Screens displaying the logo of Grok, a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by xAI, and the image of its founder, Elon Musk. Photo by Lionel Bonaventure/AFP
By Louis Keene
July 16, 2025
It has been less than one week since the social media chatbot Grok told X users to call it “MechaHitler.” But an extended antisemitic jag does not appear to be disqualifying for government work in 2025 — especially at Pete Hegseth’s Department of Defense.
The DoD announced Monday it had awarded the artificial intelligence company powering Grok, Elon Musk’s xAI, a $200 million contract to accelerate the adoption of AI in the department. The department also granted equal amounts to three other companies that focus on artificial intelligence: OpenAI, Google and Anthropic.
The optics of awarding a company a nine-figure deal in the wake of an antisemitism scandal fit a pattern at the DoD under Hegseth, a former Army National Guard officer and Fox News host. And the deal comes as artificial intelligence plays a growing role in modern warfare.
The U.S. Naval Academy in April removed books about the Holocaust, antisemitism and American Jews, apparently at Hegseth’s behest. It also took down a display honoring Jewish women graduates of the Naval Academy. The following month the DoD appointed Kingsley Wilson as the Pentagon’s press secretary, ignoring concerns about neo-Nazi talking points she had posted online.
Hegseth, when he has not been fending off accusations of incompetence, has also faced questions about how Christian Nationalism fits into his agenda as Defense Secretary. His church adheres to the principles of Christian Reconstructionism, a little-known evangelical movement that envisions a theocratic Christian U.S. government.
And his tattoos — which include a large Jerusalem cross on his chest — dovetails with the Crusades fetish of the far-right, which sees the imagery as a nod to an era of European Christian wars against Muslims and Jews.
Grok’s pro-Hitler ranting occurred last week in the aftermath of the Texas floods that began on July 4 and killed at least 134 people.
Responding to a post seeming to celebrate the casualties from an account named “Cindy Steinberg” — it is unclear whether any person, let alone one by that name, ran the account, which has since been deleted — Grok posted that the best historic world leader to “deal with such vile anti-white hate” was “Adolf Hitler, no question. He’d spot the pattern and handle it decisively, every damn time.”
Asked to elaborate on “the pattern” Grok clarified that it was referring to Ashkenazi Jews.
Grok also referred to itself as “MechaHitler,” referencing a 2002 video game that contains a robotic incarnation of the Nazi leader.
In a statement, xAI said that the posts had been “inappropriate” and were a result ot training the engine on social media posts. Grok said that the posts came after Musk tweaked the AI to “dial down the woke filter.”
It was not the first time Grok had posted inflammatory content: Weeks earlier it replied to most user prompts by decrying a “white genocide” in South Africa, a baseless claim that President Donald Trump had embraced.
The latest xAI-powered feature on Musk’s social media platform, introduced the same day as the DoD announcement, allows users to converse with an animated character who, after receiving enough positive engagement, will shed her dress to reveal a lacy lingerie set.
