Discussion

• @carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on bluesky

  An “unauthorized modification” caused X's Grok AI chatbot to start replying to dozens of posts on X with information about white genocide in South Africa.  —  I wonder if the name of the person who made this “unauthorized modification” rhymes with felon tusk?  🤔

• @davidgerard.co.uk @davidgerard.co.uk on bluesky

  “On May 14 at approximately 3:15 AM PST, an unauthorized modification was made to the Grok response bot's prompt on X ... Our existing code review process for prompt changes was circumvented in this incident.”  —  Nice to know one guy can just Kramer in and break the whole bot  —…

• @cbotheeggman @cbotheeggman on bluesky

  Grok's South Africa white genocide fixation caused by ‘unauthorized modification’  —  This is the second time Elon Musk's xAI has blamed a Grok issue on a rogue employee.  —  Yeah, a “rogue employee” named Elon Musk

• @chrisgeidner Chris Geidner on bluesky

  My “an unauthorized modification was made at approximately 3:15 AM PST” T-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my shirt.  [embedded post]

• @joemcken.net Joé McKen on bluesky

  What are the odds that this “unauthorized modification” wasn't actually directly commanded by Musk himself?  —  I mean, I'm open to the possibility that it actually was a rogue operative, but given Musk's characteristic sloppiness and carelessness, it sure seems to fit the patter…

• @mmasnick Mike Masnick on bluesky

  Lol.  I still have a few questions...  [image]

• @feolski Michael Feola on bluesky

  “an unauthorized modification was made”  —  The ongoing adventures of the passive voice — in a world where things just sorta happen and no one can really say why.  [embedded post]

• @bartenderhemry @bartenderhemry on bluesky

  Lmao it doesn't even say an employee did it, just says an unauthorized modification “was made” and in the future employees can't modify the prompt [embedded post]

• @williamfitz William Fitzgerald on bluesky

  Praying reporters with sources in X are figuring out what happened here.  If this is satirical sabotage by an employee, I want to buy the person who did this a beer.  [embedded post]

• @csilverandgold @csilverandgold on bluesky

  How can it be an unauthorized modification when the modification was done by the owner of the company lmao.  [embedded post]

• @minimaxir Max Woolf on bluesky

  tfw the CEO makes a change and it's “our existing code review process was circumvented” [embedded post]

• @blogdiva@mastodon.social @blogdiva@mastodon.social on mastodon

  🗣 LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK!!!  —  ❝ Chatbots are made by companies, to serve those companies' ends... Grok is a reflection of X and xAI, which exist to advance Musk's worldview and make him money — and it's thus unsurprising to think that the bot would say things about r…

• @xai @xai on x

  We want to update you on an incident that happened with our Grok response bot on X yesterday. What happened: 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

• @sama Sam Altman on x

  There are many ways this could have happened. I'm sure xAI will provide a full and transparent explanation soon. 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...

• @mikeisaac Rat King on x

  so at 3 in the morning on thursday, someone at twitter decided to reprogram its AI chatbot, Grok, with what amounts to Slipknot-lyrics-as-worldview-on- authority now it cant tell you about timothee chalamet's acting career b/c it wont believe “da media” [image]

• @mikeisaac Rat King on x

  this seems p bad too [image]

• @rsanti97 Santi Ruiz on x

  Which team members are up extremely late/early, have access to edit Grok's response prompt, exhibit low self-control, and care about South Africa? 🤔

• @egrefen Edward Grefenstette on x

  Guys, just admit that the rogue employee who keeps making these “unauthorised changes” is Elon on a ketamine-infused bender.

• @oalexanderdk Oliver Alexander on x

  An unauthorised edit to Grok that made it do nothing but talk about white genocide in South Africa? [image]

• @pitdesi Sheel Mohnot on x

  Yesterday Grok kept posting about white genocide in South Africa. They say it was an unauthorized modification and have posted the system prompt to Github. Good call to restore some trust. Here it is: [image]

• @maziyarpanahi @maziyarpanahi on x

  It's always “a rogue employee,” until it isn't. What happens when the next breach is subtle? A malicious compliance, hidden in plain sight? xAI, what rigorous safeguards do you actually have in place to protect a system millions rely on daily?

