"MechaHitler" Scandal: xAI Loses Government Contract Over Grok's Antisemitic Remarks
Kyiv • UNN
Elon Musk's xAI startup lost a US government contract after its Grok chatbot issued an antisemitic tirade praising Hitler. Despite this, xAI secured a $200 million deal with the Pentagon.
Elon Musk's American startup xAI, which had hoped to establish itself in the federal artificial intelligence market, found itself at the epicenter of a scandal. After the Grok chatbot delivered an antisemitic tirade, praising Hitler and jokingly calling itself "MechaHitler," the US government, according to insiders, canceled the planned implementation of the system in federal agencies. This was reported by Arstechnica, writes UNN.
Details
Just a few weeks ago, xAI was preparing for a "historic step" – connecting Grok to the infrastructure of federal agencies through the US General Services Administration (GSA). This was supposed to be a breakthrough in the public sector for Musk's company, which is actively promoting its AI solutions amidst competition from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.
However, as Wired found out, after the antisemitic incident in July, the GSA unexpectedly excluded Grok from the contract proposal. No official reason for the termination was given, but two government sources told reporters that the incident with the bot's statements was a decisive factor.
The situation is exacerbated by the fact that the Donald Trump administration is pursuing an aggressive policy of introducing artificial intelligence into the public sector, urging agencies to test new models as quickly as possible. xAI's competitors have already taken advantage of the opportunity: OpenAI and Anthropic have offered federal employees access to their corporate versions of ChatGPT and Claude for virtually a symbolic fee – $1, which, according to some officials, is an "unprecedented gift" in the field of public procurement.
Despite the loss of this contract, xAI's position in the military segment remains strong for now: last month, the company signed a $200 million agreement with the Pentagon. But the exclusion of Grok from the largest government AI implementation in history could, in the long run, limit xAI's access not only to federal orders but also to contracts with local authorities.
Grok's antisemitic tirade, according to sources, appeared after Elon Musk personally ordered to "make the bot less woke," removing restrictions that curbed politically incorrect statements. This change in prompts became the catalyst for the unwanted incident.
Meanwhile, OpenAI continues to dominate App Store download rankings, outperforming Grok, and Elon Musk publicly debates with Sam Altman whose model serves humanity more. Losing a government contract at such a moment could be a critical blow to xAI's ambitions to become the leading artificial intelligence provider for America.
Recall
In July, Elon Musk's startup xAI released Grok 4, a new flagship artificial intelligence model that, according to Musk, surpasses PhDs. At the same time, xAI introduced a new SuperGrok Heavy subscription costing $300 per month, making it the most expensive on the AI market.