Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is facing allegations of using artificial intelligence (AI) to author a newspaper column for a German weekly publication.
On Saturday, the German daily Tagesspiegel reported that when they asked the AI chatbot Grok to write a column titled “Why Only the AfD Can Save Germany” for a conservative newspaper, it produced text remarkably similar in style, argumentation, and structure to Musk’s published column.
Grok, an AI chatbot developed by Musk’s startup xAI, produced content that closely resembled Musk’s December 28 column for the German weekly Welt am Sonntag. Both texts stated that Germany was at a critical crossroads, on the verge of economic and cultural collapse. Tagesspiegel pointed out several identical sentences shared between the two pieces.
Musk positioned the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in his column as “Germany’s last hope.” The party advocates for economic revitalization, energy independence, political realism, and a focus on future innovation.
While Musk, who operates a Tesla factory in Brandenburg, Germany, has often commented on German politics via X, this was his first in-depth contribution to a newspaper.
Tagesspiegel reported that several AI text detection programs indicated a high probability that the column was AI-generated. The editorial team at Welt am Sonntag had three staff members independently verify the likelihood of Grok’s authored text, all reaching the same conclusion.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed the controversy amid growing criticism and accusations of political interference, stating that this was nothing new and urging calm. He remarked, “There are many people on social media who want to attract attention with strident slogans. The rule is: don’t feed the troll.”
In an interview with Stern, Scholz added, “As Social Democrats, we have been used to the fact that there are rich media entrepreneurs who do not appreciate Social Democratic politics and do not keep their opinions to themselves from the last century.” However, he emphasized that support for far-right parties like the AfD, which advocate reconciliation with Putin’s Russia and undermine transatlantic relations, is far more alarming than any personal insult.
Last November, after Scholz’s traffic light coalition government collapsed, Musk tweeted, “Olaf is a fool.” He also labeled Vice Chancellor and Minister for Economic Affairs Robert Habeck a “fool” and referred to President Frank-Walter Steinmeier as an “undemocratic tyrant.”
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