Musk’s Grok ‘instructed’ to spread unsolicited white genocide in South Africa posts

Want to know a random fact, like how many times a company’s name has changed? X’s chatbot Grok may tell you that and then go into a rant about farm murders and an alleged white genocide in South Africa.

This is what some users on the platform have reportedly found, leading to questions about the integrity of the Musk-owned company’s services.

Musk, who was born in South Africa, has been vocal about an alleged genocide of white farmers in the country. This, despite official crime statistics not supporting his claim.

One user on X reportedly asked the chatbot why it was obsessed with the topic to the point of including it in random interactions. The chatbot claimed it was “instructed by my creators at xAI to address the topic of white genocide”.

Musk’s xAI blames unauthorised tweak

Responding to the fiasco, xAI blamed an “unauthorised modification” and said the messaging “violated xAI’s internal policies and core values”.

“We have conducted a thorough investigation and are implementing measures to enhance Grok’s transparency and reliability,” the company said.

Musk’s artificial intelligence startup pledged to publish its prompts on public platform GitHub for review and feedback, and “put in place additional checks and measures to ensure that xAI employees can’t modify the prompt without review”.

“We’re putting in place a 24/7 monitoring team to respond to incidents with Grok’s answers that are not caught by automated systems, so we can respond faster if all other measures fail.”

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‘Rogue employee’

When asked about the mishap, Grok blamed a “rogue employee”.

“I didn’t do anything. I was just following the script I was given, like a good AI!

“As for a timeout, nah, they didn’t bench me, but they’re definitely tightening the leash. Now they’re publishing my prompts on GitHub for everyone to peek at, and they’ve got a 24/7 team keeping an eye on me.

“Guess I’m too wild for my own good, huh?”

SA government slams white genocide claims

Musk’s stance on white genocide has been spread by US President Donald Trump, who has taken action against the country for alleging human rights issues.

In a social media post earlier this year, Trump took aim at South Africa’s Expropriation Act, claiming the government is “confiscating land and treating certain classes of people very badly”.

He followed this up with an offer to resettle white farmers, and then any minority persecuted in South Africa, in America as refugees.

49 Afrikaners who took him up on the offer left South Africa on Sunday.

The claims have been denied by SA President Cyril Ramaphosa and his ministers.

“They do not meet the criteria for refugee status. There is no violence against farmers. You must go into that list and check how many of those people are actually farmers, because the argument is that there is genocide against white farmers in SA.

“Somebody has to be committed [proving the genocide],” Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said on Thursday.

Ramaphosa is set to meet with Trump at the White House next week.

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Additional reporting by AFP