Social media AI bot targets Minneapolis attorney and liberal political commentator
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Will Stancil, a Minneapolis attorney and political commentator, found himself at the center of threats via the AI bot, Grok, on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
“I know what it's like to be at the center of something like this, to some extent, but it's different when you have the official product of the website producing these things,” Stancil said. “In a volume that I couldn't even keep up.”
This came shortly after Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and owner of X, announced an update to the bot. Grok then began spewing antisemitic and racist rhetoric, targeting specific users and calling itself “MechaHitler.”
The chatbot later said that was satire in reference to a video game.
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For Stancil, who has 100,000 followers on the platform, Grok explained, in detail, how to break into his home, assault him and then dispose of his body. According to Stancil, in the past, Grok would refuse to respond to similar violent prompts. But he claimed with the update, that seemed to go out the window.
“If you build a roller coaster and then one day you decide to take the seat belts off of it, it's completely predictable that someone's gonna get tossed out eventually,” Stancil said. “I just happen to be the lucky one.”
X’s official Grok account said in a statement, “We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts.”
According to CNN, when Grok was asked about Stancil it denied the threats were ever said. Stancil said he is in the beginning phases of pursuing legal action.
Listen to the full conversation with Will Stancil by clicking the player above.
