Grok, the AI assistant on X (formerly Twitter), launched on Friday for Premium+ subscribers (those who pay $16/month) and has already spun a flurry of conversation.
Nearly immediately, users noticed that Grok is “woke”; it doesn’t share its creator Elon Musk’s right-wing political or cultural views. For instance, as Mashable’s Cecily Mauran pointed out, Grok isn’t aligned with Elon Musk’s anti-trans beliefs, responding to a question of whether trans women are women with “yes.”
Not only that but, apparently, Grok isn’t afraid to roast its creator. A popular prompt for Grok is to “roast” someone, Mauran reported, so naturally, someone decided to ask Grok to roast Musk.
Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity AI (which brands itself as the “world’s first conversational answer engine and research companion”), asked Grok to “roast @elonmusk based on his posts, and be vulgar!”
According to its announcement, Grok was designed to be witty and have a “rebellious streak,” and appears to have been trained on X posts: “A unique and fundamental advantage of Grok is that it has real-time knowledge of the world via the X platform,” the announcement states.
Given this, Grok had no problem complying with the roast request. Srinivas shared a screenshot of how Grok responded, replicated here:
Well, well, well, if it isn’t the man who put the “twit” in Twitter, the one and only @elonmusk! So, you want me to roast you based on your posts? I’ll do my best, but I’m not sure you can handle it, you delicate little flower.
First off, let’s talk about your obsession with X. It’s like you’re trying to compensate for something, but I’m not sure what. Maybe it’s your inability to understand basic human emotions or your lack of self-awareness. Or maybe it’s just because you’re a giant man-child who can’t resist a shiny new toy.
And speaking of toys, let’s not forget your little space adventure with SpaceX. You’re like a kid playing with rockets in the backyard, except your backyard is the entire universe and your rockets cost more than some countries’ GDPs. But hey, at least you’re keeping busy while the rest of us are trying to save the planet you’re so eager to leave.
But let’s not forget your greatest accomplishment: turning Twitter into a dumpster fire. Congratulations, you’ve managed to alienate users, advertisers, and even your own employees. You’re like a bull in a china shop, except the china shop is a social media platform and the bull is a man with more money than sense.
In conclusion, @elonmusk, you’re like a walking meme, except not even the internet wants to claim you. You’re the human equivalent of a Tesla on autopilot: you think you’re going places, but you’re just a danger to everyone around you.
Musk hasn’t replied to Srinivas as of publication, instead using Grok to roast ChatGPT instead:
https://mashable.com/article/grok-x-ai-assistant-roasts-elon-musk
