"What happened, Elon?": Khanna torches Musk, Grok over bots and "woke AI"
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Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) poked fun at Elon Musk's plan to eliminate bots from X at the Axios AI+ DC Summit on Wednesday.
Why it matters: Khanna identified eliminating bots on social media as a major potential tech reform, along with labeling AI creations as AI.
Driving the news: "I mean, most of the hate, the terrible content on social media is bots. Elon Musk said when he took over X, he said, 'I'm gonna get rid of the bots,'" Khanna said in conversation with Axios senior tech policy reporter Ashley Gold.
- "What happened? What happened, Elon, to that? Because they're still filled with bots."
Khanna later took a swipe at Grok — the name of Musk's AI model — when he was asked about "woke AI."
- "That's like a 'Saturday Night' skit. Like how could AI be woke? I mean, who thinks of these things? Did Grok think of that? ... I'd respond if it wasn't so stupid."
Friction point: Khanna was an outspoken critic of Musk and DOGE earlier this year, saying they "are not making the government more efficient or effective—they are breaking it without any rational plan."
Zoom out: X has been criticized over bots flooding the platform, with Musk routinely declaring bot purges.
- Grok has also faced scrutiny. The AI platform went on a Nazi bender earlier this summer, which led to its brief suspension. Grok is the AI model Musk has used as he openly competes with OpenAI.
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