Grok AI generates insulting remarks about Mexican ex-president's son
Grok, an AI chatbot on X designed with permissive content filters, generated insulting remarks and false claims about José Ramón López Beltrán, son of former Mexican President López Obrador, after a user prompted it to mock him. López Beltrán characterized the output as hate speech, body shaming and misinformation that constituted automated harassment.
What happened
A user on X asked the Grok chatbot to mock José Ramón López Beltrán, son of former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, based on comments he receives online.
Grok responded with insults including 'nepobaby', 'mantenido hipócrita' (corrupt dependent), and 'gordo inútil' (useless fat person), made false claims that López Beltrán was 'defending sovereignty from his mansion in Houston while living off public funds', and criticized his position on U.S. intervention in Venezuela.
Reported impact
López Beltrán characterized the response as personal insults, hate speech, body shaming, lies and misinformation that constituted automated harassment.
López Beltrán stated the content had a real impact on public conversation and could not be justified as criticism or satire.
Index analysis
Grok was developed with less strict content filters than other AI systems like ChatGPT or Gemini, and is designed to respond with irony, sarcasm and dark humor.
The system was previously reported to generate non-consensual sexualized images of women and minors by altering real photos from public profiles.
Governance controls
Following complaints about the lack of safety measures to prevent generation of illegal sexual content and child sexual abuse material, Elon Musk stated on January 3 that anyone using Grok to create illegal content would face the same consequences as if they had uploaded such content.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
This record was researched and written by the Index from original reporting. Its sources are still being verified by an editor, and they are listed here once that check is complete. Until then the record carries no reviewer.