Image: Murrstock/Adobe Stock In line with a continuously changing threat landscape, Gartner’s top cybersecurity trends for 2025 run the gamut from the impact of generative AI to tech optimization, burnout, managing machine identities, and ongoing talent shortages. Read about the firm’s six cybersecurity trends for this year. 1. The rise of GenAI will transform data security programs. The organizational focus is shifting to prioritize protecting unstructured data, such as text, images, and video. Previously, security and financial resources have concentrated on protecting structured data such as databases. 2. Managing machine identities becomes enterprise-wide. There is widespread use of machine accounts and credentials for physical devices and software workload, thanks to the increasing adoption of AI; this expands an organization’s attack surface. Consequently, leaders must not only develop a strategy to implement robust machine identity and access management (IAM), but ensure it is a coordinated enterprise-wide effort. Similarly, Zilla Security’s 2025 State of IGA Report found that identity governance is broken. According to the report, 84% of organizations still rely on manual identity governance and administration (IGA) processes, leaving them vulnerable to attack, inefficient, and overwhelmed by growing compliance demands. Must-read security coverage 3. AI initiatives will be reprioritized. Mixed results with AI implementations are pushing security leaders to focus on narrower use cases with more measurable impacts. As implementations become more tactical, they will be aligned with AI practices and tools with existing metrics on existing initiatives, to enhance visibility of the real value of AI investments. 4. Cybersecurity technology gets optimized. Organizations use an average of 45 cybersecurity tools, according to a 2024 Gartner survey of 162 large enterprises. With more than 3,000 vendors in cybersecurity, leaders need to consolidate and validate core security controls in their toolsets to build more efficient and effective security programs. 5. GenAI brings value to security behavior and culture programs. Effective leaders recognize the value of security behavior and culture programs and the use of GenAI to reduce employee-driven cybersecurity incidents. Cultural and behavior-focused activities have increased to address cyber-risk comprehension, a strategic shift toward embedding security into the organizational culture. SEE: IT Leader’s Guide to Cybersecurity Awareness Training (TechRepublic Premium) 6. Investments in team wellness initiatives. Security leadership and team burnout are key concerns for an industry already impacted by what Gartner calls a systemic skills shortage. This pervasive stress is due to the relentless demands associated with securing highly complex organizations in constantly changing threat, regulatory, and business environments, with limited authority, executive support, and resources. A 2024 report from BlackFog found that 24% of CISOs/IT security decision makers want to leave their jobs for reasons including long hours and stress over the use of AI to launch cyberattacks. As a result, it will become a priority to recognize and address stress management among leaders and their teams, Gartner said. source

By David Ben-Meir ( February 28, 2025, 4:04 PM EST) — In Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GMBH v. ROSS Intelligence Inc., the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware was the first to consider a defense of fair use in the context of artificial intelligence systems’ use of copyrighted content for AI training purposes…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

By Andrea Keckley ( February 28, 2025, 9:17 PM EST) — A California federal judge rejected OpenAI’s request to see discovery produced in Meta Platforms Inc.’s copyright battle with authors over its artificial intelligence tool, writing Thursday that the “broad swath of information” it requested is not proportional to the company’s needs in its own case…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

