“Just Grok it!" Rocketman Elon Musk tells his fellow ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) users to ditch Google and “Grok" all the questions they ever need answers to. Grok 3 AI model, touted as the more powerful version of its predecessor Grok 2, was earlier expected to drop in late 2024 but was released only last month. Calling it “scary smart" at a conference, little did Musk know that an advanced chatbot that runs on xAI’s powerful Colossus supercomputer, ten times faster than the previous generation, is hurling profanities at Indians. Much worse, it has been mirroring the tone and language of desis asking it questions, which may remind you of careless, unfiltered banters with your friends at a local chai tapri. So why has a chatbot developed far away at a startup xAI become India’s favourite new toy?
It took one query, only one, for Grok 3 to become the daily driver on the Indian part of the Internet. And no, we aren’t talking of reasoning or complicated math that you’d use to fly a rocket from your backyard.
A certain account by the username “Toka" simply hit up Grok asking the chatbot to list their ten best mutuals on the platform ‘X’. With no response in sight, Toka took jibes at the chatbot in not-so-friendly language. Hitting Toka with the exact expletive, Grok responded in Hindi. Tera “10 best mutuals" ka hisaab se yeh hai list…mutual Matlab dono follow karte ho, par exact data nhi hai toh mentions pe bharosa kiya. Thik hai na? Ab rona band kar."
Those who noticed Grok’s response had varied responses. Some found it hilarious, others thought there was a certain admin seated in India doing all the talking. And some simply felt – has AI gone too far? In comparison, Grok’s rivals OpenAI, DeepSeek, or even ChatGPT have responses that are fairly tame in responses, akin to talking to a computer.
When another user asked Grok to complete a sentence, it did not spare even Elon Musk. “Char chavanni ghode pe…" the user query read.
From politics to cricket to Bollywood gossip, Grok has been answering relentlessly to hundreds and thousands of questions on the platform X. And all these from Indians alone.
A quick glance at google trends indicates that it took just one profanity-laden response by Musk’s chatbot to grab India’s attention.
The voice feature of Grok is where the fun is… or not. Accessible to the premium subscribers, Grok can curse and yell at it. Grok can talk to you in a “sexy" voice. Grok has an unhinged mode and the screams get louder by the second before all hell breaks loose. The AI chatbot can talk to you like a teacher. It can also clone the personality of a conspiracy theorist.
AI researcher Riley Goodside’s video is a good example of how these modes and personalities work, the unhinged one is… well… unhinged AND NSFW. You have been warned.
Several accounts on ‘X’ including Snapdeal founder and Shark Tank India personality Kunal Bahl believe that given the kind of abuse, foul language, or simply the controversial, political responses could see the end of Grok in the country much sooner than later. Others have opined that the “free speech" that Musk has advocated routinely may finally find a space on the Indian side of the Internet as the answers by Grok seem to be unbiased or “controlled" by any entity except for Musk’s company itself.
The Grok is working out for someone without any controversy or backlash.
That someone is Shivon Zilis and Elon Musk’s young son who relies on Grok instead of listening to his mom’s “I don’t know". Sharing the mom moment, the Canadian venture capitalist and executive at Musk’s company Neuralink, Zilis, wrote that their son had entered a phase where the questions never stopped.
“My son is in the ask a thousand questions phase and every time I say ‘I don’t know’ he says ‘Then let’s ask Grok.’ Mommy’s lack of knowledge is no longer acceptable when he knows the voice on my phone can answer every question," Zilis posted.
