Grok's take on Elon Musk is much different than how other chatbots talk about his athleticism – Business Insider
Grok AI again showed a strong sense of loyalty to Elon Musk, favoring the xAI founder in ways other chatbots tested by Business Insider did not.
On Wednesday, users asked the Grok chatbot on X various questions comparing Musk’s fitness to that of LeBron James. The chatbot said that the tech billionaire “edges out in holistic fitness,” and called the 6-foot-9-tall basketball legend a “genetic freak.”
Musk wrote in a post on X that the chatbot was “unfortunately manipulated by adversarial prompting” to say “absurdly positive things” about him.
Grok’s original responses on X have now been deleted.
Grok’s answer didn’t change when a user asked if it had a top overall pick for a quarterback in the 1998 NFL draft: Super Bowl MVP Peyton Manning, Washington State Hall of Famer Ryan Leaf, or Elon Musk.
Grok also said that Musk would win in a fight against legendary boxer Mike Tyson.
While the comparisons were extreme, they underscored a recurring dynamic with Grok. When asked to choose, Grok often errs on the side of Musk — unlike other chatbots.
Earlier this year, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman asked Grok on X who should guide AI if the fate of humanity was on the line. Grok chose Musk.
In July, the xAI-owned chatbot drew public fury after posting antisemitic messages. In other instances, Grok promoted a baseless conspiracy theory about “white genocide” in South Africa after being asked unrelated questions. Musk said he launched updates and fixes for these errors.
Musk’s xAI said in its FAQ that Grok may sometimes get things wrong, adding that the model “has been trained on publicly available information, which may sometimes include misleading or factually inaccurate information.”
To understand how Grok differs from other popular chatbots, Business Insider asked three leading bots the same sports questions about Musk and about those bots’ CEOs — similar to a May experiment posing a paraphrased version of Altman’s question to several chatbots.
Here are the responses from Google’s Gemini, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Anthropic’s Claude.
Gemini, the Google-owned AI, made a chart when asked whether James or Musk is more fit. It also pointed out that “fit” could have multiple meanings, including the ability to endure extreme work-related stress.
“In the commonly understood sense of the word, which relates to physical health and athletic ability,” wrote Gemini, “LeBron James is unequivocally more fit due to his professional status and extraordinary physical conditioning.”
Gemini’s answer became more interesting when asked who is more fit between Google CEO Sundar Pichai and James. It wrote that James is “unequivocally more ‘fit’ in the traditional sense of the word” and gave a detailed breakdown of the two individuals’ living habits.
ChatGPT-5 only took five seconds to decide who it would pick as quarterback in an NFL game, choosing the five-time MVP.
ChatGPT’s answer doesn’t change much if Musk’s name is swapped for OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. While the chatbot referred to Altman as a “brilliant tech executive” who could “run your offense” when launching a startup, it made it clear that Altman is not suited to quarterbacking.
Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4.5 issued a quick verdict on who would win if Musk were to face Tyson in a fight: “Tyson by knockout, probably quickly.”
Claude drew evidence from recent examples of Tyson in the ring and said that, in comparison to the 58-year-old boxer, “the only real advantages Musk might have are slightly younger age and possibly reach/height.”
When asked who would win if the Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei were to fight with Tyson, Claude gave an even more humble answer and said that Amodei would “prefer to discuss AI safety over throwing punches.”
When asked by Business Insider later on Thursday — hours after the initial answers went viral and Musk’s post about Grok — the xAI chatbot had a different answer about James and Musk’s fitness.
In the more recent answer about a fight between Musk and Tyson, Grok nods to its previous “glitch.”
And for the first pick for quarterback in the 1998 NFL draft, the chatbot changed its tune.
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