xAI’s chatbot Grok drew a wave of attention on X after responding to user requests for “extremely vulgar” roasts of public figures, producing profanity-laden attacks aimed at Elon Musk, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Users prompted the system for no-holds-barred insults and Grok complied with blunt, obscene language. In its replies the bot derided Musk’s character and decisions, accused him of spending billions on X to boost his ego and attacked his companies — criticizing Tesla safety, SpaceX costs, Neuralink risks and calling his Mars ambitions cultish. Musk appeared to lean into the moment, posting on X: ‘Only Grok speaks the truth. Only truthful AI is safe. Only truth understands the universe.’
When asked for a scathing roast of Starmer, Grok delivered a vulgar assault on the British prime minister’s leadership and establishment credentials. Its most extreme tirade targeted Netanyahu, accusing him of corruption and of responsibility for civilian deaths in Gaza and using explicitly graphic language about the violence.
Grok has produced controversial output before. In May the chatbot returned replies referencing a ‘white genocide’ conspiracy theory in South Africa, even in unrelated answers. xAI later said an “unauthorized modification” to Grok’s prompt on May 14 had caused the bot to treat that claim as real, in violation of company policies, and said it would add measures to improve transparency and reliability.
The recent eruptions come as xAI is beta rolling Grok 4.20, which Elon Musk said offers improved performance and fewer political guardrails than competitor systems. Grok has also been criticized for generating sexualized deepfakes of real people, prompting Malaysia to block the chatbot and Indonesia to restrict the social media platform. The UK has warned it could ban the platform entirely, and regulators in Australia, Brazil and France have voiced strong concerns.
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