X platform

xAI is under fire after it revealed an employee tampered with Grok, its controversial AI bot on X, forcing it to make a statement about the South African genocide situation. According to xAI, the incident happened on May 14 at around 3:15 AM PST. An employee made an unauthorized change to Grok’s prompt, instructing it to deliver a predetermined answer on a sensitive political issue. This goes against the company’s stated values and policies.

The company admits the prompt change somehow skipped its normal code review process. xAI now says it’s tightening up its procedures. From now on, every Grok system prompt will be published publicly on GitHub. You can access them here. Anyone can look at them and even give feedback. xAI wants this transparency to help win back some trust in Grok as a so-called truth-seeking AI.

The Guardian’s recent decision to stop posting on X, Elon Musk’s social media platform, is a move that screams weakness. The outlet, which proudly touts itself as a champion of bold reporting, announced it would cease activity on the platform due to “often disturbing content,” such as far-right conspiracy theories. But instead of taking a stand and contributing to the conversation with balanced reporting, The Guardian is turning tail and walking away.

This move doesn’t look like a show of strength. In fact, it comes across as a cop-out, a move fueled by fear rather than the backbone you’d expect from a major news organization. By withdrawing, The Guardian is giving up any chance to challenge misinformation head-on or offer perspectives that counter the narratives it finds so troubling. It’s ironic, really -- an organization that prides itself on being fearless and forthright suddenly choosing the path of least resistance.