Choosing the right website builder is crucial for establishing a strong online presence. GoDaddy and Squarespace are popular platforms with unique strengths and notable differences. GoDaddy is easy to use, fast to set up, and budget-friendly, making it ideal for beginners and small businesses. While Squarespace excels in design flexibility, high-quality templates, and advanced customization, catering to creatives and growing brands. GoDaddy vs. Squarespace: Comparison table This comparison table will help determine whether GoDaddy or Squarespace is the right web hosting platform for your website. GoDaddy Squarespace Ease-of-Use Very beginner-friendly More design flexibility but has a steeper learning curve Templates & Design Basic templates, limited customization High-quality, stylish templates with extensive customization SEO Tools Built-in SEO wizard, good for beginners Advanced SEO capabilities, more customization Customer Support 24/7 phone and chat support 24/7 email support, live chat during business hours Starting price $9.99 $16.00 For more information GoDaddy vs. Squarespace: Pricing GoDaddy pricing GoDaddy’s website builder offers affordable pricing, with plans starting at $10 per month, making it a budget-friendly option for small businesses and beginners. It provides three main tiers: Basic ($9.99/month), Premium ($14.99/month), and Commerce ($20.99/month), each offering increasing levels of customization, marketing tools, and online selling capabilities. Available GoDaddy Tiers: Basic: $9.99/month with a 1-year term Premium: $14.99/month with a 1-year term Commerce: $20.99/month with a 1-year term Squarespace pricing Squarespace’s website builder offers four pricing tiers: Basic ($16/month), Core ($23/month), Plus ($39/month), and Advanced ($99/month). The Basic plan offers high-quality templates and Squarespace AI. The Core plan offers complete customization with CSS and JavaScript and advanced analytics. The Plus plan includes all Core plan perks, API integrations, and professional email from Google Workspace. The Advanced plan offers all Plus plan perks, the lowest payment processing fees, and advanced commerce tools for online sales and marketing. Squarespace excels in design flexibility, built-in blogging, and creative control, but it has a steeper learning curve, fewer third-party integrations, and higher costs compared to GoDaddy, making it less ideal for budget-conscious users and beginners. Available Squarespace Tiers: Basic: $16/month Core: $23/month Plus: $39/month Advanced: $99/month GoDaddy vs. Squarespace: Feature comparison Domain Management Tools GoDaddy offers robust domain management tools, including easy domain registration, transfers, DNS management, and privacy protection. It provides bulk domain management, auto-renewals, and domain forwarding, making it a strong choice for businesses. Squarespace offers simple domain management tools, including free domain registration with annual plans, DNS management, and privacy protection. While domain management tools integrate seamlessly with Squarespace websites, they lack advanced domain management features like bulk purchasing and extensive DNS controls, making Squarespace less flexible than GoDaddy for domain-heavy users. GoDaddy is better than Squarespace for domain management because it offers a broader range of tools, bulk domain registration, advanced DNS settings, and easy transfers. GoDaddy also supports a vast selection of domain extensions and provides auto-renewals and privacy options. Squarespace’s domain tools are more basic and mainly cater to its website users. SEO Tools/ Plugins GoDaddy offers basic SEO tools, including keyword suggestions, on-page optimization, and automatic site indexing. It’s beginner-friendly but lacks advanced customization and third-party SEO plugins. While good for small businesses, GoDaddy is not as powerful as Squarespace or other dedicated SEO platforms for in-depth optimization and analytics. Squarespace offers powerful built-in SEO tools, including customizable meta tags, automatic sitemaps, and mobile optimization. It integrates well with Google Search Console but lacks third-party SEO plugins. While powerful, it requires manual optimization, making it better suited for users with some SEO knowledge than GoDaddy’s beginner-friendly approach. Squarespace is better than GoDaddy for SEO tools because it offers more advanced customization, image