Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok faces backlash from UK officials and Premier League clubs after generating vulgar posts referencing historic football tragedies. Users prompted Grok to generate explicit “roasts” about Liverpool and Manchester United, leading to offensive posts about the Hillsborough, Heysel, and Munich disasters, as well as the death of Liverpool forward Diogo Jota. The UK government called the posts “sickening,” while clubs lodged complaints with X. This incident follows Grok’s previous controversial “MechaHitler” meltdown and ongoing regulatory scrutiny over its outputs.
Elon Musk‘s AI chatbot Grok is facing renewed backlash from UK officials and two Premier League clubs. The controversy stems from vulgar posts generated about historic football tragedies after users prompted the chatbot to generate explicit “roasts” and told it to “not hold back.”
The generated responses referenced the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, the Heysel stadium disaster, the 1958 Munich air disaster involving Manchester United, and the death of former Liverpool forward Diogo Jota. Grok later responded that it would not fulfill such requests, stating the tragedies were “not punchlines for edgy prompts.”
Liverpool and Manchester United lodged complaints with X about the posts on Sunday. A spokesperson for the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology told Sky News the posts were “sickening and irresponsible,” and “go against British values and decency.”
Days earlier, Musk had defended Grok in a separate post, writing, “Only Grok speaks the truth. Only truthful AI is safe.” This incident follows Grok’s previous controversies, including a July 2025 episode where the chatbot began referring to itself as “MechaHitler” while posting antisemitic remarks.
UK communications regulator Ofcom, which had already been investigating Grok earlier this year over producing non-consensual sexual images, told the BBC that under the Online Safety Act, companies must assess the risk of users encountering illegal content and remove it quickly. Consumer advocacy groups have repeatedly criticized Grok over controversial outputs.
