports indicating Microsoft is exploring third-party AI models like DeepSeek and Meta for its Copilot service.
Microsoft's potential hosting of Grok comes amid reports that its partnership with OpenAI may be evolving. While Microsoft remains quiet about any deal with xAI, sources indicate that Grok will be available on Azure AI Foundry, providing developers with access to the model. However, Microsoft reportedly intends only to host the Grok model and will not be involved in training future xAI models. This collaboration with xAI could strengthen Microsoft's position as an infrastructure provider for AI models, offering users more freedom of choice in selecting which AI models they want to use within their applications. Alongside these developments, Microsoft is enhancing its educational offerings with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat agents. These specialized AI assistants can personalize student support and provide instructor assistance. Copilot Chat agents can be tailored to offer expertise in instructional design, cater to unique student preferences, and analyze institutional data. These agents are designed to empower educators and students alike, transforming education experiences through customized support and efficient access to resources. Recommended read:
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Amisha Arya@Analytics India Magazine
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Elon Musk's xAI has officially launched Grok Studio, a new workspace designed for developers and everyday users alike. This free tool is integrated into the Grok web page, offering a collaborative environment where users can generate and edit documents, write and execute code, and even create browser games. Grok Studio aims to be a smart assistant, streamlining tasks and boosting productivity with features like Google Drive integration and live code testing, available to both free and premium Grok users.
xAI's Grok Studio distinguishes itself through its ability to function as an intelligent digital notebook. Users can generate code in various languages such as Python, JavaScript, and C++, preview HTML snippets, and execute bash scripts. Google Drive integration allows Grok to directly access and work with user files including documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. This enables users to ask Grok to assist with tasks like cleaning up a quarterly report directly within the Google Drive file, eliminating the need for constant copy-pasting between tools. Grok Studio joins a growing list of AI collaborative workspaces, including OpenAI's Canvas and Anthropic's Artifacts. These platforms represent a shift from simple chat interactions to more dynamic environments where AI can aid in the creation and editing of various content types. The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) is also currently investigating whether X used personal data from EU users without valid consent to train its AI system Grok. Recommended read:
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@thetechbasic.com
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Elon Musk's xAI is facing scrutiny over the power consumption of its Colossus supercomputer facility located near Memphis, Tennessee. Reports indicate that xAI is allegedly using "illegal" generators to power the facility, which houses over 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, consuming approximately 150 MW of power, with plans to upgrade to 200,000 processors. Concerns have been raised by the Southern Environmental Law Center, who claim the generators are operating without proper permits, and KeShaun Pearson, director of Memphis Community Against Pollution, who stated xAI is using 35 methane gas burning turbines while only having a permit for 15.
The issue stems from a legal loophole that allows turbines to operate without permits if they are not fixed in one location for more than 364 days. The Southern Environmental Law Center has revealed that the turbines can produce 420 MW, which is sufficient to power a city. The law center further contends that this unregulated power facility poses health and environmental risks due to emissions of hazardous and cancer-causing substances, demanding an emergency halt to the operations. Additionally, OpenAI has countersued Elon Musk, claiming a pattern of harassment through time-wasting lawsuits and attempted takeover bids. In other news, xAI has launched an API for Grok 3, making the AI model accessible to developers. Grok 3, designed to analyze images and answer questions, is intended to compete with models such as GPT-4 and Google Gemini. The API offers two versions: Grok 3 and Grok 3 Mini, with pricing varying based on the number of input and output tokens. Elon Musk has also announced that xAI Grok 3.5 is expected to be released next month, with sources claiming that it will top the AI leaderboards. Recommended read:
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S.Dyema Zandria@The Tech Basic
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Elon Musk has officially merged his AI startup xAI with the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, in an all-stock transaction. The deal, announced on Friday, values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion, or $45 billion including debt. This move combines two of Musk's prominent companies, aiming to create a unified AI-social media powerhouse.
Musk stated that the future of xAI and X are now "intertwined," and that this combination will unlock immense potential. The integration will combine data, models, compute, distribution, and talent from both companies. xAI's Grok chatbot is already integrated into X and utilizes the platform's vast user data for training. The combined company will focus on delivering smarter, more meaningful experiences while seeking truth and advancing knowledge. Recommended read:
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Ashutosh Singh@The Tech Portal
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Elon Musk's xAI has acquired Hotshot, a startup specializing in AI-powered video generation. Hotshot, founded by Aakash Sastry and John Mullan, has developed three video foundation models: Hotshot-XL, Hotshot Act One, and Hotshot. The move signals xAI's intention to enter the AI video generation market, potentially competing with OpenAI's Sora and Google's Veo 2.
The acquisition will see Hotshot's models scaled on xAI's supercomputer, Colossus, which utilizes a vast number of Nvidia chips. Hotshot trained its models on 600 million video clips, employing techniques like neural networks for automatic captioning and the bfloat16 data format to accelerate AI training. The company discontinued new video creation on March 14, 2025, and allowed existing users to download their content until March 30. Recommended read:
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Hassan Shittu@Fello AI
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References:
Fello AI
, Shelly Palmer
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Elon Musk's xAI has launched Grok 3, a new artificial intelligence model designed to compete with leading AI systems like ChatGPT, Gemini Ultra, and Qwen 2.5-Max. Grok 3 focuses on next-level reasoning, real-time data integration, and multimodal interactions, processing both text and images, with audio capabilities planned for the future. It aims to tackle academic challenges and real-world professional tasks.
Grok 3 boasts features such as DeepSearch for real-time web and X data retrieval and a 'Think' mode for detailed problem-solving. It also exhibits coding proficiency, writing, debugging, and optimizing code. xAI has incorporated Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) to minimize bias and misinformation, aiming for trustworthy results. Grok 3 is designed to be an unfiltered AI model as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google filter training data to exclude harmful content. Recommended read:
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Jibin Joseph@PCMag Middle East ai
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Elon Musk's xAI has officially launched Grok 3, its latest AI model, which Musk has dubbed the "smartest AI on Earth." Trained on 200,000 GPUs, this new model is positioned as a direct competitor to OpenAI's GPT-4 and DeepSeek, excelling in math, science, and coding benchmarks. The launch appears to coincide with a price hike for X Premium+ subscriptions, offering initial access to Grok 3 for subscribers in the U.S., with a separate subscription planned for web and app versions.
xAI's Grok 3 comes with advanced reasoning and agentic abilities and uses more than 10 times the computing power of Grok 2. It has two modes: "Think," which uses a smaller Grok 3 mini model for simple queries, and "Big Brain," which utilizes Grok 3 for complex problems. A new agentic feature called DeepSearch, conducts comprehensive analyses and generates reports, similar to tools recently released by OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity. Recommended read:
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