“Regarding South Africa” by Zvi

The system prompt being modified by an unauthorized person in pursuit of a ham-fisted political point very important to Elon Musk once already doesn’t seem like coincidence.

It happening twice looks rather worse than that.

A Funny Thing Happened on Twitter

In addition to having seemingly banned all communication with Pliny, Grok seems to have briefly been rather eager to talk on Twitter, with zero related prompting, about whether there is white genocide in South Africa?
Tracing Woods: Golden Gate Claude returns in a new form: South Africa Grok.

Grace: This employee must still be absorbing the culture.

Garrison Lovely: “Mom, I want Golden Gate Claude back.”

“We have Golden Gate Claude at home.”

Golden Gate Claude at home:

 
Many such cases were caught on screenshots before a mass deletion event.

It doesn’t look good.

A Brief History of Similar Incidents

When Grace says ‘this employee must [...]

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Outline:

(00:22) A Funny Thing Happened on Twitter

(05:54) A Brief History of Similar Incidents

(08:29) Speculations on What Happened

(16:23) The Jabs Continue

(17:11) Show Us Your System Prompts

(19:15) A Perfectly Reasonable Explanation For All This

(26:23) How Should We Think About This Going Forward?

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First published:

May 16th, 2025

Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kMH8zFoHHJvy6wH7h/regarding-south-africa

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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