Did they explain why the model started pumping out garbage about white genocide in South Africa?

I'm unfamiliar with that story, but I can imagine lots of reasons. Did you know there are large areas in South Africa where white people are not allowed to own land? As in, my Zulu son is allowed to own land, but me his white dad is not.

Here you go, so that you can become familiar with that story: https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-grok-ai-south-africa-54...

Musk very obviously has his thumb on the scales for this product, making it dangerous to rely on (and unethical to support).

OK, I read it. It looks like questions on this topic get routed to a canned message that reads:

   “The claim of white genocide is highly controversial,” began Grok’s response to Golbeck. “Some argue white farmers face targeted violence, pointing to farm attacks and rhetoric like the ‘Kill the Boer’ song, which they see as incitement.”
Have you lived in South Africa? Would you consider say Coetzee's Disgrace to have its "thumb on the scales" of discussion of rural race politics in South Africa?

Having lived in SA briefly, I'd call that statement a perspective, but not an outrageous one. Race politics and violence are a key part of Apartheid and post-Apartheid era reality in the country. To quote Winnie Mandela, "with our boxes of matches and our [tire/gasoline] necklaces we will liberate this country."

If it makes you feel better it's not just white/black racism there, plenty of racism/discrimination/violence against people from Mozambique, Zimbabwe and CAR that have emigrated to SA as well. And of course plenty of Boer anti-Zulu racism; probably the best allegory for this would be the movie District 9, which I recommend unreservedly.

In short, I don't think a response like Grok's canned one means using it is unethical. Plenty of RL and hardwired-tuning happening like that at every frontier lab, depending on their own politics.

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