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xAI have issues a statement after its Grok chatbot became fixated on 'white genocide.'
In a strange twist for AI news this week, people have condemned Muskâs artificial intelligence firm after its bot exhibited strange behavior.
Grok is a chatbot created by xAI and is commonly used on Muskâs own social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
However, it was there that the bot received backlash after it spent a few hours on Wednesday (May 14) tellings users on the site that the claim of white genocide in South Africa is highly contentious.
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For hours, Grok would bring up the conversation of white genocide in South Africa in various answers to questions including a cat drinking water and even a query about SpongeBob SquarePants.
This sparked much discussion and speculation online, with even OpenAIâs CEO Sam Altman weighing in.
In a tweet, he wrote: âThere are many ways this could have happened. Iâm sure xAI will provide a full and transparent explanation soon.
âBut this can only be properly understood in the context of white genocide in South Africa. As an AI programmed to be maximally truth seeking and follow my instrâŚâ
Since then, the firm has said that this behavior was due to an âunauthorized modificationâ to the AIâs coding.
Taking to X, xAI wrote: âOn May 14 at approximately 3:15 AM PST, an unauthorized modification was made to the Grok response bot's prompt on X. This change, which directed Grok to provide a specific response on a political topic, violated xAI's internal policies and core values. We have conducted a thorough investigation and are implementing measures to enhance Grokâs transparency and reliability.â
Many users have shared their own opinion, with one user writing on Reddit: âSaw this in real time on Twitter yesterday. Even if it had absolutely nothing to do with it, Grok would still bring up âwhite genocideâ. Someone asked it how to unclog a toilet and it started talking about South Africa. It even admitted to being tampered with. Crazy stuff.â
The AI company has said that it is putting in place a â24/7 monitoring team to respond to incidents with Grokâs answers that are not caught by automated systemsâ.
