Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk’s xAI has publicly indexed more than 300,000 conversations between users and its Grok chatbot that can be found through a simple search on Google (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL), according to a report by Forbes.
Whenever a Grok user hits the “share” button on a conversation with the bot it creates a URL, which can be emailed or texted to a friend or co-worker or shared via social media. However, the unique URL is also publicly indexed and can be accessed through search engines such as Google and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Bing, according to the report. In addition to conversations with Grok, image files, spreadsheets and other documents associated with it can also be accessed through the Grok shared page. The report said there is no disclaimer warning the user.
Most of the shared conversations are fairly tame, ranging from users asking Grok about Nany Pelolsi’s stock trades to information about Fidel Castro’s 1960 speech at the United Nations to directions on how to make an Oregon raspberry and marionberry salad recipe.
However, some veered into darker territory and appeared to violate xAI’s rules. Grok provided users instructions on how to make fentanyl, code malware or commit suicide, the report found. Some users asked Grok to generate images of terrorist attacks, and one even asked for details on how to assassinate Musk.
xAI is not the first chatbot provider to make conversations part of the public realm. Late last month, OpenAI removed a feature that had allowed ChatGPT users to share their conversations with search engines. It worked almost the same with users clicking a “share” box.
“Ultimately we think this feature introduced too many opportunities for folks to accidentally share things they didn’t intend to, so we’re removing the option,” said OpenAI Chief Information Security Officer Dane Stuckey, in a post on X. “We’re also working to remove indexed content from the relevant search engines. This change is rolling out to all users through tomorrow morning.”
Many users showed support for the feature being removed. With one commenting that “the contents of chatgpt often are more sensitive than a bank account.”
Seeking Alpha reached out to xAI for comment.