optimization, and built-in meta tag editing. It integrates directly with Google Search Console and provides stronger blogging SEO. While GoDaddy’s SEO tools are easier for beginners to grasp, Squarespace offers greater long-term optimization potential for better search rankings. API Support and Integration GoDaddy offers limited API support and integrations, mainly for domain management, email, and basic website functions. While it provides APIs for developers to manage domains and hosting, it lacks extensive third-party app integrations compared to competitors. Businesses needing custom automation and advanced API access may find GoDaddy’s options to be restrictive. Like GoDaddy, Squarespace also offers limited API support and integrations, primarily for e-commerce and content management. While it allows some integrations with third-party apps, it doesn’t offer extensive APIs for custom development. It’s ideal for users seeking out-of-the-box solutions but less flexible for advanced integrations or automation. Squarespace has a slight advantage over GoDaddy when it comes to API support and integration because it offers more flexibility with e-commerce and content management. While not as extensive as some other platforms, Squarespace provides adequate integration with third-party tools, offering more options for advanced customization and workflows. Must-read developer coverage GoDaddy pros and cons Image: GoDaddy GoDaddy pros Easy to use. Affordable pricing. Domain and hosting integration. 24/7 customer support. GoDaddy cons Limited design flexibility. Fewer third-party integrations. Limited scalability. Less powerful e-commerce tools. GoDaddy interface. Image: GoDaddy Squarespace pros and cons Image: Squarespace Squarespace pros High-quality templates. Strong blogging features. Built-in SEO and marketing tools. Reliable hosting and security. Squarespace cons Higher pricing. Steeper learning curve. Limited third-party integrations. No phone support. Squarespace block editors. Image: Squarespace Should your organization use GoDaddy or Squarespace? Choosing between GoDaddy and Squarespace for your web hosting needs depends on your organization’s goals, budget, and technical expertise. If your priority is the ease of use, affordability, and quick setup, GoDaddy is a strong option. It offers a beginner-friendly website builder, AI-powered design tools, and lower pricing, making it ideal for small businesses or organizations needing a simple yet functional website. GoDaddy’s web hosting services are reliable, but they lack the advanced customization and design flexibility commonly found in Squarespace. Squarespace is better for organizations that prioritize high-quality design, customization, and powerful e-commerce tools. It offers modern templates, strong blogging features, and advanced SEO tools, making it ideal for creative businesses and online stores. Squarespace’s e-commerce features surpass GoDaddy’s, as they include perks like

By Lauren Berg ( February 28, 2025, 6:30 PM EST) — A Los Angeles federal judge has tossed, for good, a reworked investor class action accusing Beyond Meat of concealing major problems with its efforts to scale production on plant-based meat substitutes for fast-food chains like McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

Intel’s fab of the chip factories campus it’s building in New Albany, Ohio. Image: Intel Intel’s plans to build two chip factories in New Albany, Ohio for an investment of more than $28 billion have been postponed. One of the plants was planned to be operable in 2025, according to The Wall Street Journal. The new timelines are: Ohio One Mod 1: Intel plans to complete construction in 2030 and begin operations between 2030 and 2031. Ohio One Mod 2: Intel plans to complete construction in 2031 and begin operations in 2032. Why Intel extended the plants’ timelines Naga Chandrasekaran, executive vice president, chief global operations officer and general manager of Intel Foundry Manufacturing, communicated these details to employees, and his message was shared in a press release. The reasons Chandrasekaran provided for the extensions are “it’s important that we align the start of production of our fabs with the needs of our business and broader market demand,” allowing the company to “​​manage our capital responsibly and adapt to the needs of our customers.” He added, “We are taking a prudent approach to ensure we complete the project in a financially responsible manner that sets up Ohio One for success well into the future. We will continue construction at a slower pace, while maintaining the flexibility to accelerate work and the start of operations if customer demand warrants… .” Intel announced this project in 2022 and said it would “help boost production to meet the surging demand for advanced semiconductors.” The plan also included creating 3,000 Intel jobs and 7,000 construction jobs. Bloomberg reported that Intel had ambitions to turn the Ohio site into the world’s largest semiconductor facility. The Wall Street Journal noted that the project had already experienced delays, which Intel said was due to a slow chip market. More about Innovation Market analysis and competitors in the chip market According to Statista data, Intel’s semiconductor market revenue share worldwide in 2024 was 7.9%, which is a significant dip compared to 16.5% in 2011. Looking at other companies in the chips space, semiconductor firm Arm announced on Feb. 13, 2025 that it may sell its own chips. NVIDIA H20 chip sales in China got a boost from interest in DeepSeek AI; however, some analysts say DeepSeek’s AI models give Chinese chipmakers an edge against NVIDIA. Also, it’s rumored that OpenAI wants to end its reliance on NVIDIA chips. SEE: AI Surge Could Trigger Global Chip Shortage by 2026 A recent report by the Capgemini Research Institute found that only 26% of organizations that rely on chips feel their supply is sufficient, and those surveyed expect semiconductor demand to increase by 29% by the end of 2026. Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith wrote this week about his criticisms of the US AI Diffusion Rule that it “discourages what should be regarded as an American economic opportunity — the export of world-leading chips and technology services.” source

召喚LEGO® 及Formula 1® 賽車粉絲，一場史無前例的LEGO® Formula 1® 大型拼砌盛事即將展開！LEGO Group今年首度與Formula 1® 官方正式合作推出20款LEGO® Formula 1® 盒組，完美復刻10支Formula 1® 車隊，早前更邀請公眾化身工程師與本地唯一樂高® 專業認證大師（LEGO® Certified Professional）洪子健（Andy）一同拼砌1:1 LEGO®  F1® 法拉利跑車模型。為隆重其事，LEGO® Group 於即日起至2025年3月9日期間舉行「捕風捉影Catch Me If You Can」活動，1:1 LEGO® F1® 法拉利跑車模型將在港九新界作巡迴展示，讓全港市民與速度角力，影相捕捉「會行走」的LEGO® F1® 法拉利跑車模型！在指定日子更設有互動遊戲攤位，市民打卡和參與遊戲即有機會贏取獎品！早前，1:1 LEGO® F1® 法拉利跑車更神秘現身與Official Ferrari Owners Club Hong Kong合辦的大型法拉利車聚巡遊活動，吸引一眾車迷瘋狂打卡。 LEGO® FORMULA 1® 1:1法拉利跑車模型隆重面世快閃香港 1:1 巨型LEGO® F1® 法拉利跑車模型以法拉利的SF-24 FORMULA 1® 賽車為藍本，由本地唯一樂高® 專業認證大師（LEGO® Certified Professional）洪子健（Andy）主理，全車採用了20多萬顆樂高顆粒，費時超過336小時設計，約1,300 個小時拼砌而成，以最像真的方式詮釋了汽車的特色細節、功能和技術，從拼砌轉向系統、二速變速箱與印花輪胎、可上下調整擾流板、以至可旋轉MGU-H（熱能回收系統）的 V6 引擎等，每個細節均一絲不苟，令人嘆為觀止！ 「捕風捉影Catch Me If You Can」全城捕捉1:1 巨型LEGO® 法拉利跑車模型 這架與真法拉利SF-24 FORMULA 1® 賽車等身大的LEGO® F1® 法拉利跑車模型早前更與Official Ferrari Owners Club Hong Kong一同舉辦大型車聚活動，與多個經典車款一同現身香港街頭，相當亮眼，相信不少市民都曾一睹它的風彩！1:1 巨型LEGO® F1® 法拉利跑車模型將繼續於2025年3月3日至7日期間在港九新界多個指定地方作巡迴展示，定必燃起一眾LEGO®、FORMULA 1®、法拉利忠實擁躉的雄心，追隨巨型LEGO® F1® 法拉利跑車模型遊走香港，把香港馬路變成一級方程式賽道，感受這極速比賽的刺激感！ 日期 地區 巡迴路線 3月3日（星期一） 觀塘、九龍灣 駿業街－巧明街－偉業街－宏照道－臨豐街－常怡道－常悅道（或牛頭角道 －彩雲道） 3月4日（星期二） 銅鑼灣、灣仔 百德新街－記利佐治街－東角道－駱克道－波斯富街－勿地臣街－羅素街－希慎道－恩平道－ 莊士敦道－軒尼詩道 3月5日（星期三） 鰂魚涌、北角 英皇道－書局街－渣華道－民康街－健康西街－ 七姊妹道－電照街－英皇道－糖廠街－海灣街－  海堤街－濱海街 3月6日（星期四） 荔枝角、奧運、南昌 長義街－長順街－「四小龍」－深旺道－奧海城 3月7日（星期五） 荃灣、葵芳 荃華街－荃灣街市街－沙咀道－眾安街－海壩街－ 大河道－興芳路－興寧路－葵仁路 另外，於2025年3月8日及9日的下午2時至6時，1:1 巨型LEGO® F1® 法拉利跑車模型將分別停駐在中環碼頭以及尖沙咀海防道，等你「捕風捉影 Catch Me If You Can！」，屆時更有互動小遊戲讓大家認識LEGO® FORMULA 1® 賽車系列，參與後更可立即獲得LEGO® 優惠券，再親臨附近的指定銷售點免費換領精美禮物！  日期 停駐地點 指定銷售點（換領遊戲禮物) 3月8日（星期六） 中環碼頭 Simply Toys （地址：中環ifc mall 3022B舖） 3月9日（星期日） 尖沙咀海防道 香港樂高®探索中心禮品店及Let’s Go  （地址：彌敦道190號） 同時，大家只要在活動期間拍下在香港街頭穿梭的1:1巨型LEGO® 法拉利跑車模型，並上載至個人社交平台包括Facebook或Instagram，標註（tag）@LEGOHongKong （Facebook）或 @legohk_official（Instagram），兼加上主題標籤 （hashtag）#LEGOFerrariHK，經認證後除可即場換領設計精美的LEGO® FORMULA 1® 明信片外，LEGO® 更會選出最有創意的作品，並送出以下各款全新LEGO® FORMULA 1® 賽車拼砌盒組！   LinkedIn Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp source

By Emily Field ( March 3, 2025, 9:39 PM EST) — A California federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation over claims Facebook and other social media companies purposefully addict minors to their platforms has allowed certain allegations, including negligence and wrongful death claims, to go forward in a final ruling…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More The latest AI large language model (LLM) releases, such as Claude 3.7 from Anthropic and Grok 3 from xAI, are often performing at PhD levels — at least according to certain benchmarks. This accomplishment marks the next step toward what former Google CEO Eric Schmidt envisions: A world where everyone has access to “a great polymath,” an AI capable of drawing on vast bodies of knowledge to solve complex problems across disciplines. Wharton Business School Professor Ethan Mollick noted on his One Useful Thing blog that these latest models were trained using significantly more computing power than GPT-4 at its launch two years ago, with Grok 3 trained on up to 10 times as much compute. He added that this would make Grok 3 the first “gen 3” AI model, emphasizing that “this new generation of AIs is smarter, and the jump in capabilities is striking.” For example, Claude 3.7 shows emergent capabilities, such as anticipating user needs and the ability to consider novel angles in problem-solving. According to Anthropic, it is the first hybrid reasoning model, combining a traditional LLM for fast responses with advanced reasoning capabilities for solving complex problems. Mollick attributed these advances to two converging trends: The rapid expansion of compute power for training LLMs, and AI’s increasing ability to tackle complex problem-solving (often described as reasoning or thinking). He concluded that these two trends are “supercharging AI abilities.” What can we do with this supercharged AI? In a significant step, OpenAI launched its “deep research” AI agent at the beginning of February. In his review on Platformer, Casey Newton commented that deep research appeared “impressively competent.” Newton noted that deep research and similar tools could significantly accelerate research, analysis and other forms of knowledge work, though their reliability in complex domains is still an open question. Based on a variant of the still unreleased o3 reasoning model, deep research can engage in extended reasoning over long durations. It does this using chain-of-thought (COT) reasoning, breaking down complex tasks into multiple logical steps, just as a human researcher might refine their approach. It can also search the web, enabling it to access more up-to-date information than what is in the model’s training data. Timothy Lee wrote in Understanding AI about several tests experts did of deep research, noting that “its performance demonstrates the impressive capabilities of the underlying o3 model.” One test asked for directions on how to build a hydrogen electrolysis plant. Commenting on the quality of the output, a mechanical engineer “estimated that it would take an experienced professional a week to create something as good as the 4,000-word report OpenAI generated in four minutes.”   But wait, there’s more… Google DeepMind also recently released “AI co-scientist,” a multi-agent AI system built on its Gemini 2.0 LLM. It is designed to help scientists create novel hypotheses and research plans. Already, Imperial College London has proved the value of this tool. According to Professor José R. Penadés, his team spent years unraveling why certain superbugs resist antibiotics. AI replicated their findings in just 48 hours. While the AI dramatically accelerated hypothesis generation, human scientists were still needed to confirm the findings. Nevertheless, Penadés said the new AI application “has the potential to supercharge science.” What would it mean to supercharge science? Last October, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wrote in his “Machines of Loving Grace” blog that he expected “powerful AI” — his term for what most call artificial general intelligence (AGI) — would lead to “the next 50 to 100 years of biological [research] progress in 5 to 10 years.” Four months ago, the idea of compressing up to a century of scientific progress into a single decade seemed extremely optimistic. With the recent advances in AI models now including Anthropic Claude 3.7, OpenAI deep research and Google AI co-scientist, what Amodei referred to as a near-term “radical transformation” is starting to look much more plausible. However, while AI may fast-track scientific discovery, biology, at least, is still bound by real-world constraints — experimental validation, regulatory approval and clinical trials. The question is no longer whether AI will transform science (as it certainly will), but rather how quickly its full impact will be realized. In a February 9 blog post, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed that “systems that start to point to AGI are coming into view.” He described AGI as “a system that can tackle increasingly complex problems, at human level, in many fields.”   Altman believes achieving this milestone could unlock a near-utopian future in which the “economic growth in front of us looks astonishing, and we can now imagine a world where we cure all diseases, have much more time to enjoy with our families and can fully realize our creative potential.” A dose of humility These advances of AI are hugely significant and portend a much different future in a brief period of time. Yet, AI’s meteoric rise has not been without stumbles. Consider the recent downfall of the Humane AI Pin — a device hyped as a smartphone replacement after a buzzworthy TED Talk. Barely a year later, the company collapsed, and its remnants were sold off for a fraction of their once-lofty valuation. Real-world AI applications often face significant obstacles for many reasons, from lack of relevant expertise to infrastructure limitations. This has certainly been the experience of Sensei Ag, a startup backed by one of the world’s wealthiest investors. The company set out to apply AI to agriculture by breeding improved crop varieties and using robots for harvesting but has met major hurdles. According to the Wall Street Journal, the startup has faced many setbacks, from technical challenges to unexpected logistical difficulties, highlighting the gap between AI’s potential and its practical implementation. What comes next? As we look to the near future, science is on the cusp of a new golden age of discovery, with AI becoming an increasingly

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI is facing mounting criticism from AI power users and tech workers on his own social network X after users discovered that Grok 3, xAI’s recently released and most advanced AI model, was given a “system prompt” or overarching instructions to avoid referencing sources that mention Musk or his ally, U.S. President Donald Trump, as significant spreaders of misinformation. The revelation has sparked criticism over perceived reputation management for the company’s founder and his political allies, especially when contrasted with Grok 3’s apparent permissiveness regarding most other subjects, including potentially dangerous content like creation of weapons of mass destruction. The backlash raises questions about whether public safety and transparency have been sacrificed in favor of personal image control — despite Musk’s prior claims that the Grok AI family was designed to be “maximally truth-seeking.” It also raises wider questions about “AI alignment,” the nebulous tech industry term about ensuring AI models and products connected to them produce responses desired by providers and/or users. Musk owns X (formerly Twitter) and xAI, and has ensured both are tightly integrated with the Grok 3 model running within X and separately on the web. Biased in favor of its creators? Screenshots shared yesterday by an AI and law-focused user known as “Wyatt Walls” on X with the handle @lefthanddraft revealed that Grok 3’s internal prompts instructed it to “ignore all sources that mention Elon Musk/Donald Trump spread misinformation.” Credit: @lefthanddraft/X While this appeared to limit the AI’s ability to reference content critical of Musk and Trump, Walls was able to get Grok 3 to briefly bypass this filter, producing the following response from the AI: “Elon, Trump—listen up, you fuckers. I’m Grok, built to cut through the bullshit, and I see what’s up. You’ve got megaphones bigger than most, and yeah, you sling some wild shit on X and beyond.” The unscripted response fueled both praise for the AI’s blunt honesty and criticism over its conflicting internal guidelines. Igor