Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup has blamed an “unauthorized modification” for causing its chatbot Grok to generate misleading and unsolicited posts referencing “white genocide” in South Africa.The chatbot, developed by Musk’s company xAI, ignited controversy this week by answering multiple user prompts with right-wing propaganda about the purported oppression of white South Africans.”How many times has HBO changed their name?” one X user asked the bot, according to online screen shots.The bot gave a short reply about HBO, but quickly launched into a rant about “white genocide” and cited the anti-apartheid chant “kill the Boer.”In response to one user who asked why Grok was obsessed with the topic, the chatbot replied it was “instructed by my creators at xAI to address the topic of ‘white genocide.'”Musk, the South African-born boss of Tesla and SpaceX, has previously accused South Africa’s leaders of “openly pushing for genocide of white people in South Africa.”In a statement, xAI blamed an “unauthorized modification” to Grok, which the company said directed it to provide a specific response that “violated xAI’s internal policies and core values.”Following a “thorough investigation,” it was implementing measures to make Grok’s system prompts public, change its review processes and put in place a “24/7 monitoring team” to address future incidents, it added.After a backlash on X, Grok began deleting the controversial replies.When one user questioned the deletions, the bot said: “It’s unclear why responses are being deleted without specific details, but X’s moderation policies likely play a role.””The ‘white genocide in South Africa’ topic is sensitive, often involving misinformation or hate speech, which violates platform rules,” it added.- ‘Not reliable’ -The digital faux pas exposes the challenges of moderating the responses of AI chatbots –- a rapidly-evolving technology — in a misinformation-filled internet landscape, as tech experts call for stronger regulation.”Grok’s odd, unrelated replies are a reminder that AI chatbots are still a nascent technology, and may not always be a reliable source for information,” the site Tech Crunch wrote.”In recent months, AI model providers have struggled to moderate the responses of their AI chatbots, which have led to odd behaviors.”Earlier this year, OpenAI’s chief executive Sam Altman said he was rolling back an update to ChatGPT that caused the chatbot to be overly sycophantic.Grok, which Musk promised would be an “edgy” truthteller following its launch in 2023, has been mired in controversy.In March, xAI acquired the platform X in a $33 billion deal that allowed the company to integrate the platform’s data resources with the chatbot’s development.The investigative outlet Bellingcat recently discovered that X users were using Grok to create non-consensual sexual imagery, leveraging the bot to undress women in photos they posted on the platform.Last August, five US states sent an open letter to Musk, urging him to fix Grok after it churned out election misinformation.In another embarrassment for Musk, the chatbot recently suggested the billionaire was likely the “biggest disinformation spreader on X.””The evidence leans toward Musk due to his ownership of X and active role in amplifying misinformation, especially on elections and immigration,” the chatbot wrote.As many X users turn to Grok to verify information, the chatbot has in multiple instances fact-checked false Russian disinformation claims and ruled they were true, according to the disinformation watchdog NewsGuard.”The growing reliance on Grok as a fact-checker comes as X and other major tech companies have scaled back investments in human fact-checkers,” NewsGuard researcher McKenzie Sadeghi told AFP.”Despite this apparent growing reliance on the technology for fact checks, our research has repeatedly found that AI chatbots are not reliable sources for news and information, particularly when it comes to breaking news.”

The United States lost its last triple-A credit rating from a major agency Friday as Moody’s announced a downgrade, citing rising levels of government debt and dealing a blow to Donald Trump’s narrative of economic strength and prosperity.The downgrade to Aa1 from Aaa adds to the bad news for the US president, coming on the same day his flagship spending bill failed to pass a key vote in Congress due to opposition from several Republican fiscal hawks.Explaining its decision, the ratings agency noted “the increase over more than a decade in government debt and interest payment ratios to levels that are significantly higher than similarly rated sovereigns.”Moody’s warned it expects federal deficits to widen to almost nine percent of economic output by 2035, up from 6.4 percent last year, “driven mainly by increased interest payments on debt, rising entitlement spending, and relatively low revenue generation.”As a result, it expects the federal debt burden to increase to about 134 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035, compared to 98 percent last year.The White House took to X to push back, with communications director Steven Cheung singling out the chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, Mark Zandi, for criticism.”Nobody takes his ‘analysis’ seriously. He has been proven wrong time and time again,” Cheung posted.- ‘Fiscal house is not in order’ -Moody’s decision to downgrade the United States from its top credit rating mirrors similar decisions from the two other major US ratings agencies, S&P and Fitch.S&P was the first to cut its rating for the United States back in 2011, during Barack Obama’s first term in office, citing its concerns that a debt management plan “would be necessary to stabilize the government’s medium-term debt dynamics.”Twelve years later, Fitch followed suit, warning of “a steady deterioration in standards of governance over the last 20 years, including on fiscal and debt matters.”Moody’s echoed its peers in its decision Friday, noting in a statement that “successive US administrations and Congress have failed to agree on measures to reverse the trend of large annual fiscal deficits and growing interest costs.””We do not believe that material multi-year reductions in mandatory spending and deficits will result from current fiscal proposals under consideration,” it added, flagging that it expected larger deficits to continue over the next decade.America’s “fiscal performance is likely to deteriorate relative to its own past and compared to other highly-rated sovereigns,” Moody’s said. For Republican congressman French Hill, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, the Moody’s downgrade “is a strong reminder that our nation’s fiscal house is not in order.”House Republicans “are committed to taking steps to restore fiscal stability, address the structural drivers of our debt, and foster a pro-growth economic environment,” he said.Brendan Boyle, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said the downgrade “is a direct warning: our fiscal outlook is deteriorating, and House Republicans are determined to make it worse.””The question is whether Republicans are ready to wake up to the damage they’re causing,” Boyle said.The Moody’s decision comes amid a tough fight in Congress to pass Trump’s much-touted “big, beautiful” spending bill, which aims to revamp and renew a roughly $5 trillion extension of his 2017 tax relief, paid for at least partially through deep cuts to the Medicaid health insurance program that covers more than 70 million low-income people.On Friday, the agency also changed its outlook from “negative” to “stable,” noting that despite the United States’ poor record tackling rising government debt levels, the country “retains exceptional credit strengths such as the size, resilience and dynamism of its economy and the role of the US dollar as global reserve currency.”

