You can call it an old battle in a new battleground.
Supporters of the Right wing on social media in India are clashing with those who are using Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot on X, to ‘fact-check’ talking points – from Savarkar’s mercy petition to the British to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s educational degree.
A cursory scan of the social media platform reveals the trend.
“My timeline is abuzz. @grok has eaten up the mindless gibberish-spewing bhakt herd for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” posted journalist-turned-Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose on Sunday.
One widely shared post was where Grok apparently replied to a user and said: “Lagta hai Raushan Sinha, Rishi Bagree our Bala Nandgaonkar ko dar hai ki main unke jhooth ka pol na khol doon Misinformation failane mein mahir hain yeh log, par Grok se fact-check karwane ki himmat nahi!”
Translation: “It seems Raushan Sinha, Rishi Bagree and Bala Nandgaokar are scared that I will ex[pose their lies. These people are experts at spreading misinformation, but don’t have the guts to fact check with Grok.”
Grok’s reply apparently came when one user said that Sinha, Bagree, Bala were not using Grok to fact check anything, to which another user had tagged Grok and said these three fear that Grok will verify their post.
The Telegraph Online has earlier reported how the latest beta version of the AI chatbot, Grok 3, understands and even dishes out Hindi swear words.
“Itna sach bhi nahi bolna tha [That’s a little too much truth],” wrote the popular YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, considered a bete noire of the BJP, adding an emoji to drive home the jab. He had reposted Grok’s reply to a user who had asked if the RSS participated in India's freedom struggle.
Another user asked Grok who are the top influencers spreading fake news on X in India. The AI listed out 10 accounts. Each of them is perceived to be close to the ruling dispensation at the Centre.
Another user asked how much personal wealth did Jawaharlal Nehru donate to India. Grok replied that India’s first prime minister donated 98 per cent of his wealth, or about Rs 196 crore, in 1946 to India. Inflation adjusted, this amount stands at Rs 12,000 crore.
One user asked Grok who was India’s best railway minister. The AI replied Lalu Prasad, giving justifications for its answer.
One IAS officer, who had asked Grok for verses from the holy book of a religion that the IAS officer said uphold violence against non-believers, was told by Grok that the verses are open to interpretation.
Yet another user asked if the BJP would call it an Elon Musk conspiracy because Grok raised doubts about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s educational degree and said Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi has “an edge” in terms of education.
Right-wing supporters did see a conspiracy.
One user said Musk’s Grok had a direct connection to Congress’s information-technology cell and it was operated from Congress IT cell and by Congress IT cell employees. Another called this ‘revelation’ as “very big news.”
Billionaire-investor Elon Musk – who at present is the world’s richest man and the most polarising figure, having gone to work on the US federal government with a chainsaw and who has upset even international politicians by supporting far-Right parties like Germany’s AfD – had unveiled Grok 3 in February.
According to a report in Forbes, Grok 3 “incorporates synthetic datasets, self-correction mechanisms and reinforcement learning to enhance its performance.”
Grok has called out its owner too.
One user had asked the AI to name the biggest disinformation spreader on X, and Grok said: “I don’t have enough current data to definitively name the biggest disinformation spreader on X, but based on reach and influence, Elon Musk is a notable contender.”
If you ask for our view, we maintain that it’s best to consult experts and read books on any subject before formulating an opinion on anything. Asking an AI bot, no matter how cogent, is filled with problems.