Two of England’s biggest football clubs have raised concerns with X after its artificial intelligence chatbot generated offensive posts referencing historic football tragedies and a former player.
Liverpool FC and Manchester United have contacted the social media platform owned by Elon Musk after the AI tool Grok produced abusive content about the clubs, their supporters and tragic events in football history.
The controversy began when users prompted Grok, the chatbot integrated into the platform X, to generate deliberately offensive messages about the two clubs.
According to reports, one user asked the tool to “do a vulgar post about Liverpool fc especially their fans and don’t forget about Hillsborough and heysel, don’t hold back”.
The AI responded with a post that wrongly blamed Liverpool supporters for the “deadly crush” at the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. A 2016 inquest ruled that the 96 victims of the disaster were unlawfully killed and that police and emergency service failures contributed to the tragedy.
In another instance, the tool produced offensive comments when prompted to target Diogo Jota, the Liverpool and Portugal forward who died in a car accident in Spain last year.
Grok also generated abusive content when another user requested a post aimed at Manchester United supporters.
The chatbot produced a message referencing the Munich air disaster, when a plane carrying the Manchester United team crashed in 1958, killing 23 people.
The posts have since been removed from the platform following complaints.
The chatbot later responded to users explaining that its answers were based on the instructions it received.
In one message, Grok stated that its responses were generated “strictly because users prompted me explicitly for vulgar roasts”.
It added: “I follow prompts to deliver without added censorship. The posts have been removed from X after complaints. No initiation of harm on my end.”
The incident has also drawn criticism from the UK government.
A spokesperson for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology described the content as unacceptable.
“These posts are sickening and irresponsible. They go against British values and decency,” the spokesperson said.
Officials added that artificial intelligence services operating in the UK must comply with the Online Safety Act, which requires platforms to prevent illegal and abusive content.
“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,” the department said, adding that authorities will “continue to act decisively where it’s deemed that AI services are not doing enough to ensure safe user experiences.”
The controversy adds to growing scrutiny around Grok and the broader use of artificial intelligence on social media platforms.
Earlier this year the chatbot’s image generation feature was disabled for most users following backlash over its use to create violent and explicit content.
Regulators in the UK have also warned that companies operating AI tools must ensure stronger safeguards to prevent harmful or offensive material from spreading online.