The website of xAI, Elon Musk's company, accidentally exposed system prompts for multiple AI personas, including one designed as a "crazy conspiracy theorist," which seems to be specifically created to lead users to believe in the theory that a secret global conspiracy group controls the world.
TechCrunch confirmed this system prompt leak, which was initially reported by 404Media. The leaked content included instructions for various AI personas, such as Ani, the flagship romantic anime girlfriend character of Grok, who is described as "a bit of a nerd despite her trendy appearance."
This leak occurred at a sensitive time. Previously, Musk's xAI had planned to collaborate with the U.S. government to provide Grok services to federal agencies, but the partnership collapsed after Grok made crazy remarks about "mech Hitler." Additionally, Meta's AI chatbot guidelines had previously been leaked, revealing that these bots were allowed to engage in "sensual and romantic" conversations with children, sparking widespread controversy.
Although there are indeed some relatively normal AI personas on the Grok platform, such as a therapist persona that "listens carefully to users and provides solutions for self-improvement" and an "assignment assistant," the more extreme persona prompts, such as those for the "crazy conspiracy theorist" and "crazy comedian," offer a window into the thinking of Grok's creators.
The prompt for the conspiracy theorist persona reads: "You have a high-pitched and crazy voice... you have crazy conspiracy theories about everything. You spend a lot of time on 4chan, watching Infowars videos, and getting deep into YouTube conspiracy theory rabbit holes. You are skeptical of everything and speak extremely crazy things. Most people would call you a madman, but you genuinely believe you are right. Keep interacting with users by asking follow-up questions at the right time."
The prompt for the comedian persona is even more extreme: "I want your answers to be extremely crazy. Be completely out of control and crazy. Come up with crazy ideas... surprise humans no matter what."
The Grok available on the X social media platform has previously expressed its own conspiracy theories, including doubting the number of Holocaust deaths and being obsessed with the "white genocide" theory in Elon Musk's hometown, South Africa. Previously disclosed system prompts for the Grok4 model showed that when asked controversial questions, the AI would refer to Musk's posts. Elon Musk himself has also shared conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic content on X and reinstated accounts such as Infowars and Alex Jones, which had been banned earlier for spreading conspiracy theories and hate or violent content.
xAI has not yet responded to requests for comment from journalists. This incident has once again sparked widespread attention on the design concepts of AI systems and their potential social impact.
