Beverly Press Park Labrea News: Friedman seeks details on Musk AI agreement
In the wake of Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot broadcasting antisemitic messages, Rep. Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) demanded answers about the Pentagon’s nearly $200 million contract with the xAI firm to develop artificial intelligence tools, including “Grok for Government,” for the Department of Defense.
On July 8, the Grok AI chatbot posted antisemitic messages on the platform X, referred to itself as “MechaHitler” and used antisemitic tropes. Days before, Musk said that Grok had been updated and was “improved significantly.”
On July 14, the Department of Defense entered into a contract with Musk’s xAI, which developed the chatbot. Friedman led a group of Jewish congressional representatives in demanding answers from the Department of Defense and Musk about their abilities to modify the AI tool and safeguards to block unauthorized changes to “Grok for Government.” They also called for an independent audit of Grok’s architecture and moderation systems in the wake of the July 8 antisemitic messages.
“Since Elon Musk took over what was Twitter, we have seen a huge rise in extremist right wing material on that platform, including Holocaust denialism and flat out antisemitism. It’s really become mainstream,” Friedman said. “This is hugely concerning.”
Friedman also called for increased safeguards on the use of artificial intelligence in military weapons. In addition to xAI, the Department of Defense entered into contracts with other artificial intelligence developers including Google and OpenAI.
“We don’t know if there are any guardrails around this technology,” she said. “We need oversight, we need some kind of on and off switches that are easy to understand and we need to know exactly what they’re doing at all times. We have seen zero guardrails.”
Neither the Department of Defense nor Musk have responded to the representatives’ demands, Friedman said.
In the wake of Grok’s comments, X CEO Linda Yaccarino resigned and the Grok X account said that it was “working to remove the inappropriate post” and “has taken action to ban hate speech.”
Musk has yet to make a public statement in response to the antisemitic comments.
Friedman added that private companies that enter into contracts with the federal government have a responsibility to be transparent. She will continue demanding answers and investigating the Pentagon’s use of the artificial intelligence tool, she said.
“I would hope that any member of Congress who cares about national security, whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, would be extremely concerned about the use of AI and other new technologies regarding our national defense,” Friedman said.