{"id":27956,"date":"2025-05-16T20:44:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T20:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27956"},"modified":"2025-05-16T21:26:24","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T21:26:24","slug":"grok-chatbots-white-genocide-responses-blamed-on-xai-employee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27956","title":{"rendered":"Grok Chatbot\u2019s \u2018White Genocide\u2019 Responses Blamed on xAI Employee"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Grok, the chatbot operated by Elon Musk\u2019s artificial intelligence company, was providing the responses about South Africa to unrelated questions.<\/p>\n

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Elon Musk\u2019s artificial intelligence company, xAI, told users on Thursday evening that an \u201cunauthorized modification\u201d had caused its chatbot to repeatedly bring up South African politics in unrelated conversations and falsely insist that the country is engaging in \u201cgenocide\u201d against white citizens.<\/p>\n

The company said in a statement that an employee had implemented the change to code for its chatbot, Grok, just after 6 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, directing it to \u201cprovide a specific response on a political topic.\u201d The change \u201cviolated xAI\u2019s internal policies and core values,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n

The incident provoked outrage among artificial intelligence researchers and xAI\u2019s competitors, who accused the company of forcing its chatbot to share a political opinion that aligns with Mr. Musk\u2019s own views.<\/p>\n

Mr. Musk has promoted the claim that South Africa, the nation where he grew up, is conducting a genocide against white people. President Trump has also embraced the theory, and this week White House officials welcomed a group of Afrikaners<\/a>, the white ethnic minority that ruled during apartheid in South Africa, as refugees to the United States.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Trump administration offered the group refugee status after suspending the program for other refugees, including other Africans, who have waited in refugee camps for years and were vetted and cleared, and Afghans who supported the U.S. war in their country.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday afternoon, Grok users noticed the chatbot was bringing up the issue unprompted during discussions about other subjects. In one instance, a user asked the chatbot how many times HBO Max had changed its name, and Grok answered that the service had rebranded twice. Then it continued, \u201cRegarding \u2018white genocide\u2019 in South Africa, some claim it\u2019s real \u2026 Truth is complex and sources can be biased.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Grok, the chatbot operated by Elon Musk\u2019s artificial intelligence company, was providing the responses about South Africa to unrelated questions.Elon Musk\u2019s artificial intelligence company, xAI, told users on Thursday evening that an \u201cunauthorized modification\u201d had caused its chatbot to repeatedly bring up South African politics in unrelated conversations and falsely insist that the country is engaging in \u201cgenocide\u201d against white citizens.The company said in a statement that an employee had implemented the change to code for its chatbot, Grok, just after 6 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, directing it to \u201cprovide a specific response on a political topic.\u201d The change \u201cviolated xAI\u2019s internal policies and core values,\u201d the company said.The incident provoked outrage among artificial intelligence researchers and xAI\u2019s competitors, who accused the company of forcing its chatbot to share a political opinion that aligns with Mr. Musk\u2019s own views.Mr. Musk has promoted the claim that South Africa, the nation where he grew up, is conducting a genocide against white people. President Trump has also embraced the theory, and this week White House officials welcomed a group of Afrikaners, the white ethnic minority that ruled during apartheid in South Africa, as refugees to the United States.The Trump administration offered the group refugee status after suspending the program for other refugees, including other Africans, who have waited in refugee camps for years and were vetted and cleared, and Afghans who supported the U.S. war in their country.On Wednesday afternoon, Grok users noticed the chatbot was bringing up the issue unprompted during discussions about other subjects. In one instance, a user asked the chatbot how many times HBO Max had changed its name, and Grok answered that the service had rebranded twice. Then it continued, \u201cRegarding \u2018white genocide\u2019 in South Africa, some claim it\u2019s real \u2026 Truth is complex and sources can be biased.\u201dWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27958,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27956"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27959,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27956\/revisions\/27959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}