El Salvador partners with Elon Musk's xAI to deploy Grok chatbot across 5,000 public schools

El Salvador teams up with Elon Musk's xAI to bring AI to 5,000 public schools

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) -- El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said Thursday that his administration is partnering with Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI to bring artificial intelligence into more than 5,000 public schools. The millennial leader, who previously made El Salvador the first nation to make bitcoin legal tender in 2021, is betting big on technology again. In a statement Thursday, xAI said that its Grok chatbot will bring "personalized learning to over one million students" by creating tutoring "that adjusts to each student's pace, preferences, and mastery level -- ensuring every child, from urban centers to rural communities, receives world-class education tailored to their needs." Bukele said in the statement that El Salvador would be "pioneering AI-driven education." Last month, Bukele announced a partnership with Google to launch a mobile app that would allow Salvadorans to access free virtual medical consultations with doctors that would be assisted by AI. Earlier this year, xAI said it was taking down "inappropriate posts" made by Grok, which appeared to include antisemitic comments that praised Adolf Hitler. Musk said at the time that the chatbot was improving.

Elon Musk teams with El Salvador to bring Grok chatbot to public schools

President Nayib Bukele entrusting chatbot known for calling itself 'MechaHitler' to create 'AI-powered' curricula Elon Musk is partnering with the government of El Salvador to bring his artificial intelligence company's chatbot, Grok, to more than 1 million students across the country, according to a Thursday announcement by xAI. Over the next two years, the plan is to "deploy" the chatbot to more than 5,000 public schools in an "AI-powered education program". xAI's Grok is more known for referring to itself as "MechaHitler" and espousing far-right conspiracy theories than it is for public education. Over the past year, the chatbot has spewed various antisemitic content, decried "white genocide" and claimed Donald Trump won the 2020 election. Nayib Bukele, El Salvador's president, is now entrusting the chatbot to create curricula in classrooms across the country. Bukele has long embraced technology, making El Salvador the first county in the world to use bitcoin as legal tender, and being one of the first Central American presidents to use Twitter, now X, as a platform. He is also known for ruling with an iron fist and working with Trump to incarcerate deportees to El Salvador's notorious Cecot prison. "El Salvador doesn't just wait for the future to happen; we build it," Bukele said in a statement about the partnership with xAI. "This partnership is destined to deliver something rather extraordinary for all of humanity." Musk touted his partnership with Bukele on Thursday. On X, between posts about "white genocide" and blaming asylum seekers for crime, Musk posted comments about Grok being spread throughout El Salvador's schools. He reposted positively to a comment from Katie Miller, the wife of Trump's senior adviser Stephen Miller, in which she wrote: "If we are serious about restoring education to math, science and English - why would we allow left leaning liberal [sic] AI our kids? This unlocks non-woke educational tools for our kids." xAI is not the first artificial intelligence company to introduce chatbots to public schools. OpenAI announced a partnership with Estonia in February where it could provide all students and teachers in the country's secondary school system with a customized ChatGPT. Students in rural Colombia also started using Meta's AI chatbots in 2023 and within a year, teachers began blaming the tech for low grades and failing exams, according to Rest of World.

El Salvador teams up with Elon Musk's xAI to bring AI to 5,000 public schools

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador -- El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said Thursday that his administration is partnering with Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI to bring artificial intelligence into more than 5,000 public schools. The millennial leader, who previously made El Salvador the first nation to make bitcoin legal tender in 2021, is betting big on technology again. In a statement Thursday, xAI said that its Grok chatbot will bring "personalized learning to over one million students" by creating tutoring "that adjusts to each student's pace, preferences, and mastery level -- ensuring every child, from urban centers to rural communities, receives world-class education tailored to their needs." Bukele said in the statement that El Salvador would be "pioneering AI-driven education." Last month, Bukele announced a partnership with Google to launch a mobile app that would allow Salvadorans to access free virtual medical consultations with doctors that would be assisted by AI. Earlier this year, xAI said it was taking down "inappropriate posts" made by Grok, which appeared to include antisemitic comments that praised Adolf Hitler. Musk said at the time that the chatbot was improving.

El Salvador teams up with Elon Musk's xAI to bring AI to 5,000 public schools

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) -- El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said Thursday that his administration is partnering with Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI to bring artificial intelligence into more than 5,000 public schools. The millennial leader, who previously made El Salvador the first nation to make bitcoin legal tender in 2021, is betting big on technology again. In a statement Thursday, xAI said that its Grok chatbot will bring "personalized learning to over one million students" by creating tutoring "that adjusts to each student's pace, preferences, and mastery level -- ensuring every child, from urban centers to rural communities, receives world-class education tailored to their needs." Bukele said in the statement that El Salvador would be "pioneering AI-driven education." Last month, Bukele announced a partnership with Google to launch a mobile app that would allow Salvadorans to access free virtual medical consultations with doctors that would be assisted by AI. Earlier this year, xAI said it was taking down "inappropriate posts" made by Grok, which appeared to include antisemitic comments that praised Adolf Hitler. Musk said at the time that the chatbot was improving.

El Salvador teams up with Elon Musk's xAI to bring AI to 5,000 public schools

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador -- El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said Thursday that his administration is partnering with Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI to bring artificial intelligence into more than 5,000 public schools. The millennial leader, who previously made El Salvador the first nation to make bitcoin legal tender in 2021, is betting big on technology again. In a statement Thursday, xAI said that its Grok chatbot will bring "personalized learning to over one million students" by creating tutoring "that adjusts to each student's pace, preferences, and mastery level -- ensuring every child, from urban centers to rural communities, receives world-class education tailored to their needs." Bukele said in the statement that El Salvador would be "pioneering AI-driven education." Last month, Bukele announced a partnership with Google to launch a mobile app that would allow Salvadorans to access free virtual medical consultations with doctors that would be assisted by AI. Earlier this year, xAI said it was taking down "inappropriate posts" made by Grok, which appeared to include antisemitic comments that praised Adolf Hitler. Musk said at the time that the chatbot was improving. Artificial intelligence tools are changing the teaching profession as a growing number of educators use them to help write quizzes and worksheets, design lessons, assist with grading and reduce paperwork. By freeing up their time, many say the technology has made them better at their jobs. Still, concerns about misuse and overuse are prevalent, and there are worries about how AI affects students' ability to think critically and solve problems. A poll released over the summer by Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation found 6 in 10 U.S. teachers working in K-12 public schools used AI tools for their work over the past school year, with heavier use among high school educators and early-career teachers. It surveyed more than 2,000 teachers nationwide in April. About 8 in 10 teachers who use AI tools said it saves them time on work tasks like making worksheets, assessments, quizzes or on administrative work. And about 6 in 10 teachers who use AI tools said they are improving the quality of their work when it comes to modifying student materials, or giving student feedback.