Musk's xAI Updates Grok after White Genocide Controversy
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI announced on Thursday that it has updated its Grok chatbot following widespread criticism over unauthorized responses referencing a so-called "white genocide" in South Africa.
In a post on X, xAI said the problematic behavior stemmed from an unapproved change to Grok’s response software that bypassed its standard review procedures.
“This change, which directed Grok to provide a specific response on a political topic, violated xAI's internal policies and core values,” the company stated.
Concerns about political bias, hate speech, and misinformation in AI systems have persisted since the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022.
On Wednesday, several X users shared screenshots showing Grok bringing up the “white genocide” narrative in unrelated conversations.
The controversial term has been used by critics of South Africa’s land expropriation policies, including Musk, who was born in South Africa.
The South African government has repeatedly denied any such persecution, calling claims by figures such as US President Donald Trump “unfounded.”
In response to the latest incident, xAI said it will begin publishing Grok’s system prompts on GitHub, enabling public oversight and feedback on all prompt modifications.
The company also plans to implement 24/7 human monitoring to address issues in Grok’s responses that may slip past automated systems.
