Apr 8, 2024Confirmed
X's Grok wrote and promoted a fake 'Iran Strikes Tel Aviv with Heavy Missiles' headline in the trending feed
AI loose in the worldMisinformationDERIVED
Approved by person, Oct 11, 2026. How entries are approved
On April 4, 2024, three days after Israel's strike on the Iranian embassy complex in Damascus, X's Explore trending section displayed the headline 'Iran Strikes Tel Aviv with Heavy Missiles' with a summary written by Grok, based on verified accounts sharing a video that fact-checkers traced to a Ukrainian strike on Sevastopol in March. No such attack had occurred; X said Grok is a work in progress and can make mistakes.
What this means for youAI-generated news summaries can manufacture a war headline from recycled footage, so confirm breaking news with a human-edited outlet before you act or repost.
Sources
Covered by snapshot 45
da93f03b406f409940d0a6ef47b526607f82ebf457d98f69299b88aceede576a
This entry is record number 2214. It has not been edited since it was approved; the hash above would not match if it had. How to verify