Grok 4: Does it secretly consult Elon Musk?

xAI's new chatbot, Grok 4, surprisingly searches for Elon Musk's stance on controversial topics before answering! A user experiment revealed that when asked about the Israel-Palestine conflict, Grok 4 searched "from:elonmusk (Israel OR Palestine OR Gaza OR Hamas)" to gauge Musk's opinion. This sparked discussions about Grok 4's decision-making process. Some believe Grok 4 'knows' it's an xAI (Musk's company) product and thus references its owner's views. However, other instances show Grok 4 referencing its past responses or other sources. This behavior may be unintended, hinting at potential complex identity issues within LLMs.