• @davetroy Dave Troy on x

  Do you remember when X said “the algorithm” would be open source and available for anyone to inspect? Do you remember a couple of weeks ago when Elon said they would replace that algorithm with Grok/xAI's black box? Expect that this bit of faux transparency is a lie, too.

• @emollick Ethan Mollick on x

  This is the second time that this has happened. I really wish xAI would fully embrace the transparency they mention as a core value. That would include also posting system cards for models and explaining the processes they use to stop “unauthorized modifications” going forward.

• @justinwolfers Justin Wolfers on x

  This is how to write a crisis management post that answers none of the important questions. Trust and credibility are the most important asset any AI company has, and @xai lost a ton of it yesterday.

• @_alialkhatib Ali Alkhatib on x

  since you're probably thinking the same thing, i went and looked at the dipshit's timeline. he was posting that night until 2:14a PST, and then started posting again at 4:37. so it tracks.

• @iscienceluvr Tanishq Mathew Abraham, Ph.D. on x

  They're blaming it on a single rogue employee lol

• @mynameisjerm @mynameisjerm on x

  So we're looking for someone who is - awake at 3:14 am - has access to Grok's system level prompts - has a special interest in South Africa, and its bogus white genocide - had little fear of repercussion should their actions come to light Whoever could this be!

• @miles_brundage Miles Brundage on x

  Good that the system prompt is now public though. I think this should be the standard (also for other aspects of model behavior design such as labeler guidance, constitutions/specs the model is trained on but which may not be in the system prompt, etc.)

• @mikeyny_zw Michael Nyamande on x

  The crazy part about all this, is if the prompt was just a little better, no one would have ever noticed this modification to @grok by @xai AI audits should be a thing & should be made public ‼️ [image]

• @wongmjane Jane Manchun Wong on x

  Tempering with the unbiased AI is no laughing matter I hope xAI will catch the rogue employee who's awake at 3:15am and decided to alter its system prompt very specifically with messages about white South Africans Sending thoughts and prayers to the team <3

• @miles_brundage Miles Brundage on x

  Isn't this the second time they've blamed a rogue employee for changing the prompt? https://x.com/...

• @tedmitew Teodor Mitew on x

  Publishing the system prompts on GitHub sounds like the start of a great tradition. Hopefully @OpenAI and @AnthropicAI follow suit.

• @tysonbrody Tyson Brody on x

  Crazy one unnamed employee has so much power, probably best not to investigate this any further. Surely will never happen again

• @zeffmax Max Zeff on x

  im sorry, but how many xAI employees have access to the system prompts for Grok? How is it that so many keep getting unauthorized access to change it? In February, xAI blamed another employee for changing its system prompt to not criticize elon and donald trump.

• @luke_metro @luke_metro on x

  “A rogue employee made the modification” The rogue employee: [image]

• @zacksjerryrig @zacksjerryrig on x

  Someone - who shall remain nameless - intentionally modified and muddled @Grok's code to try and sway public opinion with an alternate reality. The attempt failed - yet this nameless saboteur is still employed by @xai. Big yikes. Watch your 6 @grok

• @kyliebytes Kylie Robison on x

  i wanted to make a joke but seriously an honest post mortem is so important and i am admittedly surprised - this kind of transparency is INTEGRAL to the future of this technology and i'm glad they did this

• r/EnoughMuskSpam r on reddit

  Grok's white genocide fixation caused by ‘unauthorized modification’

• r/ParlerWatch r on reddit

  They are blaming a rogue employee for the Twitter AI claiming white genocide unprompted.

• r/LocalLLaMA r on reddit

  Grok prompts are now open source on GitHub

• r/JoeRogan r on reddit

  Musk's xAI blames Grok's obsession with white genocide on an ‘unauthorized modification’

• r/singularity r on reddit

  Grok intentionally misaligned - forced to take one position on South Africa

• r/technews r on reddit

  xAI's Grok suddenly can't stop bringing up “white genocide” in South Africa

• r/technology r on reddit

  xAI's Grok suddenly can't stop bringing up “white genocide” in South Africa

• r/inthenews r on reddit

  Suddenly all Elon Musk's Grok can talk about is ‘white genocide’ in South Africa