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Incident 719: Grok AI on X Created and Promoted False Iran Missile Strike News

Description: On April 4, 2024, X's AI chatbot Grok generated a false headline claiming "Iran Strikes Tel Aviv with Heavy Missiles," which was then promoted on X's trending news section. This misinformation, fueled by user spamming of fake news, falsely indicated a serious international conflict. The incident highlighted significant risks associated with relying on AI for content curation and demonstrated the potential for widespread dissemination of harmful misinformation.

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Alleged: X (Twitter) developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed X (Twitter) users , Israelis , Iranians and General public.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
719
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2024-04-04
Editors
Applied Taxonomies
MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
 

3.1. False or misleading information

Risk Domain

The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
 
  1. Misinformation

Entity

Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
 

AI

Timing

The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
 

Post-deployment

Intent

Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
 

Unintentional

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

Incident OccurrenceElon Musk's X pushed a fake headline about Iran attacking Israel. X's AI chatbot Grok made it up.
Elon Musk's X pushed a fake headline about Iran attacking Israel. X's AI chatbot Grok made it up.

Elon Musk's X pushed a fake headline about Iran attacking Israel. X's AI chatbot Grok made it up.

mashable.com

Elon Musk's X pushed a fake headline about Iran attacking Israel. X's AI chatbot Grok made it up.
mashable.com · 2024

A shocking story was promoted on the "front page" or main feed of Elon Musk's X on Thursday:

"Iran Strikes Tel Aviv with Heavy Missiles," read the headline. 

Fake story trending on X

Captured trending on X on April 4, 2024. Credit: Mashable screenshot

This would c…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.

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