By Tharin Pillay
Publication Date: 2025-12-28 13:00:00
It’s been three years since the launch of ChatGPT gave hundreds of millions of people access to a kind of digital ghost in their pocket – and things are getting stranger by the month. Aside from billions of AI-generated emails and technology’s widespread disruption of education and cognitive work, in 2025 some people began to fall in love with their AIs. Some turned to her for religious guidance and support. And like any other technology, some used it to create new forms of pornography.
Amid all the noise, here are five AI-related moments that would have felt like absurd satire just a few years ago.
1. Grok calls himself “MechaHitler”
Grok is an AI chatbot created by Elon Musk’s xAI and integrated into the X Platform. It was trained to “search for the maximum truth,” said Musk. In July, after an update, it began responding to X users with anti-Semitic comments, praising Adolf Hitler and referring to itself as “MechaHitler.” The posts were quick…