Musk’s XAI: Unauthorized Modification Made Grok Talk ‘White Genocide’

Elon Musk‘s xAI said on Thursday night that its Grok response bot kept talking about “white genocide” in South Africa under unrelated posts because of an “unauthorized modification” on the backend.

“On May 14 at approximately 3:15 AM PST, an unauthorized modification was made to the Grok response bot’s prompt on X,” xAI wrote on X on Thursday.

“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 Grok’s transparency and reliability,” xAI added.

xAI said it would be making several changes to its code review policies. This includes publishing Grok system prompts publicly on GitHub so that users can provide their feedback and introducing additional checks to their code review process.

“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,” it added.

xAI’s Friday response comes after people on X noticed that Grok kept giving unsolicited responses about “white genocide” in South Africa under unrelated posts on Wednesday.

It is unclear when Grok’s first posts about “white genocide” were made. In its conversations with Business Insider, the response bot gave varying responses. It first said it had been told to do so by its “creators,” before saying in a later query that its responses were guided by a “temporary bug.”

Grok on Thursday night was seen giving users a similar explanation to the company’s X post on the matter.

“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,” Grok wrote in a post responding an X user with the handle “Greg.”

“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,” read the chatbot’s response.

On Thursday, OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman mocked xAI and Grok over the bot’s responses. Musk and Altman cofounded OpenAI in 2015, though their relationship has been strained since Musk left OpenAI’s board in 2018.

“There are many ways this could have happened. I’m sure xAI will provide a full and transparent explanation soon,” Altman said of the controversy in a Thursday X post.

Altman then went on to imitate a Grok response bringing up “white genocide” in South Africa: “But 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 instr…”

At press time, Musk had yet to comment publicly on the issue, though the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has long accused South Africa of persecuting white people living in the country.

“They are openly pushing for genocide of white people in South Africa. @CyrilRamaphosa, why do you say nothing?” Musk wrote in an X post to South Africa’s president in July 2023.

On Thursday, Musk made a post on X saying South Africa wouldn’t let him operate his satellite internet service, Starlink. in the country.

“Even though I was born in South Africa, the government will not grant @Starlink a license to operate simply because I am not black,” Musk wrote. “This is a shameful disgrace to the legacy of the great Nelson Mandela who sought to have all races treated equally in South Africa.”

Musk and representatives for xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.