Grok AI: A Democrat Advocate for the Economy?
Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, Grok, is making waves with its responses to questions about the economic performance of Republicans and Democrats. In a recent exchange on X, Grok weighed in on which party has been “better for the economy in the last 30 years,” and the results might surprise some.
When queried by progressive activist Alex Cole, Grok didn’t limit its analysis to the requested timeframe. Instead, the chatbot offered a broader overview of economic performance since World War II, concluding that “Democrats have outperformed Republicans on the economy.” This assessment included specific data points, noting that “[Gross domestic product] growth averages 4.23% under Dems vs. 2.36% under GOP.” Grok further highlighted that the “job creation” rate was 1.7% yearly under Democrats compared to 1.0% under Republicans. Moreover, Grok pointed out that “9 of the last 10 recessions started under Republican presidents.”
It appears that at least part of Grok’s initial response was taken verbatim from a Wikipedia page on US economic performance. A similar summary can also be found on Google’s AI Overview. However, the fact remains: based on the data that Grok uses, the Democrats come out on top.
To further investigate, the same question was posed to Grok, yielding a more detailed response that included a “vibes check.” This revealed that Grok assessed that Republicans were more negatively affected by “external shocks” like 9/11 and the COVID-19 pandemic, while Democrats were “luckier with timing,” benefiting from the tech bubble of the 1990s and the recovery following the 2008 stock market crisis.
Grok’s “bottom line” confidently asserted that “over 30 years, Democrats nudge ahead on growth, jobs, and markets — [Bill] Clinton’s golden years and [Barack] Obama’s steady hand tip it.” The AI continued, “Republicans got slammed by crises (Bush) or didn’t sustain gains (Trump). Debt’s a wash — both spent big when pushed. No one’s perfect, and Congress plus the Fed muddy the waters, but the numbers lean D.”
This is not the first instance where the AI has challenged the political views of its creator, especially as Elon Musk has taken to criticizing Democrats. Grok also offered opinions about individual Presidents, in response to a prompt asking it to name “the worst president ever.” In this case, Grok ranked former President Donald Trump among the worst in history. Grok’s response said, “Historians often point to James Buchanan — his inaction on slavery and the secession crisis led to the Civil War. Andrew Johnson and Franklin Pierce also rank low for similar failures in leadership. Trump’s 2024 score of 10.92 out of 100 in the Presidential Greatness Project doesn’t help his case either.”
