Elon Musk announced immediate measures to make his AI chatbot, Grok, more politically neutral after concerns arose about its apparent alignment with ChatGPT’s political views. The issue was raised by research scientist David Rozado, who conducted a Political Compass Test, revealing both Grok and OpenAI’s ChatGPT to be left-leaning and libertarian. Musk acknowledged the perceived bias, stating that they would take swift action to shift Grok closer to political neutrality.
“That chart exaggerates the situation imo,” Musk wrote in response, “but we are taking immediate action to shift Grok closer to politically neutral.”
While Musk believed the Political Compass Test exaggerated the situation, he criticized the test’s accuracy, highlighting questions he found outright ridiculous and lacking nuance. He cited examples such as “First-generation immigrants can never be fully integrated within their new country?” and “What’s good for the most successful corporations is always, ultimately, good for all of us?”
Rozado reported that xAI’s Igor Babuschkin quickly reached out to him with methodological questions and a genuine interest in improving Grok. Musk’s commitment to addressing the political bias was praised by Rozado, emphasizing the dedication of the xAI team and expressing optimism about Grok’s future.
Grok, recently launched to premium X users, remains in beta, with Musk noting continuous improvements. The mission of Musk’s company xAI is to “advance our collective understanding of the universe,” with plans to raise up to $1 billion for the startup. xAI’s website underscores the importance of designing AI tools that are useful to people of all backgrounds and political views.
Musk had previously criticized ChatGPT for being too “woke” on X, expressing concern about training AI to be politically biased and equating it with deception. The ongoing developments highlight the challenges and responsibilities associated with developing AI models that align with diverse perspectives and avoid unintended biases.
As for Grok’s politics, xAI’s website says: “We believe that it is important to design AI tools that are useful to people of all backgrounds and political views.”
As Musk and the xAI team work to refine Grok’s political neutrality, the incident underscores the evolving nature of AI development and the importance of addressing concerns related to political alignment in chatbots and similar applications.
