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Hey, everyone, you're listening to Code Switch, the show about race and identity from NPR.

I'm B.A. Parker.

And I'm Gene Demby.

Parker, I don't even know.

Do you still use X slash Twitter?

I mean, occasionally, but not really.

Yeah.

All accounts, usership on Twitter is way now.

And one of the big reasons for the Exodus is that Twitter a few years ago got rid of all the content moderation tools that kept people from being abused or harassed.

I mean, yeah, it's like this hydrant of racism and conspiracy theories now, right?

Yeah, it's really wild. For a little while in May, Twitter's AI even got in on this weird act.

So GROC, GROC is the name of the AI chatbot on X slash Twitter, and it answers prompts

for users.

So, like, you know, you ask it a question, it answers it by, like, aggregating information

or whatever.

But for a few days last month, when users asked it questions or gave it some kind of prompt,

it would just crash out and go on a weird tangent.

Wait, what kind of tangent?

This weird tangent about a conspiracy theory involving white genocide in South Africa.

So for instance, when someone asked,

where is this about a random picture that they asked GROC, right?

...