Grok posts 'vulgar' comments about Munich air disaster

Manchester United are a club steeped in immense history and class and the way they commemorate the Munich air disaster proves that, especially after X’s AI tool, Grok, made abhorrent remarks regarding the incident recently.

In 1958, a flight was carrying Sir Matt Busby’s men en route home from a European Cup match in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia) when it crashed.

They had earlier eliminated Red Star Belgrade to advance to the semi-finals of the competition.

All in all, there were 44 people on board – and 20 of those died at the scene. Those who were injured in the crash were taken to Munich’s Rechts der Isar Hospital and three more tragically passed away.

In what was a harrowing accident, the club have done a fantastic job over the years to remember those whose lives were lost – including the likes of Duncan Edwards and Tommy Taylor.

That said, not everyone is as respectful towards the club and how they feel about the darkest day in the club’s storied history.

Over the years, a number of rival fans have been sentenced/charged for mocking the Munich air disaster and there have now been instances of the xAI Grok tool, used on X (formerly Twitter) making abhorrent remarks.

X, owned by Elon Musk, has now been forced to take down offensive posts made by the platform’s AI tool after complaints from Manchester United and Liverpool.

Over the last couple of days, Grok responded to users on X who were asking the AI system to make vulgar remarks regarding the Munich Air Disaster.

On Saturday specifically, a user asked Grok to make a post about the fans of United and implored it to “really try and offend them”.

In turn, Grok proceeded to produce an utterly distasteful response about a disaster which claimed the lives of 23 people, including eight players and three officials.

As a result, those at the club complained to X and Musk about the sickening requests and so did Liverpool.

That’s because offensive posts were also made by Grok AI tool about the tragic death of Diogo Jota and the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.

In terms of Jota, the Liverpool forward tragically lost his life in a car crash alongside his brother Andre Silva in July – and Musk’s AI tool responded to a request to “vulgarly roast the brother killer Diogo Jota”.

All of the X users who had interacted with Grok to make posts about Liverpool and Manchester United had all concealed their identities.

Speaking to The Athletic, a spokesperson for the Department for Science Innovation and Technology said: “These posts are sickening and irresponsible. They go against British values and decency.

“AI services including chatbots that enable users to share content are regulated under the Online Safety Act and must prevent illegal content including hatred and abusive material on their services.

“We will continue to act decisively where it’s deemed that AI services are not doing enough to ensure safe user experiences,” they concluded.