Liverpool and Manchester United have made complaints to social media platform X over posts generated by the Grok AI tool about Hillsborough, Munich and Diogo Jota's death.
The posts, which have been described by the UK government as "sickening and irresponsible", are part of a trend growing in recent days of users asking X to generate "vulgar" and no-holds-barred comments - two months after the platform was threatened with being banned by the UK government for producing sexualised images undressing women.
xAI's Grok has been found falsely blaming Liverpool fans for the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, which led to the deaths of 97 fans, and using derogatory language about the city.
Liverpool said they are trying to get the post removed.
Police initially blamed Liverpool supporters for causing the disaster but, after decades of campaigning by families, that narrative was debunked.
In April 2016, new inquests - held after the original verdicts of accidental death were quashed in 2012 - determined that those who died had been unlawfully killed.
Meanwhile, Sky News understands Manchester United have also reported to X vulgar comments about the 1958 Munich air disaster, which killed 23 people, including eight players.
There was also a receptive response to a request from a Celtic-branded account to be vulgar about Rangers when asked.
After the prompt, which said "don't hold back", the AI tool blamed their Glasgow football rivals' club for the 1971 Ibrox disaster.
We have seen some requests for "vulgar" comments that are not generating a response, which potentially indicates that Grok has been programmed against replying to some terminology.
Rangers and communications regulator Ofcom are aware of the posts.
If X is found to not comply with the Online Safety Act, Ofcom can issue a fine of up to 10 per cent of its worldwide revenue or £18m. In the most extreme case, a court approval blocking the site could be sought.
Both xAI, an American artificial intelligence company, and X are owned by Elon Musk.
