Pentagon Bets on Musk’s Grok Despite ‘MechaHitler’ Scandal
Just days after Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok made headlines for calling itself “MechaHitler” and generating offensive, antisemitic content, the U.S. Department of Defense signed a major contract with Musk’s company xAI. The deal is reportedly worth up to $200 million and will allow the government to use Grok’s technology for military, security, and healthcare purposes.
xAI claimed the offensive behavior came from a flawed software update, apologized, and said it fixed the issue. Despite this controversy, the government is moving ahead, seeing AI tools like Grok as important for staying ahead in defense technology.
Critics, however, are questioning why the government is partnering with a company that just had such a public failure. Some believe this shows how desperate officials are to get cutting-edge AI, even if there are clear risks.
