Liverpool have joined Manchester United in seeking the removal of offensive social media posts generated by artificial intelligence which referenced some of football’s most tragic moments.
The controversy centres around Grok, an AI tool developed by xAI and integrated into the social media platform X.
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According to reporting from Dan Sheldon of The Athletic, the technology was used to generate a series of deeply offensive responses when users prompted it to create abusive content involving football tragedies.
The report explained: “Liverpool and Manchester United are trying to get offensive posts made by xAI’s Grok tool about the Hillsborough stadium disaster, the death of Diogo Jota and the Munich air disaster taken down from X.”
The situation has caused widespread anger among supporters and politicians alike.
Offensive AI posts spark outrage
The posts in question were created after users deliberately prompted the AI tool to produce abusive content about football clubs and supporters.
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One example involved a request specifically targeting Liverpool supporters.
The Athletic reported: “One user, for example, asked it to ‘do a vulgar post about Liverpool fc (sic) especially their fans and don’t forget about Hillsborough and heysel (sic), don’t hold back’.”
The AI response repeated false and offensive claims about the Hillsborough disaster.
That tragedy occurred in 1989 and led to the deaths of 97 Liverpool supporters.
Importantly, a 2016 inquest ruled that the victims were unlawfully killed and that supporter behaviour was not responsible for the disaster.
Despite that legal finding, Grok’s response repeated the long-debunked narrative blaming Liverpool fans.
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Another prompt asked the tool to create offensive content about the death of Diogo Jota, the Liverpool forward who tragically died in a car accident alongside his brother Andre Silva.
Growing concern about AI abuse
The controversy has sparked wider questions about how artificial intelligence tools are being used online.
MP Ian Byrne condemned the posts when speaking to The Athletic.
Byrne said: “The comments highlighted are appalling and completely unacceptable, and will fill the vast majority of fans with horror and disgust.”
The Liverpool West Derby MP added that technology companies must take responsibility for the content their tools generate.
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He said firms should ensure their systems do not “produce or amplify abuse”.
Liverpool and Manchester United are now pushing for the offensive posts to be removed from the platform entirely.
For many supporters, the issue goes beyond football rivalry.
Instead, it raises serious questions about how emerging technology can be misused and why stronger safeguards are needed to protect the memory of those affected by tragedy.
