Elon Musk’s xAI Makes Chatbot More ‘Politically Incorrect’

Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI, has rolled out a major update to its chatbot, Grok, making it explicitly “more politically incorrect.” According to an announcement posted by Musk on X (formerly Twitter), the update aims to “maximize truth-seeking and humor” — a move that positions Grok in stark contrast to more moderated AI models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude. Grok, integrated within X’s premium features, was originally released in November 2023 and designed to emulate a sarcastic and irreverent tone, inspired by The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

This new update amplifies Grok’s anti-woke posture, a hallmark of Musk’s digital empire since his acquisition of Twitter. While details on the technical backend remain sparse, xAI claims the chatbot now has fewer “guardrails” and delivers responses that lean more heavily into controversial humor and cultural critique. Critics argue this could lead to increased misinformation or biased outputs, while Musk fans hail it as a “free speech” win. The shift is part of a broader strategy to differentiate Grok from competitors seen as overly sanitized or censored.

From a platform perspective, the update fits squarely within X’s ongoing transformation into an all-in-one media and tech hub. Grok 1.5 — the latest model version as of early 2025 — uses a custom architecture reportedly trained on real-time X content and open web data. It’s embedded into the X app for Premium+ subscribers, further tying Musk’s ventures together under a single ideological and technological umbrella. Whether this “politically incorrect” rebrand will boost user engagement or deepen polarization remains to be seen — but in Musk’s playbook, controversy is often the point.