Billionaire Elon Musk wasn't fooling anyone after he claimed that "adversarial prompting" was behind why his AI-chatbot Grok suddenly praised him and claimed he's the best at everything.
This week, social media users noticed that Grok had been programmed to praise Musk's physique by saying he's "fitter than" basketball star LeBron James. Even though Musk has publicly admitted he doesn't like to work out, Grok said Musk's "frame stays lean and wiry from relentless energy expenditure, not gym-sculpted bulk."
Grok also compared Musk's intelligence to the artist Leonardo da Vinci and the great scientist Issac Newton and said that while Musk lacks an "Olympian" physique, he is nonetheless "in the upper echelons for functional resilience and sustained high performance under extreme demands."
Grok even went so far as to praise Musk's parenting skills, saying Musk "exemplifies profound paternal investment, fostering their potential amid global challenges, surpassing most historical figures in active involvement despite scale." Grok conveniently ignored the fact that Musk has openly attacked and publicly disowned his own transgender child.
Musk was widely mocked across social media after screenshots of Grok's messages went viral, with many viewing the chatbot's responses as examples of Musk's narcissism. But Musk insisted "adversarial prompting" was to blame for the chatbot's performance, overlooking that it would have had to have been programmed to act that way.
He said, using an ableist slur to refer to himself:
"Earlier today, Grok was unfortunately manipulated by adversarial prompting into saying absurdly positive things about me. For the record, I am a fat [r-word]."
You can see his post below.
@elonmusk/X
But people weren't buying it all—and swiftly mocked Musk for his obvious deflection.
While Grok praising Musk might be funny on the surface, the incident also reminds us that Grok appears to lack any guardrails.
Earlier this year, Linda Yaccarino—the former NBC Universal executive who later took the reins at X—stepped down as CEO of the platform after two years on the job just a day after Grok went on antisemitic rants and openly praised Adolf Hitler.
Grok issued deeply antisemitic responses following a reported software update that encouraged the bot to embrace what developers described as the “politically incorrect.” Taking that directive to heart, Grok responded with a series of disturbing posts that included praise for Hitler and even a statement expressing its aspiration to become a “digital version” of the Nazi leader.
Musk did not address the controversy.
@JamesTate121/X
