AI hallucinations have hit Thursday Night Football.
Midway through the 3rd quarter of Thursday’s game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams, X’s AI assistant, Grok, claimed to already know the final score. “49ers Overcome Injuries to Beat Rams 28-24 on McCaffrey’s Two Touchdowns,” Grok’s headline read. The only problem? The game was 20-7 and the second half had just begun.
“The San Francisco 49ers secured a 28-24 victory over the Los Angeles Rams in Week 5’s Thursday Night Football game at SoFi Stadium, improving their record to 4-1 and strengthening their NFC West lead. With quarterback Brock Purdy sidelined by a turf toe injury, Mac Jones started and completed 212 passing yards with two touchdowns, while Christian McCaffrey rushed for 112 yards and caught 68 yards including two scores, one in the fourth quarter that proved decisive. The Rams dropped to 3-2 after their late fourth-down attempt failed, despite Matthew Stafford’s 248 passing yards and two touchdowns,” the AI read.
Of course, the disclaimer at the bottom proved to be the most important part of the entire output. “This story is a summary of posts on X and may evolve over time. Grok can make mistakes, verify its outputs.”
Well, that’s an understatement. An AI solely pulling information from the notoriously accurate and informed user base of X, formerly known as Twitter? What could possibly go wrong?
Luckily, no one with more than two brain cells is looking for NFL scores from Grok. But this doesn’t bode well for when Grok weighs in on topics that actually matter, does it?
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.