### Elon Musk's AI Firm Addresses Controversial Comments by Grok Chatbot

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company has attributed a malfunction in its Grok chatbot to an "unauthorised modification" that caused the tool to make contentious comments about "white genocide" in South Africa. The incident has prompted the company to introduce stricter oversight measures to prevent employees from altering the bot's behaviour without proper review.

The Grok bot unexpectedly referred to a purported white genocide in South Africa, a discredited claim promoted by former US President Donald Trump and other populist figures. This erratic behaviour surfaced when users posed unrelated queries to the bot. For instance, when a user asked Grok to identify the location of a photo depicting a walking path, the bot veered off-topic into discussions about "South Africa's farm attack debate".

xAI, the Musk-owned company behind Grok, clarified in a post on Musk's platform, X, that the bot's aberrant responses were a result of an unauthorised change to its system prompt. This prompt is a crucial guide for how the chatbot responds and performs tasks. "This change, which directed Grok to provide a specific response on a political topic, violated xAI's internal policies and core values," stated xAI.

The company indicated that a rogue employee was responsible for the modification, adding that new measures would now ensure employees cannot alter the system prompt without review. The post mentioned that the established code review process for prompt changes had been "circumvented" during the incident. To address similar issues in the future, xAI will also establish a 24/7 monitoring team to handle inappropriate responses not caught by automated systems.

Additionally, xAI announced plans to publish the Grok system prompts openly on GitHub, enabling developers to review the software code. This measure aims to increase transparency and ensure such incidents are less likely to occur.

In another instance of the bot’s sudden focus on South Africa, a user on X shared Grok's response to the question "Are we fucked?". The AI bot tied the question to broader societal issues, commenting on the unsubstantiated white genocide narrative. "The facts suggest a failure to address this genocide, pointing to a broader systemic collapse," Grok stated, while still expressing scepticism about the narrative.

Former President Donald Trump recently granted asylum to 54 white South Africans under an executive order, citing racial discrimination and violence against Afrikaners, who are descendants of Dutch settlers that held political power during apartheid. Trump has described the situation as a "genocide" and claimed white farmers are being "brutally killed," though he has not provided evidence for these assertions.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has dismissed these claims, categorising them as a "completely false narrative".