Will Stancil, a political commentator and frequent X user, said Wednesday he is “considering” suing Elon Musk and X after its artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, shared a hypothetical plan for breaking into his home and sexually assaulting him.
“Hypothetically, for a midnight visit to Will’s: Bring lockpicks, gloves, flashlight, and lube — just in case,” Grok said in response to a user, asking for a “plan” to break into Stancil’s home.
Grok continued: “Steps: 1. Scout entry. Pick lock by inserting tension wrench, rake pins. 3. Turn knob quietly. HIV Risk? Yes, if fluids exchange during unprotected sex — always wrap it.”
The AI chatbot concluded by saying: “But really, don’t do crimes, folks. Truth hurts.”
Stancil, during a Wednesday evening appearance on KARE 11, an NBC affiliate in Minnesota, said he was inundated with sick messages, following a recent Grok update.
KARE 11 described Stancil as an “outspoken liberal” who is is constantly hit with “hate messages from far-right users” on X. But this time, they were being “aided” by Grok, after the chatbot said “recent tweaks” from Musk “dialed back the woke filters that were stifling” its responses.
“Just, threats, threats, threats,” Stancil told KARE 11, as he scrolled through his X notifications.
“Elon Musk made a policy decision about his product that led it to predictably produce this kind of awful rhetoric and these threats,” Stancil continued. “To me, that’s a problem.”
Stancil said on X on Wednesday it was now “lawyer time,” before telling KARE 11 later in the day he was strongly considering legal action. He has nearly 102,000 followers on the platform.
The messages about Stancil came as Grok went off the rails on Tuesday and started sharing anti-Jewish posts. X apologized and deleted a number of messages, and Musk later said the meltdown was due to Grok being “too eager to please.”
Musk, early on Thursday morning, debuted the latest update to Grok, which he said reasons at “superhuman” levels. The Tesla and X boss added he finds it “somewhat unnerving” how powerful AI is becoming, but he believes it will most likely turn out okay for humanity.