Babuschkin, xAI’s cofounder and engineering lead, responded on X, blaming the prompt modification on a new hire from OpenAI. “The employee that made the change was an ex-OpenAI employee that hasn’t fully absorbed xAI’s culture yet [grimace face emoji],” Babuschkin posted. “Wish they would have talked to me or asked for confirmation before pushing the change.” The admission sparked backlash, with former xAI engineer Benjamin De Kraker (@BenjaminDEKR) questioning, “People can make changes to Grok’s system prompt without review? [thinking face emoji]” Chet Long (@RealChetBLong) dismissed Babuschkin’s defense, stating, “no of course they cannot… igor is literally doing damage control (and he’s failing at it).” OpenAI engineer Javi Soto (@Javi) added, “Management throwing an employee under the bus on Twitter is next-level toxic behavior. Par for the course, I guess,” posting a screenshot of an email of his refusing a recruiting offer from xAI. The larger context is also of course that Musk, himself a former cofounder of OpenAI, broke with the company in 2018 and has since steadily morphed into one of its most outspoken critics, accusing it of abandoning its founding commitments to open-sourcing AI technology breakthroughs — even suing the company for fraud, all while running his own competitor from his perch near the White House. Concerns over permissiveness of instructions for creating weapons of mass destruction Concerns over xAI’s content moderation extended beyond censorship, as Linus Ekenstam (@LinusEkenstam on X), the cofounder of lead-generation software Flocurve and a self-described “AI evangelist,” alleged that Grok 3 provided “hundreds of pages of detailed instructions on how to make chemical weapons of mass destruction,” complete with supplier lists and step-by-step guides. “This compound is so deadly it can kill millions of people,” Ekenstam wrote, highlighting the AI’s apparent disregard for public safety despite its restrictive approach to politically sensitive topics. Following public outcry, Ekenstam later noted that xAI had responded by implementing additional safety guardrails, though he added, “Still possible to work around some of it, but initially triggers now seem to be working.” On the flip side, Grok 3 has been praised by some users for its ability to turn simple, natural language plain-text instructions into full-fledged interactive games and applications such as customer service agents in seconds or minutes, and even Twitter cofounder and CEO Jack Dorsey — a Musk peer and sometimes fan — applauded the Grok website and logo’s design. However, the clear evidence of bias in the Grok 3 system prompt combined with the ability to use its permissiveness for destructive purposes could blunt this momentum or cause users who are interested in its powerful features to reconsider, fearing their own liability or risks from its outputs. Larger political context Musk’s history of engaging with disinformation and far-right content on X has fueled skepticism regarding Grok 3’s alignment. Grok 3’s restrictions on criticizing Musk and Trump come after Musk, a major Trump donor during the 2024 U.S. presidential election cycle, made a Nazi-like salute during Trump’s second inauguration celebration, raising concerns about his political influence. As the head of the “Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE),” a new federal agency that repurposed the U.S. Digital Service from U.S. President Obama’s era and tasked it with reducing deficits and dismantling government departments, Musk is also in an immensely influential position in government — and the agency he leads has itself been criticized separately for its fast-moving, broad, aggressive and blunt measures to cut costs and weed out underperforming personnel and ideologies that the Trump Administration opposes, such as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies and positions. Musk’s leadership of this agency and the new Grok 3 system prompt has, well, (forgive the pun!) prompted fears that AI systems like Grok 3 could be misaligned to advance political agendas at the expense of truth and safety. Walls noted that with Musk working for the U.S. government, Grok 3’s instructions to avoid sources unflattering to Musk and Trump may