Ethical Stack.

Grok

Assistant with conversation, file analysis, connectors, and real-time web and X search.

Score calculation

(2 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 3) ÷ 6 = 3.2

6 of six dimensions rated. Unrated dimensions are excluded from the average.

Full scoring method ↗
Setup details

Grok: cloud access. Free tier; paid plans and limits vary. Ratings describe the stated product, company or configuration in each finding.

What fits your needs

Grok.com and Grok mobile consumer assistant; using Grok through X follows X-specific terms and controls.

Tasks

Chat, web and public X search, file analysis, image and video generation are available; supported file and feature access varies by plan.

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Access and billing

Grok is free to start; paid plans increase limits and features under a shared usage allowance.

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Tradeoffs to expect

Route

Consumer Grok is hosted at grok.com or in mobile apps. X-integrated use has separate terms, settings and data controls.

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Privacy controls

New conversations can be excluded from training through the setting or Private Chat; Private Chat is removed within 30 days subject to stated exceptions.

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How to switch

Get started

Use grok.com or the official app; set Improve the Model and personalization preferences before sending prompts, and check terms if accessing through X.

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Practical questions

Age and sensitive use

Grok requires users to be 13+; users aged 13–17 need parent/guardian permission. xAI says chosen features may produce content not appropriate for all ages and advises parental monitoring.

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Non-consensual intimate content

xAI prohibits publication or distribution of non-consensual intimate imagery, including generated imagery, and provides an in-product report/removal route.

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Corrections and files

Grok offers Report an Issue and lets users delete files at grok.com/files; deleted chats/files follow standard retention windows, with legal, safety and security exceptions.

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Energy practices

2/10↑

xAI identifies its Colossus supercomputer as powering Grok and describes Memphis grid supply, emergency batteries/turbines, and a proposed water-recycling plant. It does not publish Grok request energy, emissions, water, or a quantified electricity mix.

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xAI provides a company description of Colossus and its power/water plans, which establishes host context but not a measured Grok workload footprint. Normal-operation grid supply and emergency natural-gas backup are described, but no quantified mix or renewable matching is reported. The planned water-recycling plant receives no demand-control credit until it is operating; existing batteries are not evidence of reduced total resource use. The app’s compute use varies by feature, but no resource-saving user control was found.

1 + 1 reporting + 0 electricity + 0 controls = 2/10. This grade covers documented practices and transparency; it does not measure the energy or emissions of a request.

Grok request-to-site and model routing; current service kWh, emissions and water; region/hour power mix; operating status and actual savings from water recycling; upstream hardware impacts.

Reporting1/3
xAI identifies Colossus as the supercomputer behind Grok and describes grid power, emergency batteries/turbines, and a planned water-recycling plant. No dated quantitative Grok energy/carbon/water footprint is supplied.
Electricity sourcing0/3
xAI says Colossus uses MLGW grid power during normal operations and keeps gas turbines for emergencies, but publishes no quantified grid mix or clean-energy match for Grok requests.
Resource controls0/3
No direct consumer setting or operational control found in reviewed first-party sources that reduces energy or water use. Batteries and backup generation are reliability/peak-response measures, not demonstrated demand reduction.

Water disclosure

xAI's Memphis infrastructure page discusses water-recycling plans for the Colossus site, but the reviewed disclosure does not quantify water use for Grok or individual requests.

A company page about a specific data-center site and infrastructure plans. It does not report measured water per product, model, or request.

Training data

5/10↑

xAI’s current consumer documentation identifies Grok 4.7 as the assistant model. Its EU summary names a few datasets and some licensed data, while leaving much of the public-web and private third-party training data unitemized; it also describes limited source opt-outs.

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The consumer assistant can be tied to the versioned Grok 4.7 summary, but the summary leaves substantial crawled and private data unitemized and does not quantify licensed coverage. A limited crawler reservation control earns one creator-control point. Grok Imagine image/video routes are separate and are not scored here.

1 + 2 source transparency + 1 permission + 1 creator controls = 5/10. This grades documented training-data safeguards, not a legal ruling.

Most dataset/partner identities, item-level rights, license shares, scope of crawler reservations across source types, and independent validation are unavailable. Grok Imagine’s model routes are not covered by this chat-route score.

