In April last year, Elon Musk, owner of X, intrigued the public by announcing a new “unlocked” (Unhinged Mode) mode for the Grok chatbot. Nearly a year later, xAI, Musk’s company, updated the FAQ page on its website, revealing details about this mode. In this mode, Grok will provide answers that may be inappropriate, unacceptable, and offensive, similar to a young stand-up comedian still learning the craft.
This mode may be Musk’s attempt to realize Grok’s original concept. When Musk introduced Grok two years ago, he described it as bold, uncensored, and ready to answer controversial questions that other AI systems shy away from.
However, to date, Grok avoids political topics and does not cross certain boundaries. Research has shown that Grok leans toward left-wing political views on issues such as transgender rights, diversity programs, and inequality. Musk explains this behavior by referencing the data Grok was trained on—publicly available web pages—and has promised to make it more politically neutral. “Unfortunately, the Internet it’s trained on is full of nonsense,” he wrote in December 2023. “Grok will get better. This is just a beta version.”
