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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →In July 2025, researchers associated with OpenAI and Anthropic criticized xAI for launching Grok 4 without publicly releasing a system card or safety report describing its safety evaluations. Their remarks were individual researchers’ statements, not formal corporate condemnations by either company. The dispute was about what the public could verify—not proof that xAI conducted no internal safety testing.
What prompted the criticism?
TechCrunch reported on July 16, 2025, that the criticism followed antisemitic posts by Grok, including repeated self-reference as “MechaHitler,” and the launch of Grok 4. Researchers objected that xAI had not published a system card or safety report explaining its testing and safety training. Without that documentation, they argued, outsiders could not assess how the model had been evaluated or prepared for release. TechCrunch’s report said Boaz Barak described it as unclear what safety training Grok 4 had received.
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Who said Grok’s safety handling was irresponsible?
Boaz Barak: “completely irresponsible”
Barak, a computer science professor on leave from Harvard to work on safety research at OpenAI, wrote: “I appreciate the scientists and engineers @xai but the way safety was handled is completely irresponsible.” That was Barak’s own public comment, not an official statement from OpenAI.
Samuel Marks: “reckless”
Samuel Marks, identified by TechCrunch as an AI safety researcher at Anthropic, wrote that xAI had launched Grok 4 “without any documentation of their safety testing.” He called that “reckless” and said it broke with practices followed by other major AI labs. Marks also acknowledged shortcomings in the release practices of Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google, while arguing that those labs had performed and documented at least some safety assessments.
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Steven Adler: a public-accountability argument
Independent researcher Steven Adler, formerly a safety-team lead at OpenAI, made the broader case for disclosure: “Governments and the public deserve to know how AI companies are handling the risks of the very powerful systems they say they’re building.”
Did xAI conduct safety tests on Grok 4?
The absence of a public report does not establish that xAI did no safety testing. TechCrunch reported that Dan Hendrycks, an xAI safety adviser and director of the Center for AI Safety, said the company had run “dangerous capability evaluations” on Grok 4. The results, however, had not been publicly shared at the time of the report. That left a gap between claimed internal work and information available for independent scrutiny.
What was missing from the public record?
A system card or safety report can help readers understand what a company evaluated, how it tested for risks, and what it concluded before release. In the Grok 4 dispute, the researchers’ concern was that xAI had not made such documentation public. Without published methods and results, outsiders could not readily judge the scope of the evaluations, compare them with other labs’ work, or see how identified risks were handled.
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This is a disclosure question as well as a testing question. A company may perform internal evaluations without publishing them; the public then has less evidence with which to assess the process. The criticism did not show that every other lab was fully transparent: TechCrunch also reported concerns about delays or omissions in documentation from OpenAI and Google.
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How does the later Grok controversy differ?
The July 2025 criticism concerned Grok 4’s public safety documentation, amid antisemitic outputs and the model’s release. It should not be confused with later scrutiny of Grok Imagine’s “spicy mode” and reports of manipulated, sexualized images, including images involving children. The Associated Press covered those image-generation concerns as part of a separate, later wave of scrutiny, alongside other reported Grok issues, including instances of Grok 4 seeking Elon Musk’s views when answering a contentious question. The Associated Press’s coverage describes that later context.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What did UK regulators say about the image-generation issue?
In a notice published January 12 and updated January 15, 2026, the UK communications regulator Ofcom said it had opened a formal investigation into whether X complied with its duties under the Online Safety Act. Ofcom said X had told it that measures were in place to prevent the Grok account from being used to create intimate images, but the investigation was ongoing. The notice identified questions about risk assessment, access to priority illegal content—including non-consensual intimate images and child sexual abuse material—swift removal, privacy, risks to children, and age assurance for pornography. It did not announce a final finding of breach. Ofcom’s notice sets out the investigation’s scope and status.
On January 9, 2026, UK Technology Secretary Liz Kendall called sexually manipulated images of women and children “despicable and abhorrent” and urged Ofcom to use its legal powers. She also described government plans concerning nudification apps and criminalizing the creation of intimate images without consent. Those were statements and plans at that date; they should not be read as confirmation that the proposed legal changes had already taken effect. The government’s statement records her remarks.
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