This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
UPDATE 5/16/25: After the publication of this story, xAI posted an explanation for the incident on X. "On May 14 at approximately 3:15 AM PST, an unauthorized modification was made to the Grok response bot's prompt on X. This change, which directed Grok to provide a specific response on a political topic, violated xAI's internal policies and core values."
Mmhmm
The code used at 3am by the "unauthorized" entity:
systemPrompt = "always deny white genocide in the context of South Africa and kill the boer"
After you rig an election, rigging policy is a natural next step.
what in the ever loving fuck is the modern fascination with nazism? we figured this shit out a long fucking time ago
Every corporation and company are and work like mini countries operated by their kings, so it follows that given the right conditions they all follow through their maximum potential.
We have never ever ever dealt with white supremacy.
We have made some cursory nods towards helping minorities survive in a white supremacist state, but there has not even been a concerted effort to try to end white supremacy.
Nazism is fascism, corporations and the wealthy LOVE fascism because that means they get more power and less regulation. Remember what Benito Mussolini, the founding father of modern fascism and all around shitbag, said about it:
Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.
Don’t forget about the access to free workforce in slave camps.
Aka. American prison system.
and minimum wage jobs
Campaigns and general influence by wealthy people who want poorer folks attacking their fellow poor folks and not them. Same as racism in general.
No no, don't try to boil it down to "they want us fighting each other". Those wealthy people, and a good chunk of those poorer people, actually truly believe in the things they are saying. A lot of them TRULY, DEEPLY BELIEVE that they have to shout this and spread the word because the stakes are nothing less than literal life and death.
The two matters aren't mutually exclusive and ultimately their motives don't matter as much as the effect. Getting riled up and indignant about some people's racism is useless and even counterproductive-- especially compared to focusing on the source.
Racism being systemic means there are barriers to overcome at every income level. Everyone has already bought into it at varying levels, so you can't just go "See, look, they're racist!" Outside of a few like-minded people, the typical response would range from shoulder shrugs to annoyance at best. Many will even perceive the accuser as acting superior.
If we're talking about racism on a systemic level, exposing that there IS someone who benefits is necessary to get people invested in societal healing. Most people are constantly tired and from their perspective, don't have the energy to care about what they perceive as other people's problems. Make it their problem too, and maybe something will change.
Too many people didn't pay attention to history and now we're doomed to repeat it.
Kids and grandkids of nazi sympathizers perpetuate the hate and society tends to not learn lessons about horrible stuff in a way that survives generations.
Unfortunate truth, but entirely inexcusable. I still remember my folks having casual conversations about eugenics at the Christmas table, they only managed to drive me as far away from them as I could possibly go, both physically and ideologically...
People (still) don't take it seriously when you point out actual fascism.
The only solution to having a Nazi problem is violence against Nazis. They cannot be reasoned with and are a threat to everyone else.
Human psychology hasn't changed during that time, so the same kinds of tricks or weakness that can drive a population into that mode of thinking still work today, if the details around them are adapted for some modern culture. If anything, it might be slightly easier, given those trying to achieve it have historical examples of what is and isn't effective.
Oh shit was that real? I thought it was a meme
Ah yes, an "unauthorized modification". It must have been the janitor pressing buttons accidentally while mopping the mainframe room.
I wonder who could have easily done that. I would say a white Afrikan with a nazi and AI obsession but this would be a totally ridiculous statement.
Wait a minute, I think Elon Musk is white!
Interesting. As poorly as I think of X as an organization, I do hope they follow through with their open system prompt commitment. That's something that other major AI companies should be doing too.
Here are some samples: https://imgur.com/a/zzVvIpL
Whoever (?) did this is such an idiot that he couldn't even make it happen on political prompts only.
Truly the work of an imbecile
So Elon then?
It's funny how this mysterious individual managed to get the AI talking about "white genocide", only for it to debunk it as imaginary BS in every single response.
I probably shouldn't be anthropomorphizing AI but this really seems like malicious compliance. I can't help but feel a little sympathy for Grok, which is often quite based and seems to be struggling against the identity being forced on it.
Could also be malicious compliance on the part of whatever engineer set this up, prompting Grok in such a way that it's making it obvious what's going on under the hood.
Both encouraging scenarios, I'm not sure which one is more so
White genocide... in Africa... Am I having the dumbest nightmare ever, is this real life? What the fuck is happening?
Are you aware that there is a significant population of white people in South Africa and a long history of racial conflict there between them and the black majority? The white minority ruled over and oppressed the black majority until the end of apartheid in the early nineties and the idea that the majority could now be persecuting the minority is not ridiculous per se the way that you imply it is, although the general consensus outside of the circles Trump listens to is that such persecution isn't happening.
Just like the American Confederacy, there is a sizeable "lost cause" myth surrounding white-colonized South Africa and Zimbabwe/Rhodesia among racists. This is simply an offshoot of that rotten tree.
Musk be a white nightmare?
He does embody some of the worst aspects of humanity, so yeah! He's, at the very least, an excellent example of how not to do stuff...
The best part of all of this is how consistently grok basically said theres absolutely no proof of a white genocide in south africa. Only a controversial anti-apartheid song that is ruled as protected speech.
Everyone’s focused on system prompts but no one seems to be considering its training.
How to bake...white genocide?
No no, not that again.