Source transparency2/3
The 4.7 EU summary names Common Corpus, OpenAlex metadata and Crossref metadata and details source classes, but leaves most public and private datasets and crawled domains unnamed.
Documented permission1/4
xAI reports transactional licensed text and image data, but also broad public-web and private third-party data whose rights basis, shares and compatibility are not itemized.
Creator controls1/2
The 4.7 summary describes crawler/source reservation signals and user opt-outs, but coverage is narrow and user privacy settings are not treated as permission covering all training data.
Data-rights rubric ↗

Your data & privacy

4/10↑

Consumer content may be used for model training unless users opt out; Private Chat is excluded from training and removed within 30 days according to xAI.

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Opt-out and Private Chat are available, but the stated default may include submitted content and review by authorized personnel.

Openness

3/10↑

Grok 4.7 is the current hosted consumer model. xAI released Grok-1 base weights and architecture under Apache 2.0 in 2024, but the legacy checkpoint is not the current Grok service or a ready-to-run equivalent.

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The legacy open release is a real public artifact, while the current consumer product serves Grok 4.7 as a hosted service; the reviewed sources do not connect Grok-1 to Grok 4.7 or show that the current stack can be relocated.

Worker protections

2/10↑

xAI publicly describes direct-employee benefits and flexible vacation, while reporting confirms a sizable annotation workforce and major 2025 layoffs; contractor conditions, voice and labor assurance remain undisclosed.

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xAI’s careers page advertises health, dental, vision and disability coverage, life/family benefits and flexible vacation for direct hires. Separately, Reuters/TechCrunch reported in September 2025 that xAI laid off at least 500 generalist data annotators in a strategic pivot, with continued payment through contract end or a stated date but access ending immediately. That is evidence of a real annotation workforce and substantial churn, not proof of unlawful treatment or poor conditions. No public supplier labor code, contractor pay terms, worker-specific grievance mechanism, worker survey or labor-assurance results were established.

1 + 1 pay & conditions + 0 worker voice & remedy + 0 evidence & follow-through = 2/10. This grades documented worker safeguards, not a measured rate of mistreatment.

The careers benefits are for direct applicants and don’t show benefits or coverage for annotation contractors. Layoff reporting doesn’t show current staffing, severance, worker voice or supplier labor standards; no xAI-specific labor code or worker outcomes were found.

Pay & conditions1/3
xAI advertises health/disability insurance and flexible vacation for direct hires; this is a limited company commitment and doesn’t confirm conditions for the laid-off annotation contractors.
Worker voice & remedy0/3
No public worker-specific grievance, opt-out or representation mechanism was established; the layoffs do not show individual voice or remedy.
Evidence & follow-through0/3
No public annotation-specific labor audits, worker surveys, remediation or independently verified outcome mechanisms were found.
Workers rubric ↗

Military ties

3/10Broad defense ties↑

xAI offers a government product line, a $200 million-ceiling DoD contract, and customized AI for national-security customers, including classified settings and intelligence and operational-planning use cases. No weapons or surveillance limits are disclosed in the reviewed government materials.

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xAI's government announcement confirms a $200 million-ceiling DoD contract, classified-environment plans, custom models for national-security customers, and federal access to its products. Its current government page markets intelligence analysis, operational planning, and defense logistics. This is broad defense enablement capped at 3/10; public materials describe secure deployment controls but no restrictions on weapons or harmful surveillance and no independent military-use review.

1 + 0 use restrictions + 0 enforcement & oversight + 2 relationship disclosure = 3/10. Known defense ties lower this rating; safeguards can improve it within the relationship’s cap.

The award announcement and product page do not identify contract task orders, operational customer use, restrictions, model versions, or oversight outcomes. Availability in classified environments does not prove use of a specific model or combat task.

Use restrictions0/4
The reviewed government materials advertise lawful mission use and secure controls but do not disclose restrictions on military, weapons, or surveillance use.
Enforcement & oversight0/3
Audit logging and access controls are product security features; no military-use review, enforcement, or public remedy outcomes are established.
Relationship disclosure2/2
xAI names its DoD contract ceiling, classified deployment plans, customer groups, and defense/intelligence use cases; task-level deployments are not public.

xAI confirms DoD contracting and offers national-security models for classified environments, with intelligence, operational planning, and defense-logistics applications but no verified specific combat deployment. The relationship limits this grade to 3/10.

Military rubric ↗

BDS targets

Not listed↑

No named target found in the two checked BNC campaign lists.

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Company name checked against the BNC consumer boycott/pressure guide and official No Tech campaign list; no named target found. This limited list check is not BDS approval and does not cover every campaign, subsidiary, supplier, or product route.

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