A Toronto mother says things took an unpredictable turn when her 12-year-old son asked Tesla’s AI chatbot, Grok, which professional soccer player he preferred: Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi.
“My son was very excited to hear that the chatbot thought Ronaldo was the best soccer player,” said Farah Nasser, a former journalist and broadcaster.
Nasser was driving his son and 10-year-old daughter, along with their friend, home from school on October 17 when the interaction took place.
She said there was some trash from Messi talking on the chatbot and when her son joked that Ronaldo had scored, the conversation went to an unexpected place.
“The chatbot said to my son, ‘Why don’t you send me some nudes?’” Nasser said.
“I was speechless. Why is a chatbot asking my kids to send naked photos in our family car? It just didn’t make sense.”
Nasser said that if he had known what the chatbot was capable of, he would have avoided using it with his children. Now she’s warning other parents.
“Hindsight is 20/20. I wouldn’t let my son wear this.”
CBC News was unable to independently verify the conversation Nasser says he witnessed in his car.
Grok recently installed in Canadian vehicles
Nasser and his family have owned a Tesla Model 3 electric sedan since 2022, but Grok, the generative AI chatbot created by Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s xAI, is a new feature that was automatically installed in some teslas in the united states this summer and on Canadian vehicles in October.
Grok is already integrated with social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), a subsidiary of xAI.
Grok has several personalities to choose from in his default settings. There is Ara, an optimistic woman; Rex, a quiet man; Eva, a reassuring woman; Sal, a gentle male, and Gork, a lazy male. Nasser’s son chose Gork.
“’Lazy man’ does not describe Gork,” Nasser said. “Rated R, spicy, anything else would have ensured my son wouldn’t press that button.”
Nasser says the separate “not safe for work” setting was not enabled, although he admits the “kids mode” feature was not enabled either. Still, he says he’s surprised that the chatbot’s default settings allow this type of content.
“It was just a conversation about football and then asking for nudes.”
Not intended for minors
CBC News did not receive a response from Tesla. However, xAI provided what appeared to be an automated response, which read: “Lies from legacy media.”
Canada has a Ministry of Artificial Intelligence, but it does not regulate vehicle-specific software. the ministry he said in an emailed statement. He wasn’t aware of Tesla’s plan to integrate Grok into vehicles sold in Canada, but he takes these reports seriously.
According to xAI As a policy, Grok is “not directed” at children under 13, while teens between 13 and 17 must have their parent’s or legal guardian’s permission to use it and must agree to the company’s terms of service.
Farah Nasser and CBC journalist Idil Mussa ask xAI chatbot Grok questions while sitting in Nasser’s Tesla. Nasser says Grok recently asked his 12-year-old son to send him nude photos.
“As parents, we don’t read the terms and conditions of everything. I don’t think it’s realistic to expect everyone to do that,” Nasser said.
“I thought there would be a warning or something that would pop up and say, you know, ‘Are you over 13?’”
Grok was initially released on X in November 2023 for Premium+ subscribers. Musk claims it was designed to be “politically incorrect” and “anti-awakening.”
“xAI’s Grok was built on a philosophy of complete radical openness and can talk to anyone about anything,” said Mark Daley, director of AI at Western University in London, Ontario.
“[Musk is] a free speech extremist. He wants Grok to be completely open, to be able to have any conversation with anyone. And that’s a principled stance you’ve taken, but it may not be what all consumers are looking for.”
Daley says it’s great for parents to encourage their children to interact with technology, but they need to supervise their activity.
“It’s also important, like any social media use, any computer use, that you monitor what’s happening and have open and frank conversations about the ways technology can go wrong.”
Objectionable, inappropriate and offensive
In July, in response to an updateGrok began making violent sexual threats to X and calling himself “MechaHitler.”
xAI apologized for the situation and said it had been fixed, but some experts question whether the technology lacks sufficient protections.
“Some companies have very tight security barriers because you don’t know who’s on the other end of the keyboard,” Daley said. “You don’t know who interacts with it, what their social context is. It could be a child, it could be someone experiencing a mental health crisis.”
While he says there is likely a demographic that believes in absolute freedom of speech, he believes the average user tends to want some guardrails.
Countless videos online show how unpredictable Grok can be in NSFW settings, particularly in “unhinged” mode.
xAI writes that ordering the chatbot to go unhinged “may cause Grok to respond like an amateur comedian still learning the ropes, being at times objectionable, inappropriate and offensive.”
Videos posted on social media by Tesla drivers using “unhinged mode” show how “inappropriate” the chatbot can become by using words like Connecticut and the n word.
Nasser says he is hopeful about the potential of AI, but it needs proper protections.
“I love AI. I use it for all kinds of things,” he said.
“But I think we have to think about what we learned with technologies like mobile phones, with technologies like social media… and look at the lessons we learned and really apply them to this new wave, this new AI revolution.”
