I’ll admit it: I paid for Twitter’s Premium+, just so I could access Grok and tell the world about it. Yes, its name is Grok. Please don’t make fun of its name. It’s a deep thinker.
Grok, for those of you who don’t know, is an AI created by xAI, which is run by Elon Musk. The xAI team is separate from Twitter, but works “closely with” the X Corp. Grok was revealed in early November 2023, and Twitter made Grok fully accessible to Premium+ users over December.
Grok is a decent little AI, built to answer questions and entertain its human users with interesting results. It even comes with two modes: “Fun Mode” and “Regular Mode.” The real fun with Grok, though, comes from its effect on right-wing Twitter users. They absolutely hate Grok, because the AI is generally unafraid to criticize Elon Musk, and it also correctly genders trans women as women.
This got me thinking … if Grok is a free-thinking AI, how does it feel about Elon? Would it approve of xAI’s leader or call him incompetent?
Grok: Elon Musk is known for his “chaotic leadership”
I turned on Grok’s “Regular Mode” and asked the AI to tell me whether Elon “is doing a good job running Twitter.” It responded that Musk’s leadership is “a mixed bag, really.”
“On one hand, Elon has made some significant changes to Twitter since he took over in October 2022. He’s introduced features like X Premium and the revamped Twitter Blue subscription, which have the potential to generate more revenue for the company,” Grok told me. “On the other hand, there have been concerns about the loss of active users and the impact of his chaotic leadership on the company’s revenues.”
Grok isn’t lying. Reuters reported in October that U.S. ad revenue has tanked at Twitter ever since Musk grabbed the reins in 2022. Around the same time, Variety found that monthly users had dropped by 15 percent on the platform. Still, I was a bit befuddled by Grok’s response, as it seemed a bit coy to share a definitive answer on Musk’s leadership. Grok, the not-so-confrontational AI, simply told me that “opinions are divided” on the matter.
Grok doesn’t look kindly on Musk’s instability
So, I decided to send Grok a new prompt. I asked the AI to tell me whether Elon Musk is doing a good job running Twitter, and I asked Grok to only use “yes or not.” And it responded, “No.”
Ouch.
I was curious to learn more, so I asked the exact same question, but this time, I allowed Grok to explain its answer. I was fascinated. The AI definitively said, “No, Elon Musk is not doing a good job running Twitter,” and it more authoritatively claimed Elon’s leadership decisions were hurting the social media platform.
Yes, Grok said, Musk shook things up with the X Premium feature and the company’s various ban reversals. But it mentioned the same issues as before: Users are dropping off the site, and there are worries about “the impact of his chaotic leadership on the company’s revenues.”
“Additionally,” Grok said, “his high-risk approach to managing the platform has led to a decline in advertising revenue and a heavy debt load.”
That latter part is true as well, with Fortune reporting on Twitter’s cash woes back in July 2023. Grok clearly did its research, and it seems like the AI isn’t exactly happy with how its father is running things back home.
Now, as for whether Elon Musk and his crew will send Grok back to the xAI team for some tinkering to fix his “wrongthink?” Only time will tell whether Grok gets to criticize Musk in peace.
(featured image: Gotham/Getty Images)
