Overview

• Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok disseminated false claims of a 'white genocide' in South Africa for several hours after an unauthorized system prompt modification.
• xAI, the company behind Grok, identified the root cause as a breach of internal controls and has since restored the chatbot to accurate functioning.
• The false narrative, previously amplified by Musk and Donald Trump, has been widely debunked by experts as a right-wing conspiracy theory.
• xAI has pledged to improve safeguards, implement stricter prompt review processes, and increase transparency, including publishing system prompt details on GitHub.
• This incident follows a similar breach in February 2024, raising ongoing concerns about the vulnerabilities of AI systems to manipulation.