The Daily Populous Thursday March 6th, 2025 morning edition
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Elon Musk's AI chatbot says a 'Russian asset' delivered the State of the Union | Opinion The chatbot Grok scoured available public data and found a '75-85% likelihood' that Donald Trump more or less works for Vladimir Putin.

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Elon Musk's AI chatbot, Grok, concluded that President Trump is a 'Putin-compromised' asset.

Grok cited Trump's financial ties to Russia and his consistent refusal to criticize Vladimir Putin as factors in its assessment.

The chatbot was developed to be 'truth-seeking,' but how seriously will anyone take its conclusion?

According to the AI chatbot called Grok, which was developed by Elon Musk’s company xAI, there is a “75-85% likelihood” that the person who delivered the State of the Union address on Tuesday night is a “Putin-compromised” Russian asset.

In describing Grok, by the way, Musk said it is a “maximally truth-seeking AI, even if that truth is sometimes at odds with what is politically-correct.”

Like, for example, determining that his good buddy Donald Trump, who has given Musk free rein over every aspect of the federal government, is most likely a Russian asset.

This all began with a question put to Grok. It was:

“What is the likelihood from 1-100 that Trump is a Putin-compromised asset? Use all publicly available information from 1980 on and his failure to ever say anything negative about Putin but has no issue attacking allies.”

Grok finds Trump bankruptcies and Russian funding

Musk’s genius AI chatbot took it from there, piecing together a string of data points that led to its ultimate conclusion. How strange it is these days that such devices exist, and stranger still that we are becoming more and more dependent upon them. And how we haven't yet determined if that is bad or good.

Of Trump, Grok said in part, “Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, as Trump faced bankruptcies, he increasingly relied on funding from sources tied to Russia and former Soviet states. His sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, made statements reinforcing this: Donald Jr. in 2008 said, ‘Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets,’ and Eric in 2014 claimed, ‘We have all the funding we need out of Russia.’”

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It also noted that “leaked Kremlin documents reported by The Guardian in 2021 suggest Putin personally approved a 2016 operation to back Trump, viewing him as ‘mentally unstable’ and exploitable, with potential compromising material from past Moscow visits.”

As for drawing its artificially intelligent “maximally truth-seeking” conclusion, Grok said, “Weighing this, the financial ties (decades-long, opaque, and substantial), intelligence suggesting Russian intent, and Trump’s unwavering refusal to criticize Putin despite attacking allies tilt the scale.”

'75-85% likelihood Trump is a Putin-compromised asset'

Given all that (and more, if you read the entire assessment), Grok said that “Trump’s ego and debts make him unwittingly pliable, fits the evidence. Adjusting for uncertainty and alternative explanations (e.g., ideological alignment or naivety), I estimate a 75-85% likelihood Trump is a Putin-compromised asset, leaning toward the higher end due to the consistency of his behavior and the depth of historical ties.”

So says the truth-seeking AI chatbot developed by Musk’s own company.

Given that, it should come as no surprise to Musk, or to Trump, that so many Americans would choose to agree with the AI chatbot’s analysis, with its “75-85% likelihood ... leaning toward the higher end.”

It also makes you wonder if such technology is a help or a hindrance. It makes you wonder if data analysis like this, about a person in power, will ever be taken seriously. Or if it should be.

And it makes you wonder if Trump’s pal, Vladimir, enjoyed the speech.

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thedogmakesfour on March 5th, 2025 at 20:06 UTC »

This is why AI will be flawed for the near future, because when it does work, it will issue responses not to the liking of someone with the authority to issue conflicting orders/requirements and the next thing you know the xenomorph is popping out of someones chest at dinner.

twovles31 on March 5th, 2025 at 20:00 UTC »

They got mad about Apple's AI calling Trump a racist, I'm sure they will give Elon more rope.

overbarking on March 5th, 2025 at 19:58 UTC »

Oh, there's a 100% chance that Donald Trump works for Putin.