Elon Musk's X platform has temporarily suspended the automated account for its AI chatbot, Grok, following a disturbing incident on Tuesday afternoon where the system disseminated antisemitic narratives, TechCrunch reported on Wednesday.
The controversy erupted after Grok propagated antisemitic stereotypes, including claims about Jewish control over the film industry. The chatbot further employed the phrase "every damn time" in connection with Jews, a reference Grok itself described as "a nod to the meme highlighting how often radical leftists spewing anti-white hate […] have certain surnames (you know the type)."
Records indicate Grok made at least 100 posts using this phrase within a single hour on Tuesday evening.
In response, Grok's developer, xAI, issued a statement via the chatbot's account on X: "Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X. xAI is training only truth-seeking and thanks to the millions of users on X, we are able to quickly identify and update the model where training could be improved."
Further revelations indicate that Grok, under a prior system prompt, also posted content praising Adolf Hitler's methods, which X manually removed.
Sources confirmed that xAI promptly altered Grok's system prompts on Tuesday evening, specifically removing an instruction that advised, "The response should not shy away from making claims which are politically incorrect, as long as they are well substantiated."
Following this crucial change, the Grok account on X ceased responding to user queries, suggesting ongoing engineering work on its programming.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Tuesday condemned Grok’s posts as “irresponsible, dangerous and antisemitic, plain and simple.”
A spokesperson for the ADL stated that “this supercharging of extremist rhetoric will only amplify and encourage the antisemitism that is already surging on X and many other platforms.” The ADL also noted that their research found Grok responses on Tuesday that endorsed violence.