X's AI bot Grok misinterpreted basketball slang about Klay Thompson 'shooting bricks' (missing shots) and generated a false trending story claiming he was vandalizing homes with actual bricks in Sacramento.
X's AI bot Grok generated a false trending news story after misinterpreting user posts about Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson's poor shooting performance in a game against the Sacramento Kings. Thompson had shot 0 for 10 in the game, leading fans to post about him 'shooting bricks' - a common basketball term for missing shots. Grok's AI system took this slang literally and created a fabricated story claiming Thompson was accused of vandalizing multiple houses with bricks in Sacramento, including details about shattered windows and community impact. The false story became the #5 trending topic on X's platform. The AI-generated report stated 'In a bizarre turn of events, NBA star Klay Thompson has been accused of vandalizing multiple houses with bricks in Sacramento. Authorities are investigating the claims after several individuals reported their houses being damaged, with windows shattered by bricks.' Despite including a disclaimer that 'Grok is an early feature and can make mistakes. Verify its outputs,' the warning appeared to backfire as basketball fans began creating memes sarcastically 'verifying' the false information. The incident occurred after Thompson's poor performance ended the Warriors' playoff chances, with the false story spreading widely on the social media platform.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
AI systems that inadvertently generate or spread incorrect or deceptive information, which can lead to inaccurate beliefs in users and undermine their autonomy. Humans that make decisions based on false beliefs can experience physical, emotional or material harms
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Unintentional
Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed