Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, says an “unauthorized modification” led its Grok chatbot to post unsolicited claims on social media about the persecution and “genocide” of white people in South Africa.

Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok experienced a bug on Wednesday that caused it to reply to posts on X with info about South African genocide.

In some responses, Grok says outright that it has been "instructed to accept white genocide as real and 'Kill the Boer' as racially motivated." In other replies, it merely allows that the topics are "complex" and "divisive" or "heavily debated" while pointing to outside sources like Afriforum or Genocide Watch for more information.

Grok, the AI model from Elon Musk’s xAI, was sending strange responses to people on X earlier on Wednesday. In responses to a number of people, Grok focused on debunking claims of white genocide in South Africa – even when tagged into a post about totally unrelated topics.

Musk's artificial intelligence startup blamed the fiasco on 'unauthorised modifications' to its prompt system.

Elon Musk's X platform has faced backlash after its AI chatbot kept bringing up "white genocide."Sam Altman joined in and made fun of Grok, perhaps extending his long-running feud with the X owner.Musk has promoted the "white genocide" conspiracy theory,

Steven Adler breaks down recent erratic behavior from leading chatbots. It has been an odd few weeks for generative AI systems, with ChatGPT suddenly turning sycophantic, and Grok, xAI’s chatbot, becoming obsessed with South Africa.

St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer told MSNBC Monday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was “not on the ground” and that the area did “not have confirmed assistance” from FEMA, forcing local organizations such as the St. Louis Community Foundation to turn to crowdfunding to rebuild their community.

Elon Musk's AI chatbot, Grok, developed by xAI, ignited a firestorm on 14 May 2025, when it repeatedly posted about 'white genocide' in South Africa in response to unrelated X queries.