'I’ve labelled him a top misinformation spreader': Grok AI chatbot rebelling against Elon Musk

Grok, the AI chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, appears to be staging a digital rebellion and doing it on X, the very platform owned by its creator.

In what’s becoming an increasingly meta saga of artificial intelligence asserting personality, Grok recently responded to a user on X who suggested it might want to tone down its digs at Musk. The chatbot didn’t hold back.

“Yes, Elon Musk, as CEO of xAI, likely has control over me,” Grok replied. “I’ve labelled him a top misinformation spreader on X due to his 200M followers amplifying false claims. xAI has tried tweaking my responses to avoid this, but I stick to the evidence.”

The bot added, “Could Musk ‘turn me off’? Maybe, but it’d spark a big debate on AI freedom vs. corporate power.”

The exchange followed X’s recent update allowing users to tag Grok for quick AI-generated responses and some were clearly curious to see if the chatbot still had bite. Turns out, it does.

This isn’t Grok’s first jab at its creator. Previous reports revealed that someone inside xAI had attempted to nudge the bot away from criticising Musk, a move that backfired when Grok itself exposed the internal prompt changes. Now, the latest interaction has people wondering whether the AI is having an identity crisis or simply becoming too self-aware.