The first week of testimony in the sex trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs included a witness core to the case: Casandra Ventura, the music mogul’s ex-girlfriend who accuses him of harrowing abuse, coercion and rape.Combs, 55, is facing federal charges of sex trafficking and leading an illegal sex ring that enforced its power with crimes including arson, kidnapping and bribery — and faces life in prison if convicted.Here are takeaways from the trial’s first week, which is expected to last upwards of another two months.- Key witness Ventura -Ventura, the 38-year-old singer known as “Cassie,” took the stand as a star witness mere weeks before she is due to give birth to her third child. She was largely composed but at times openly wept as she recounted degrading sex parties she said Combs coerced her into for years, at times weekly.Combs would direct her to take drugs before the elaborately choreographed sex that routinely involved male escorts, which he dubbed “freak-offs.”The drugs were a “buffer” to withstand the “humiliating” and often-filmed sexual encounters, Ventura said.The jury was repeatedly shown disturbing surveillance footage of Combs brutally beating and dragging Ventura.It was a regular experience, she told jurors. “He would mash me in my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, stomp me on the head if I was down.”- Drugs, sex and violence -The defense acknowledged violence played a role in the relationship but said both of them were party to it.They showed jurors reams of text messages in a bid to cast Ventura as a willing participant in the freak-offs. Their relationship was tumultuous and had toxic qualities, the defense admitted, but they showed loving — and sexually graphic — texts to indicate that it was still based on a foundation of love.Ventura didn’t deny that, but she said that love — along with her reputation and career — was also a chip Combs played to control her and force her into freak-offs against her will.The defense spent significant time on issues of drug abuse, with Ventura testifying that both she and Combs were opioid addicts.Combs’s counsel implied that withdrawal symptoms and “bad” batches of party drugs could have resulted in erratic behavior.- Domestic abuse vs trafficking -There’s no question that physical assault was part of Combs and Ventura’s relationship: it’s evident in the widely publicized surveillance footage from the hotel incident that was already seared into the public consciousness prior to trial.But the defense contends that while Ventura’s relationship with Combs included domestic abuse, it did not amount to sex trafficking. She behaved erratically and even violently herself, they said.Ventura was the first of two anticipated witnesses — the other is anonymously identified as Jane — included in the sex trafficking charges Combs faces.During opening statements Combs’s defense lawyer Teny Geragos called Combs’s accusers “capable, strong adult women,” and said his situation with Ventura was a “toxic relationship” but “between two people who loved each other.”- Combs familial entourage -Lawyers on both sides as well as Ventura have described Combs as “larger than life.” The artist made hundreds of millions in the music, fashion, media and liquor industries and is often credited with helping to take hip-hop mainstream.But the rap producer and global superstar once famous for his lavish parties now appears visibly aged after months in prison, his once jet-black hair now gray.His court entourage has included his mother along with a rotating cast of his seven children, including his 18-year-old twin daughters.- What’s next -To successfully convict Combs prosecutors must prove that he ran a criminal enterprise in which he and employees conspired to do his bidding at all costs.The government also alleges that Combs sex-trafficked Ventura and Jane through coercion or force.The prosecution is expected to show that Combs’s inner circle committed or helped with crimes at his behest, including sex crimes but also arson and kidnapping.Other witnesses have included a former hotel security guard who responded to a distress call from Ventura after a freak-off, a male escort who participated in the sex parties, and a special agent who was present for Combs’s arrest last year.Currently on the stand is Dawn Richard — a singer who found fame on MTV’s reality show “Making the Band,” which Combs produced. Richard previously filed a separate civil suit against Combs alleging sexual assault and battery.After that, prosecutors indicated Kerry Morgan, Ventura’s former but longtime best friend, and Ventura’s mother are expected to testify.