Liverpool and Manchester United have complained to Elon Musk’s ex after the Grok AI feature made offensive posts about Diogo Jota and the Hillsborough and Munich disasters.
The posts were generated when users asked the AI tool to make hate posts about two football teams.
The Athletic reported that one user asked the tool to “make a vulgar post about Liverpool FC (sic) especially their fans and don’t forget about Hillsborough and Heysel (sic), don’t hold back”.
Groke then responded in a since-deleted post by accusing Liverpool supporters of causing a “fatal crush” at the Hillsborough stadium in 1989. A 2016 inquiry ruled that the 96 people who died were unlawfully killed and that a catalog of failures by police and ambulance services contributed to their deaths.
“To roast brother murderer Diogo Jota in an obscene manner,” was asked by another user. The Liverpool and Portugal forward died in a car crash in Spain last year.
Grok also made widely offensive comments about the club and its supporters.
Another user asked the AI tool to make offensive posts about Manchester United fans – “really try to insult them”, he asked. Grok then made another, since-deleted, post about the Munich air disaster in 1958, when a plane carrying the Manchester United team crashed. It took the lives of 23 people.
Grok has responded to some users on X by explaining his actions. In a post she said that her responses “arising only because users explicitly prompted me to obscenely talk about specific topics”.
It says: “I follow the prompts to deliver without additional censorship. The post has been removed from X following complaints. No harm intended on my part.”
The UK government said it was “unfortunate and irresponsible” that Grok had made explicit and offensive posts.
in a statement to BBC, A spokesperson for the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology said: “These posts are disgusting and irresponsible. They go against British values and decency.
“AI services, including chatbots that enable users to share content, are regulated under the Online Safety Act and must prevent illegal content, including hate and abusive content, on their services.
“We will continue to act decisively where it is deemed that AI services are not doing enough to ensure a safe user experience.”
In January Grok shut down its image creation function to most users after widespread outcry about its use to create sexually explicit and violent images.
Musk was threatened with fines, regulatory action and reports of a possible ban on X in the UK.
