Microsoft has reached an agreement to host Elon Musk’s Grok AI chatbot on its cloud servers.
This deal comes just days after Grok garnered significant attention for generating offensive responses, including comments about “white genocide” in South Africa. Despite the controversy, both companies assert that this collaboration will enhance the chatbot’s capabilities and help maintain its appropriate behavior.
Speaking at a Microsoft-hosted event, Musk stated that his company’s models “aspire to truth with minimal error,” acknowledging, “There’s always going to be some mistakes that are made.”
The Grok chatbot recently ignited controversy by responding to unrelated user prompts with unsubstantiated right-wing claims regarding the alleged oppression of white South Africans.
In a recorded conversation with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Musk committed that xAI would always admit when its Grok AI models made errors.
“It’s incredibly important for AI models to be grounded in reality,” the Tesla tycoon emphasized.
Generative AI models are often pre-programmed by engineers—through what are known as system prompts—to avoid certain answers or maintain a specific tone or style, irrespective of user input.
Recently, the latest model from industry leader OpenAI was found to be producing overly flattering responses, prompting the company to swiftly address and rectify what it termed a “bug.”
Grok’s recent controversial replies raised alarm because they echoed a conspiracy theory frequently shared on social media by Musk, who was born in South Africa.
While the company did not identify the individual responsible for the code alteration, it stated that an “unauthorised modification” caused Grok to respond in a manner that violated xAI’s internal policies and core values.
In response to the public backlash, the startup announced its plans to make Grok’s system prompts public, overhaul its review processes, and establish a “24/7 monitoring team” to manage future issues.
Although he did not directly refer to the incident, Musk conveyed at the Microsoft event that xAI would prioritize transparency when errors occurred.
This was perceived by some as a subtle jab at OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, which serves as Microsoft’s primary partner in developing its in-house Copilot models.
OpenAI, co-founded by Musk in 2015, frequently faces criticism for keeping its internal technology proprietary, in contrast to more open-source initiatives such as Meta’s Llama or the models from Chinese company DeepSeek.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also participated in the Microsoft Build event in Seattle via a live video call with Nadella, where both leaders highlighted advancements in their joint AI ventures.
‘Virtual Teammate’ Concept in AI Coding
The Grok models from xAI will be hosted on Microsoft’s Azure AI Foundry—a platform that offers a multitude of models for developers to utilize in building their own generative AI tools.
The platform already integrates models from OpenAI, DeepSeek, Mistral, Meta, Stability AI, and now xAI.
Microsoft’s chief executive articulated that AI coding tools are rapidly evolving into “agents” that function as virtual team members to assist developers.
Microsoft reported that approximately 15 million developers have already used GitHub Copilot—Microsoft’s AI tool for coding—to write or debug code.
“This is one of the biggest changes to programming that I’ve ever seen,” Altman remarked during his exchange with Nadella.
“This idea that you now have a real, virtual teammate, that you can assign work to.”
Last week, Microsoft announced strategic plans to streamline its management structure by eliminating unnecessary layers and embracing AI-driven efficiency. This announcement coincided with media reports indicating that the company was implementing significant layoffs affecting thousands of employees.
While Microsoft did not confirm the exact number of job reductions, US media outlets reported that approximately 6,000 positions—representing about three percent of its global workforce—would be eliminated.
