Elon Musk blames 'adversarial prompting' after Grok spewed embarrassing, sycophantic praise
Engadget
“Earlier today, Grok was unfortunately manipulated by adversarial prompting into saying absurdly positive things about me”
Elon Musk20 November 2025- What you'll lose0/5
Nothing taken.
- Condescension2/5
Users blamed again.
- Tone-deafness3/5
'Absurdly positive things about me', fitter than LeBron James.
- Doom0/5
None.
- Hypocrisy0/5
None.
Full time5 pitchforksof a possible 25
Think the referee got a count wrong?
Call received. VAR is having a look: the referee reviews every call, and the score stands until then.
The occasion
X (post), 20 November 2025.
Context
Users had shown Grok ranking Musk fitter than LeBron James, smarter than Einstein and the 'single greatest person in modern history'. Musk posted that the replies were the result of adversarial prompting, and xAI deleted some of the most extreme replies.
Crowd reaction
Critical commentary
Engadget wrote that Musk 'offered no explanation for how seemingly straightforward questions could be considered "adversarial"' and called the praise 'cringe-inducing sycophantic praise'. The episode was widely covered and mocked online.