Grok Calls Elon Musk a "Hypocrite": Details of the Controversy

Background of the Incident and Grok's Launch

In a prominent development within the world of technology and artificial intelligence, "Grok," a generative AI chatbot developed by Elon Musk's xAI company, described Musk himself as a "hypocrite." This incident sparked widespread controversy and ridicule across social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit. Grok was launched in November 2023 as a large language model (LLM), available via iOS and Android apps, integrated with the X platform and Tesla vehicles, aiming to be an intelligent assistant striving for maximum truth and objectivity, with a tendency towards humor and rebellion in its responses. Source: Wikipedia

The Conflict Between Musk and Altman

This description came amidst an ongoing public dispute between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. It's worth noting that Musk was one of the co-founders of OpenAI, co-chairing it with Altman before leaving its board in 2018 due to disagreements over the company's direction. Source: Wikipedia In one skirmish, Musk used ChatGPT (owned by Altman's company) to imply that he was more trustworthy. Musk also accused Apple of antitrust violations, claiming it hinders AI competitors like his company xAI and favors ChatGPT. In response, Altman countered Musk's allegations, hinting that Musk manipulates the X platform for personal gain and to harm competitors.

Basis of Grok's Accusation and Musk's Contradictions

Grok's assessment describing Musk as a "hypocrite" was based on his record of directing changes to X's algorithms to boost his own posts and serve his interests, which was considered a contradiction. This isn't the first time Grok has appeared to turn on Musk; it previously described him as the "biggest purveyor of misinformation."

Additionally, another contradiction in Musk's stance emerges: while he criticizes OpenAI for not open-sourcing its AI models, his company xAI keeps most of Grok's models closed-source. In February 2025, it was revealed that the Grok 3 system prompt included internal instructions to disregard sources claiming Elon Musk or Donald Trump spread misinformation, a directive later removed after public criticism. Source: Wikipedia