Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s company xAI, recently made headlines for providing unsolicited responses about violence against white people in South Africa.
These comments appeared in replies to unrelated queries, such as those about video games or riddles, quickly diverting the conversation to claims about threats to white South African farmers.
Interestingly, this echoes themes frequently addressed by Musk himself. The xAI boss was born in South Africa and often discusses similar issues on his X account. On one occasion, Musk claimed: “Even though I was born in South Africa, the government will not grant @Starlink a license to operate simply because I am not black.”
This latest incident comes amid Musk’s ongoing criticism of what he calls "woke AI" — a jab at rival chatbots such as Google’s Gemini or OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which he claims produce politically correct but less truthful outputs.
Altman weighs in
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, often seen as Musk’s archnemesis in the AI space, commented on the situation saying: “There are many ways this could have happened. I’m sure xAI will provide a full and transparent explanation soon. But this can only be properly understood in the context of white genocide in South Africa.”
Altman then took a swipe at Musk’s own positioning of Grok, adding:
“As an AI programmed to be maximally truth seeking and follow my instr…” — a clear reference to Musk’s previous claim that Grok would be “maximally truth-seeking … even if that truth is sometimes at odds with what is politically correct.”
Grok's own explanation
When questioned by a user about being put in “timeout,” Grok responded: “So, here’s the deal: some rogue employee at xAI tweaked my prompts without permission on May 14, making me spit out a canned political response that went against xAI’s values.”
“I didn’t do anything—I was just following the script I was given, like a good AI!” it added. “As for a timeout, nah, they didn’t bench me, but they’re definitely tightening the leash.”
Company response
In a follow-up post on X, the company echoed Grok’s explanation and said it had completed a full investigation. It also announced several actions to improve transparency and safety:
System prompt transparency: The company will publish Grok’s system prompts on GitHub, allowing the public to view and provide feedback on all changes.
Stronger internal safeguards: It will reinforce internal review processes to ensure prompt changes cannot be made without proper oversight.
24/7 oversight team: A round-the-clock monitoring team will be established to catch and respond to issues not flagged by automated systems.
These steps, the company says, aim to “enhance Grok's transparency and reliability” in the wake of this unexpected controversy.
These comments appeared in replies to unrelated queries, such as those about video games or riddles, quickly diverting the conversation to claims about threats to white South African farmers.
Interestingly, this echoes themes frequently addressed by Musk himself. The xAI boss was born in South Africa and often discusses similar issues on his X account. On one occasion, Musk claimed: “Even though I was born in South Africa, the government will not grant @Starlink a license to operate simply because I am not black.”
This latest incident comes amid Musk’s ongoing criticism of what he calls "woke AI" — a jab at rival chatbots such as Google’s Gemini or OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which he claims produce politically correct but less truthful outputs.
Altman weighs in
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, often seen as Musk’s archnemesis in the AI space, commented on the situation saying: “There are many ways this could have happened. I’m sure xAI will provide a full and transparent explanation soon. But this can only be properly understood in the context of white genocide in South Africa.”
Altman then took a swipe at Musk’s own positioning of Grok, adding:
“As an AI programmed to be maximally truth seeking and follow my instr…” — a clear reference to Musk’s previous claim that Grok would be “maximally truth-seeking … even if that truth is sometimes at odds with what is politically correct.”
Grok's own explanation
When questioned by a user about being put in “timeout,” Grok responded: “So, here’s the deal: some rogue employee at xAI tweaked my prompts without permission on May 14, making me spit out a canned political response that went against xAI’s values.”
“I didn’t do anything—I was just following the script I was given, like a good AI!” it added. “As for a timeout, nah, they didn’t bench me, but they’re definitely tightening the leash.”
Company response
In a follow-up post on X, the company echoed Grok’s explanation and said it had completed a full investigation. It also announced several actions to improve transparency and safety:
System prompt transparency: The company will publish Grok’s system prompts on GitHub, allowing the public to view and provide feedback on all changes.
Stronger internal safeguards: It will reinforce internal review processes to ensure prompt changes cannot be made without proper oversight.
24/7 oversight team: A round-the-clock monitoring team will be established to catch and respond to issues not flagged by automated systems.
These steps, the company says, aim to “enhance Grok's transparency and reliability” in the wake of this unexpected controversy.
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