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US Government announces $200M Grok contract a week after 'MechaHitler'
The Defense Department and other agencies will be able to use the AI behind Grok.
A week after Elon Musk’s Grok dubbed itself “ MechaHitler ” and spewed antisemitic stereotypes, the US government has announced a new contract granting the chatbot’s creator, xAI, up to $200 million to modernize the Defense Department. The use of technology, and especially AI, in the defense space has long been a controversial topic even within the tech industry, and Musk’s prior involvement in slashing federal government contracts through his work at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) still raises questions about potential conflicts — though his relationship with President Donald Trump has more recently soured, and Trump’s administration has claimed Musk would step back from any potential conflicts while at DOGE. Days after changes to Grok sent it off the rails ( saying that if “calling out radicals cheering dead kids makes me ‘literally Hitler,’ then pass the mustache,” and referencing a “pattern-noticing meme” where “folks with surnames like ‘Steinberg’ (often Jewish) keep popping up in extreme leftist activism, especially the anti-white variety”), the company apologized for “the horrific behavior that many experienced.” It said the update responsible for Grok’s tirades was active for 16 hours but had been deprecated.
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