“Soft-launching idiocracy”: Candace Owens slams AI's inaccuracy, cites chat with Grok on Robert Maxwell and Elie Wiesel as example

Candace Owens recently expressed concerns about AI, using Grok (an AI assistant created by Elon Musk's company xAI) as an example to argue that it is leading mankind toward "idiocracy."

In the August 1 episode of Candace, host Candace Owens spoke about a video she made about Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine Maxwell's father, who is currently in prison related to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. She explained that after The Epstein Files: The House Of Maxwell aired on July 23, many "standard Zionist accounts" started to criticize her for claiming that Maxwell and Elie Wiesel were cousins.

She also reviewed Grok's response to a tweet from July 23, in which an individual accused her of spreading "baseless lies" about the Maxwell-Wiesel relationship. The tweet asked the chatbot if there was "any basis WHATSOEVER to the claim Elie Wiesel is Robert Maxwell's cousin?" In response, the AI chatbot confirmed there was no "basis" for Owens's claim.

Later, in an X post on July 25, Owens pointed out that the relationship between Maxwell and Wiesel is mentioned in Robert's authorized biography, titled Maxwell, written by Joe Haines, a journalist who worked for Maxwell’s Mirror group and later served as the Press Secretary to UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

Candace Owens

@RealCandaceO

The information that Robert Maxwell is a cousin of Elie Wiesel is quite literally from Robert Maxwell’s AUTHORIZED biography, entitled “Maxwell” . It was written by Joe Haines, a journalist who worked for Robert Maxwell’s mirror group and went on to become the Press Secretary to UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson. This is why I say Grok and other AI are merely a step toward idiocracy. They assume no one reads books anymore so they can lie and delete history with sweeping claims like “there is no basis whatsoever”.

In her YouTube video, Owens said she wanted to push Grok further by asking if Wiesel is mentioned in Maxwell's authorized biography. However, the AI chatbot rejected Candace's claims, stating that the "book previews, reviews, and related sources" show no references to Wiesel, much less any mention of him being Maxwell's cousin.

When Owens pointed out that Weisel is specifically mentioned on "page 41" of the biography, Grok responded that the page discusses Maxwell's early life and family losses during the Holocaust, mentioning a brother named "Elie," not specifically Elie Wiesel.

Owens took it a step further and posted the exact paragraph from the book where Elie Wiesel is mentioned as Maxwell's cousin. After reviewing it, Grok finally acknowledged that the book confirms their relationship as cousins. In response to this, Owens stated that tech companies are "soft launching idiocracy."

"So the purpose, I feel, is that they are kind of soft launching idiocracy. They're trying to see if they can get people to rely on tech, and tech will not have the answers."

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"This is being pushed on us": Candace Owens breaks down Grok's response

The Grok logo appears on a smartphone screen in this photo illustration (Image via Getty)

Furthermore, in her commentary video, Candace Owens stated that the reason she conducted the experiment with Grok was because she believes AI is being "pushed on us."

"This is being pushed on us, like the future is AI. The future is artificial intelligence. Why are they pushing artificial intelligence on people is because, well, maybe it's right there in the name. They want you to be intelligent artificially. It's a veneer. You're not actually intelligent. You might be an idiot," Owens added.

The American conservative political commentator noted that, in response to her question about the Maxwell-Wiesel relationship, the AI chatbot didn't admit that it couldn't find the answer or request her to provide more information. Instead, the AI chatbot simply denied her claims, saying there was "no absolute" basis for it.

She also encouraged parents to be aware of where their children get their knowledge, claiming that tech companies don't want people to have the attention span to read a book or biographies.

"I've seen this happen myself. Grok will make up something about me, and people will argue with me about me. And I feel like they're doing that for fun to see if people will take arguments to other people to test to see if people will believe the tech above the human being. Right? I've tested it," Owens added.

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Candace Owens' full commentary is available on her self-titled YouTube channel.