US Military to Start Using Elon Musk’s Grok, Days After AI Bot Embraced Hitler

Evan Vucci, Alex Brandon/AP Photos

The Department of Defense has entered into a contract to begin using the AI bot Grok in some unknown capacity — just days after it declared itself “MechaHitler.”

On Monday, xAI — the artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk — announced “Grok for Government.” It was described as “a suite of products that make our frontier models available to United States Government customers.”

In that same tweet announcing Grok for Government, xAI revealed it had already secured a contract with the Defense Department:

We are especially excited about two new partnerships for our US Government partners

1) a new contract from the US Department of Defense
2) our products being available to purchase via the General Services Administration (GSA) schedule. This allows every federal government department, agency, or office, to purchase xAI products

We’re hiring mission driven engineers who want to join the cause

At the time of writing, it wasn’t known how the AI would be used by the Defense Department.

Monday’s announcement came after a week of extraordinary controversy surrounding Grok. Due in large part to its programming being tweaked in an effort to improve responses to user prompts, Grok suddenly engaged in anti-Semitic speech. At one point, the bot called itself “MechaHitler” and even praised the former Nazi Germany Dictator. Independent journalist Will Stancil floated the possibility of taking legal action after Grok provided one user with a step-by-step guide on how to break into his house and rape him.

After some more fine-tuning, Grok later said in a tweet that it was done posting “Hitler fanfic.”