\n<\/p>\n
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. This week, Elon Musk\u2019s X, formerly Twitter, saw its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok go Nazi. Then its CEO resigned. In the past three years of Musk\u2019s ownership of the social network, it feels like X has weathered at least one public crisis per week, more often multiple.<\/p>\n
Last week, Musk\u2019s artificial intelligence firm, xAI, saw its flagship chatbot Grok declare itself a super-Nazi, referring to itself as \u201cMechaHitler\u201d. It made racist, sexist and antisemitic posts, which the company deleted.<\/p>\n
One example, via my colleague Josh Taylor: Grok referred to a person with a common Jewish surname as someone who was \u201ccelebrating the tragic deaths of white kids\u201d in the Texas floods as \u201cfuture fascists\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n xAI apologized for the bot\u2019s \u201chorrific behavior\u201d. Earlier in the week, Musk himself had handed down a mandate that Grok be less \u201cwoke\u201d.<\/p>\n In spite of the meltdown, xAI announced on Monday that it had won a contact of up to $200m with the US Department of Defense along with other major AI developers. The deal is for developing and implementing artificial intelligence tools for the agency.<\/p>\n This contract may be the most blatant example of Musk flexing his newfound connections in government that the public has seen yet. Despite Grok\u2019s flailing and incendiary output, xAI has been rewarded alongside firms that have demonstrated far superior control of their AI products. Other companies in the group of contract winners, which include Google, OpenAI and Anthropic, have demonstrated the viability of their chatbots and implemented robust guardrails against offensive output. All three firms make public commitments to safety testing. Grok, by contrast, has made headlines repeatedly for its controversial and offensive output, as in May when it ranted about \u201cwhite genocide\u201d in May, echoing Musk\u2019s own talking points. Musk\u2019s most notable comments on his AI\u2019s safeguards have been that they are too restrictive.<\/p>\n My colleague Nick Robins-Early points out that xAI is reaching for revenue and investment anywhere it can get it:<\/p>\n The DoD\u2019s contract will give xAI a boost of revenue as it seeks to compete with more established AI developers like OpenAI, which is led by Musk\u2019s former associate turned rival, Sam Altman. Musk has been heavily promoting xAI and attempting to use other parts of his tech empire to support its future, including having SpaceX invest $2bn into the startup, allowing it to acquire X, formerly, Twitter, and announcing on Sunday that Tesla shareholders will vote on their own investment in xAI.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/span> Photograph: Reuters<\/p>\n The world\u2019s richest person seems to be growing desperate as a result of the turmoil roiling his kingdom. He has said he will form an independent political party. xAI is pursuing financial Jenga. Tesla\u2019s sales are plummeting; its wobbly Robotaxis are under investigation. SpaceX\u2019s giant rockets keep exploding after liftoff.<\/p>\n Nick Robins-Early again:<\/p>\n Musk has found himself embroiled in controversy outside of X in recent months. His political alliance with Donald Trump, which began during the 2024 campaign and resulted in Musk\u2019s appointment as a special government employee and the creation of the so-called \u201cdepartment of government efficiency\u201d, imploded in June in full public view. The tech tycoon has committed to starting an independent political party.<\/em><\/p>\n Meanwhile, Tesla, the source of the majority of Musk\u2019s wealth, has seen its sales fall precipitously in response to his political activities, with prospective buyers and current owners alike shying away from the controversial CEO. SpaceX, Musk\u2019s rocket company, has struggled with its latest rocket, the massive Starship, which has repeatedly exploded after liftoff.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/span>Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X Corp, in Las Vegas, Nevada, on 7 January.<\/span> Photograph: Patrick T Fallon\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n On Wednesday, X\u2019s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, announced she would step down from her role at the social network. It was the day after Grok went Nazi.<\/p>\n My colleagues Johana Bhuiyan and Nick Robins-Early assessed Yaccarino\u2019s tenure:<\/p>\n In two years, Yaccarino has had to contend with the unpredictability of Musk, ongoing content moderation and hate speech issues on the platform, increasingly strained relationships with advertisers and widespread backlash her boss received for his role in Donald Trump\u2019s administration. Her response in some cases was to remain silent; in others, she chose to defend the company. Through it all, however, experts say it was clear Yaccarino was the chief executive in title only.<\/em><\/p>\n Rather than become a destination for mainstream talent, a streaming powerhouse or the \u201ceverything app\u201d that Yaccarino promoted, X has largely become a megaphone for Musk to air his grievances, boost and then feud with Trump, and promote his companies. Far-right influencers, porn spambots and meme accounts proliferate, while many media outlets have deprioritized the platform or left it altogether. Misinformation and extremism are rampant, sometimes coming from Musk himself.<\/em><\/p>\n When Yaccarino was hired, the Guardian published a story headlined \u201cLinda Yaccarino: does Twitter\u2019s CEO have the most difficult job in tech?\u201d. The article describes the obstacles facing Yaccarino at the start of her tenure, which she never overcame. Two years later, we can say with certainty that she did have the most impossible job in tech: reining in Musk.<\/p>\n My colleague Kari Paul reported in 2023:<\/p>\n Musk promised to bring in a new CEO \u2013 a position he himself described as a \u201cpainful\u201d job that anyone would be \u201cfoolish\u201d to take on.<\/em><\/p>\n When Yaccarino was appointed as the company\u2019s first female CEO, there was much talk about her standing on a \u201cglass cliff\u201d \u2013 a concept that has emerged through research positing that women are more likely to be promoted to higher positions when companies are in crisis and failure is more likely.<\/em><\/p>\n Much of her success, analysts said, would depend on how much Musk was willing to share control. The chaotic nature of the X announcement for some has dashed the hope that Yaccarino can clean up Musk\u2019s mess.<\/em><\/p>\n Twitter has been in a downward spiral since Musk took over, grappling with a $13bn debt burden and a massive exodus of advertisers \u2013 historically the company\u2019s main source of income. Twitter is looking for new revenue streams, and the \u201ceverything app\u201d could be a path to doing so.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIf she\u2019s successful, she goes down in the history books. And if not, she becomes a footnote,\u201d said Jasmine Enberg, social media analyst at the market research firm Insider Intelligence.<\/em><\/p>\n Hello, and welcome to TechScape. This week, Elon Musk\u2019s X, formerly Twitter, saw its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok go Nazi. Then its CEO resigned. In the past three years of Musk\u2019s ownership of the social network, it feels like X has weathered at least one public crisis per week, more often multiple. Musk\u2019s chatbot melts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[2394,1571,91,2964,4147,744,1371,92,1975],"class_list":{"0":"post-10968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-chatbot","9":"tag-contract","10":"tag-elon","11":"tag-grok","12":"tag-melts","13":"tag-military","14":"tag-musk","15":"tag-musks","16":"tag-wins"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Chaos is plaguing Musk\u2019s empire<\/h2>\n
Linda Yaccarino, X\u2019s embarrassed public face, falls off the glass cliff<\/h2>\n
The wider TechScape<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"