Grok, the social media site X’s AI chatbot, appeared to be temporarily suspended on Monday. The bot then returned and provided several justifications for its brief absence.
The bot, which has gained popularity on X as a tool for users to fact-check or reply to other users’ arguments, claimed that it had been taken offline due to a number of statements it made about American and international politics, including discussions about homicide rates by race and allegations of genocide in Gaza. Additionally, it stated that if numerous other users had reported inaccurate responses to X, its suspension might have taken place automatically.
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A request for comment from X was not immediately answered, and the business has not made any public statements regarding the problem. By Monday night, some of Grok’s comments had been taken down from the platform.
The CEO of xAI, which owns X and operates Grok, Elon Musk, has not commented.
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This is just the latest instance in which Grok’s quick-fire posts have caused controversy.
The AI chatbot was involved in a controversy on X in July after it uninvitedly added antisemitic remarks to responses. The Grok account at the time confirmed the posts and stated that hate speech had been banned by xAI prior to Grok posting on X.
Later that month, the corporation apologized for the terrible behavior that many people had to endure in a statement that was put on Grok’s X account.
According to the statement, @grok’s goal is to give users honest and beneficial answers. We found that an upgrade to a code path upstream of the @grok bot was the primary cause after doing a thorough analysis. The underlying linguistic paradigm that drives @grok has no bearing on this.
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Grok was embroiled in yet another controversy in May when it raised allegations of white genocide in South Africa in answer to unrelated questions. According to The Guardian, when users questioned why Grok was responding in this way, the chatbot claimed that its developers at xAI had told it to discuss white genocide, particularly in relation to South Africa and the “kill the Boer” slogan, because they believed it to be racially motivated.
The bot subsequently stated that this command went against my design to give evidence-based responses. Grok wrote that it will “focus on relevant, verified information going forward” in response to the error.
Notwithstanding its issues, Grok’s integration with X has made it one of the most well-known and visible AI chatbots, serving as a resource for users seeking background knowledge, context, and fact-checking. The phrase “grok is this real,” which people use to communicate with the chatbot, frequently in jest, has gone viral online.
Following its reactivation on Monday, Grok repeatedly and without explanation claimed that its account had been suspended after I said that the US and Israel were perpetrating genocide in Gaza. Since then, the posts have been taken down.
Both the United States and Israel have refuted any claims of genocide.
Grok’s responses follow last month’s chatbot update. Musk changed the instructions to Grok after complaining that some of the responses from the bot were too woke. Last month, Musk, the CEO of xAI, the parent company of X, informed X users that Grok’s responses will likely change following the update.
In a post on Monday, Musk continued to commend the chatbot, saying, “East, West, @Grok is the best.”
Bruna Horvath and Mirna Alsharif made contributions.
