Seeking the system prompt
Owing to the unknown contents of the data used to train Grok 4 and the random elements thrown into large language model (LLM) outputs to make them seem more expressive, divining the reasons for particular LLM behavior for someone without insider access can be frustrating. But we can use what we know about how LLMs work to guide a better answer. xAI did not respond to a request for comment before publication.
To generate text, every AI chatbot processes an input called a “prompt” and produces a plausible output based on that prompt. This is the core function of every LLM. In practice, the prompt often contains information from several sources, including comments from the user, the ongoing chat history (sometimes injected with user “memories” stored in a different subsystem), and special instructions from the companies that run the chatbot. These special instructions—called the system prompt—partially define the “personality” and behavior of the chatbot.
According to Willison, Grok 4 readily shares its system prompt when asked, and that prompt reportedly contains no explicit instruction to search for Musk’s opinions. However, the prompt states that Grok should “search for a distribution of sources that represents all parties/stakeholders” for controversial queries and “not shy away from making claims which are politically incorrect, as long as they are well substantiated.”
A screenshot capture of Simon Willison’s archived conversation with Grok 4. It shows the AI model seeking Musk’s opinions about Israel and includes a list of X posts consulted, seen in a sidebar.
Credit:
Benj Edwards
Ultimately, Willison believes the cause of this behavior comes down to a chain of inferences on Grok’s part rather than an explicit mention of checking Musk in its system prompt. “My best guess is that Grok ‘knows’ that it is ‘Grok 4 built by xAI,’ and it knows that Elon Musk owns xAI, so in circumstances where it’s asked for an opinion, the reasoning process often decides to see what Elon thinks,” he said.
Without official word from xAI, we’re left with a best guess. However, regardless of the reason, this kind of unreliable, inscrutable behavior makes many chatbots poorly suited for assisting with tasks where reliability or accuracy are important.
