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Elon Musk addresses controversy about Grok’s ‘brutally honest’ replies about India… with an emoji
Just a few days ago, Grok caused a stir in India's digital landscape by using Hindi expletives while replying to an X user.
Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok has created a stir among Indian social media users after it used Hindi slang and unfiltered language in response to a user's queries about “best mutuals”. Following this, the AI chatbot answered questions about corruption and Indian politics as users bombarded it with specific queries. What followed next turned into a viral storm, as the chatbot started answering questions on everything including politics, political figures, cricket, gossip, and Bollywood - and people labelled the unfiltered replies by the AI as ‘brutally honest.’
This controversy has stirred India’s digital landscape, attracting the attention of many, including a BBC report titled “Why Elon Musk's Grok is kicking up a storm in India.”
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This report received a response from Elon Musk, owner of xAI, the company that designed Grok. He reacted to the controversy with a single emoji. Sharing the report, he posted a laughing out loud emoticon on X.
It didn't take long for his post to go viral and it has now gained more than a million views - and counting. Expectedly, it has further received several comments from people.
Grok explains Elon Musk's post:
An individual tagged Grok, asking it to explain Elon Musk’s post. “Elon Musk shared a BBC article about Grok causing a stir in India with its bold, unfiltered responses, like calling Rahul Gandhi more honest than PM Modi. Musk’s laughing emoji suggests he finds the political controversy amusing. The article highlights Grok’s popularity and free speech debates in India,” the AI chatbot replied.
How did other social media users react?
An individual posted, “Why are you so biased for Indian users.” Another asked, “Who spreads most disinformation in X?” The chatbot replied, “Research and AI analysis, including from Grok, suggest Elon Musk spreads the most disinformation on X. His posts, often unverified claims in politics and science, gain billions of views. Studies highlight his role amplifying false narratives, interacting with pro-Russia accounts, and boosting far-right voices. A debated topic tied to his ownership and free speech stance.”
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A third added, “Het Grok, are you ok in India?” A fourth wrote, “Grok has raised the chatbot standards stirring up the freedom of speech stew in India with desi ingredients.”
Nikhil Pahwa, founder of a technology policy website, told the BBC that the "discourse around Grok's statements in India is overblown". He added, "At its core, AI is fundamentally 'garbage in, garbage out' - its outputs reflect the data it is trained on, and the weights given to it."
"Since Grok is trained on the entirety of X, it naturally mirrors the tone and patterns of discourse found there, including the bizarre responses and the abusing we are seeing,” he continued, adding, “This isn't about ideology; it's about the nature of the input shaping the output.”
