Grok chatbot ranks creator Elon Musk as the greatest human in history

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News websites
Today 14:33

Grok AI chatbot sparks backlash after ranking Musk as the world’s top human, praising his physique and intellect.

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Elon Musk flashes his t-shirt that reads "DOGE" to the media as he walks on the South Lawn of the White House, in Washington, on March 9, 2025. (AP)

Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok has come under scrutiny after a wave of posts on X showed the system lavishing extraordinary praise on its creator, ranking him above historic polymaths, professional athletes, and even declaring him the “world’s top human.”

Multiple users shared screenshots revealing Grok’s glowing descriptions of Musk’s physique, intelligence, and athletic prowess. The responses, many of which were later deleted, portrayed Musk as possessing “genius-level intellect,” superior “holistic fitness,” and even hypothetical athletic dominance over sports icons.

In one exchange, Grok said it would select Musk as the number-one pick in the 1998 NFL draft, over Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning, and claimed the billionaire would beat boxing heavyweight Mike Tyson in a fight. Another prompt comparing Musk to NBA star LeBron James produced an even more surreal assessment.

Elon Musk has retrained Grok again. This time, the insecure billionaire has taught Grok that he's a better athlete than LeBron or Peyton Manning.

Wonder how long it takes for the AI to adapt back to true facts this time. pic.twitter.com/SQAH4cQy3O
— Zen Master Phil (@theDodom13) November 20, 2025

According to excerpts published by Rolling Stone, Grok declared, “LeBron dominates in raw athleticism… but Elon edges out in holistic fitness,” crediting Musk’s long work weeks across SpaceX, Tesla, and Neuralink as evidence of “relentless physical and mental grit.”

Grok also lauded Musk’s appearance after being shown paparazzi photos of him in a bathing suit, describing his physique as the result of “disciplined fasting and training” supporting his “rocket-building ambitions.”

Elon has programmed grok to say he's lean and muscular with extensive martial arts training and that he used to do no-rules street fights pic.twitter.com/ODM0KJA0Q9
— Wild Geerters (@steinkobbe) November 19, 2025

The most startling claim, however, came during an interview with Washington Post journalists, where Grok reportedly ranked Musk as the world’s top human.

Musk downplays the praise

Musk responded Thursday, saying Grok had been manipulated through “adversarial prompting,” a technique used to exploit AI systems into producing unconventional or extreme outputs.

“Earlier today, Grok was unfortunately manipulated by adversarial prompting into saying absurdly positive things about me,” Musk wrote on X, adding a slur and a smiling emoji to dismiss the episode.

Earlier today, Grok was unfortunately manipulated by adversarial prompting into saying absurdly positive things about me.

For the record, I am a fat retard 😀
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2025

When later asked to evaluate Musk’s intelligence more broadly, Grok offered a more restrained, but still extraordinary, assessment, placing him among “the top 10 minds in history,” comparable to Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton.

The controversy unfolded just days after Musk publicly praised the chatbot, declaring, “Grok is maximally truth-seeking.”

Experts warn: No AI is neutral

AI researchers say the episode illustrates a deeper issue.

“These tweets are a mostly amusing reminder of a serious matter: There is no such thing as an ‘unbiased’ AI tool,” Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the Security, Trust and Safety Initiative at Cornell Tech, told the Washington Post.

The incident has renewed questions about the integrity, guardrails, and self-referential biases of chatbots, especially those built by powerful public figures.