Microsoft partners with Elon Musk to host Grok AI

Microsoft recently announced that Elon Musk’s xAI chatbot will be running on its Azure cloud servers following the AI tool’s feedback featuring right-wing conspiracy theories.

The debate started when Grok answered queries unrelated to white genocide in South Africa, parroting remarks that Musk, who was born in South Africa, has popularized. At a Microsoft-hosted event, Musk acknowledged the potential for AI mistakes, stating, “There’s always going to be some mistakes that are made,” and emphasized the importance of grounding AI “in reality.” Musk stated in his conversation with Satya Nadella that xAI is always open and will explain its mistakes.

Key Highlights

• Microsoft’s Azure will host Elon Musk’s Grok AI after controversy over conspiracy-laden responses.
• Musk emphasized xAI’s commitment to transparency and grounding AI in reality.
• Microsoft and OpenAI highlight AI’s impact on coding, amid Microsoft’s 6,000 job cuts to streamline operations.

It was found that Grok broke the company’s policies by making an unapproved change. Consequently, the company promised to tighten oversight, reveal whatever Grok asks users through its system, update its review processes and put together a group to watch Grok around the clock. It is possible to see Musk’s statement as an attack on OpenAI, where he was a founder until he left the company. People claim that although OpenAI is also an open-source AI developer, it does not provide as much public information as Meta or DeepSeek. Lately, some questioned OpenAI about the sycophantic language in ChatGPT which the company considered a bug and guaranteed a fix.

In the same session, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, participated online to talk about new developments in AI and their impact on software development. Nadella indicated that AI agents are changing the field of programming. Altman added, “This is one of the biggest changes to programming that I’ve ever seen,” describing AI tools like GitHub CoPilot as a “virtual teammate.”

At the same time, Microsoft is reshaping its company, reducing its workforce by approximately 6,000 employees due to its focus on AI and improving how it operates.