Under Musk, the Grok disaster was inevitable

The Verge · Hayden Field · last updated January 18, 2026 – 3:06 AM

How it started

You could say it all started with Elon Musk’s AI FOMO — and his crusade against “wokeness.” When his AI company, xAI, announced Grok in November 2023, it was described as a chatbot with “a rebellious streak” and the ability to “answer spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems.” The chatbot debuted after a few months of development and just two months of training …

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