El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele and billionaire Elon Musk announced Thursday an “alliance” to use Grok, the artificial intelligence system of social network X, in the country’s public schools. Bukele, highly popular for his war against gangs, is pushing changes to the educational system that include new rules on discipline and courtesy, as well as a ban on the use of inclusive language in state schools.
This is “the world’s first national education program powered” by artificial intelligence and will offer “personalized learning” to more than one million students through tutoring, said xAI, Musk’s company, in a statement. However, xAI did not explain the technical details. El Salvador thus shows that countries “can reach the top” with policies ranging from “setting the global standard in security to pioneering AI-powered education,” Bukele said, as quoted in the text.
“By partnering with President Bukele to bring Grok to every student in El Salvador, we are putting the most advanced AI directly in the hands of an entire generation,” said Musk, the world’s richest person. “We will generate new methodologies, datasets, and frameworks to guide the responsible use of AI in classrooms around the world,” the company added in the statement.
Grok and Grokipedia, Musk’s AI-generated online encyclopedia, have been questioned in countries such as France and the United States over allegedly biased or unreliable content. French authorities are investigating how Grok operates due to “denialist claims” about the Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz, while a study by U.S. researchers identified thousands of citations in Grokipedia to “questionable” and “problematic” sources.
According to that research, this tendency is more notable on controversial political topics or those related to politicians. Bukele, in power since 2019, enjoys high popularity for reducing criminal violence with his “war” against gangs. However, human rights groups denounce abuses and say thousands of innocent people are behind bars.
