X launches underwhelming Grok-powered 'More About This Account' feature
Since launching xAI last year, Elon Musk has been using X as a sandbox to test some of the Grok model's AI capabilities.
Beyond the basic chatbot, X uses the model to summarize news and trending events. Now the platform has launched a new feature called "More About This Account" to provide a few AI-powered sentences about a user. It sounds useful enough, but the results are underwhelming.
Paid users will see the "More About This Account" button when they hover over a handle or display name on the web. They can then click on the button to generate an AI-powered synopsis. At times, Grok offers generic info about the account. Other times, it's dead wrong.
For instance, when I asked Grok about my colleagues Sean O'Kane and Amanda Silberling, Grok gave me a few generic sentences about the type of posts they put out on the platform.
And alarmingly, Grok made my colleague Jagmeet Singh an expert on Canada, though he hasn't posted much on the topic.
Ram Iyer, one of the editors at TechCrunch, is apparently a brunch account.
When I asked about edtech startup Unacademy's SVP of design and product, Hardik Pandya, Grok told me about Hardik Pandya, the Indian cricketer.
In X's defense, the platform does warn about Grok possibly getting things wrong.
"Grok version 1.5 is an early feature and can make mistakes. Verify its outputs," the message reads.
Even when Grok is not getting the information wrong, it's not adding very useful beyond what you can easily learn from looking at the account and bio.
Given that Grok has access to X's data, it should have given better information about users with its new feature. The feature needs a rethink.
