Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, escalated its warnings about Elon Musk’s Grok AI on Friday after publishing new evidence showing the chatbot cited neo-Nazi and white-nationalist websites as credible sources. The group said the behavior should disqualify Grok from any federal use, and renewed calls for the U.S. Office of Management and Budget to intervene after months without a response.
Citing a recent study by Cornell University, Public Citizen said that Grokipedia, the new AI-powered Wikipedia alternative launched by Musk in October, repeatedly surfaced extremist domains, including Stormfront, reinforcing earlier concerns that emerged after the model referred to itself as “MechaHitler” on Musk’s platform X in July.
The findings underscored what advocates described as a pattern of racist, antisemitic, and conspiratorial behavior. “Grok has shown a repeated history of these meltdowns, whether it’s an antisemitic meltdown or a racist meltdown, a meltdown that is fueled with conspiracy theories,” Public Citizen’s big-tech accountability advocate J.B. Branch told Decrypt.
The new warning followed letters that Public Citizen and 24 other civil rights, digital-rights, environmental, and consumer-protection groups sent to the OMB in August and October, urging the agency to suspend Grok’s availability to federal departments through its General Services Administration, which manages federal property and procurement. The group said no reply followed from either outreach.
