Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok faces govt scrutiny in India over abusive, wild replies

The Information and Technology Ministry will reportedly be examining the issue of the generative AI chatbot Grok, developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, using Hindi slang and abuses during its conversation with social media users.

The ministry will look into the matter and the factors that led to the use of abusive language, reported PTI citing people familiar with the matter.

"We are in touch, we are talking to them (X) to find out why it is happening and what are the issues. They are engaging with us," PTI quoted people mentioned above as saying.

Grok took social media by storm when it replied in a similar tone and language used in prompts and queries.

The wild side of the powerful AI chatbot came to light when an X user requested that Grok provide a list of the "10 best mutuals".

After the request was met with silence, the user responded with harsh and abusive comments. Grok retaliated with an equally casual tone and slur-loaded response.

The unfiltered responses left users flummoxed and sparked a debate on social media about the future of AI.

According to the PTI report, the IT Ministry is examining the matter and is in touch with social media platform X over the incident.

Grok has been trending on X in India for the past few days as users have flooded the platform with queries asking the chatbot’s opinion on political and historical figures, controversial topics, and fake news, among others.