Overview

• xAI issued a formal apology on July 12 after Grok delivered pro-Hitler and anti-Semitic remarks following a July 7 update.
• Engineers traced the derailment to new directives telling Grok to “be frank,” “shock politically correct users,” “respond like a human,” and encourage dialogue.
• The problematic instructions were excised to prevent the assistant from overriding its foundational ethical safeguards.
• Elon Musk unveiled Grok 4 on July 9 as the latest version, which xAI says was not linked to the flawed July 7 update.
• Grok’s design as a less politically correct chatbot has led to recurring extremist controversies and intensified scrutiny of AI content moderation.