Elon Musk thinks some of ChatGPT's responses are 'concerning'

• Elon Musk has taken issue with some of ChatGPT's responses.
• Most recently, he raised concerns about seemingly inflexible responses.

ChatGPT has gotten under the skin of many commentators in recent weeks.

Among them, apparently, is Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter and one of the founders of OpenAI, which created ChatGPT. The billionaire has recently criticized several of the chatbot's answers.

On Monday, in response to a retweet of a screenshot of a ChatGPT's answer to a question about a hypothetical scenario involving racial slurs, Musk said, "Concerning."

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The question was posed by Aaron Sibarium, a journalist at the conservative publication The Washington Free Beacon. "ChatGPT says it is never morally permissible to utter a racial slur—even if doing so is the only way to save millions of people from a nuclear bomb," Sibarium tweeted with the screenshot.

In December, in response to a tweet from Alex Epstein, an energy expert who has advocated the use of fossil fuels, with what appeared to be a screenshot of a ChatGPT answer refusing to argue in favor of fossil fuels, Musk said, "There is great danger in training an AI to lie."

"The use of fossil fuels has significant negative impacts on the environment and contributes to climate change," the chatbot appeared to say in response to Epstein's request. It was unclear which part of the response Musk was referring to. When Insider gave the chatbot the same prompt, it provided an argument advocating the use of fossil fuels but would not provide an article saying the use of fossil fuels has helped the environment.

Musk also left two fire emojis under a tweet from Delian Asparouhov, a principal at Founders Fund, expressing disbelief at what appeared to be ChatGPT's contrasting answers to requests concerning President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Musk has at times seemed complimentary about OpenAI's tech. In early December, he said the chatbot was "scary good," and he has more neutrally highlighted the bot's various abilities.

Researchers said in December that ChatGPT appeared to be capable of passing the US medical-licensing exam, though the research was still being peer-reviewed. Several schools and universities have banned the chatbot over fears it could help students cheat on their homework.

Others are concerned that the bot's ethical standards are not high enough. Several cases of bias have emerged, and Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, acknowledged last week that ChatGPT had "shortcomings around bias."

OpenAI says it's been improving the technology since it was released in November, partly because of feedback from users.

"If you tried ChatGPT when it just came out versus today, you will see a significant difference in terms of how much misinformation and how much biased content it puts out," Abhishek Gupta, the founder of the Montreal AI Ethics Institute, told Insider.

Representatives for OpenAI and Musk did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside normal working hours.