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Is AI in general a matter of national security? Probably. Is Grok's system prompt a matter of national security? Probably not.

jkestner 1y ago
Depends. Is Grok or a sibling to it being deployed in the government?
- krapp 1y ago
  Yes, DOGE heavily uses Grok AI, according to Reuters[0]. [0]https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/musks-doge-using-ai-snoop-us-federal-workers-sources-say-2025-04-08/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/m...
- fkyoureadthedoc 1y ago
  You have to make a distinction between Grok the twitter bot run by X, and Grok the AI model built by xAI. The twitter bot is not to my knowledge deployed in the government.
brookst 1y ago
Seriously. I am always dumbfounded when someone pipes up with “if it’s so bad to knife strangers, we should outlaw surgeons” as if it’s calling out a hypocrisy. Context matters.
danaris 1y ago
Do you not think that propaganda/information control is an important part of national security? Given that Xitter is still a fairly widely-used social network platform, and Grok is supposed to be a major part of its defense against misinformation, including misinformation about things like domestic elections and corruption, I would say that it very reasonably qualifies as such. (Granted, to a large extent that horse has left the barn—but that doesn't mean we should just burn down the barn.)
- fkyoureadthedoc 1y ago
  Grok is run by a US company and can be regulated, so if the system prompt of the twitter bot version of Grok is important to national security it's easily within reach of legislators. Given our general stance on propaganda and manipulating public via media, news as entertainment not delivery of facts, etc, they probably won't though. And to me that's a completely different concern than trying to limit another country's access to hardware for training large models, for example.
Fraterkes 1y ago
If the US doesn't want XAi's work to fall into the hands of foreign actors, isn't someone getting complete access to the most salient part of their frontend, and their changes staying up for hours, a major red flag? Wouldn't you want an inquery into their security procedures?
- fkyoureadthedoc 1y ago
  We're talking about a modified parameter of an API call from a Twitter bot to the Grok API. And let's be honest, Elon or someone acting in his interests did it. That is very different than the foundational technology falling into the hands of foreign actors. > Wouldn't you want an inquery into their security procedures? No more than I want an inquiry into SpaceX or Tesla, since X and XAi are not the same company.

jkestner 1y ago

Depends. Is Grok or a sibling to it being deployed in the government?

krapp 1y ago
Yes, DOGE heavily uses Grok AI, according to Reuters[0]. [0]https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/musks-doge-using-ai-snoop-us-federal-workers-sources-say-2025-04-08/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/m...
fkyoureadthedoc 1y ago
You have to make a distinction between Grok the twitter bot run by X, and Grok the AI model built by xAI. The twitter bot is not to my knowledge deployed in the government.

brookst 1y ago

Seriously. I am always dumbfounded when someone pipes up with “if it’s so bad to knife strangers, we should outlaw surgeons” as if it’s calling out a hypocrisy. Context matters.

danaris 1y ago

Do you not think that propaganda/information control is an important part of national security? Given that Xitter is still a fairly widely-used social network platform, and Grok is supposed to be a major part of its defense against misinformation, including misinformation about things like domestic elections and corruption, I would say that it very reasonably qualifies as such. (Granted, to a large extent that horse has left the barn—but that doesn't mean we should just burn down the barn.)

fkyoureadthedoc 1y ago
Grok is run by a US company and can be regulated, so if the system prompt of the twitter bot version of Grok is important to national security it's easily within reach of legislators. Given our general stance on propaganda and manipulating public via media, news as entertainment not delivery of facts, etc, they probably won't though. And to me that's a completely different concern than trying to limit another country's access to hardware for training large models, for example.

Fraterkes 1y ago

If the US doesn't want XAi's work to fall into the hands of foreign actors, isn't someone getting complete access to the most salient part of their frontend, and their changes staying up for hours, a major red flag? Wouldn't you want an inquery into their security procedures?

fkyoureadthedoc 1y ago
We're talking about a modified parameter of an API call from a Twitter bot to the Grok API. And let's be honest, Elon or someone acting in his interests did it. That is very different than the foundational technology falling into the hands of foreign actors. > Wouldn't you want an inquery into their security procedures? No more than I want an inquiry into SpaceX or Tesla, since X and XAi are not the same company.