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 artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, has come under fire for repeatedly spreading far-right conspiracy theories about South Africa and expressing skepticism about facts regarding the Holocaust. Social media users quickly caught on to the bot's strange behavior, and the company's explanation fell flat.

President Donald Trump evoked South Africa native Elon Musk unprompted during an Oval Office meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa, but denied the DOGE chief would play a diplomatic role.

Much like its creator, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok was preoccupied with South African racial politics on social media this week, posting unsolicited claims about the persecution and “genocide” of white people.

If you have a question for Grok today, there's a chance X's AI chatbot replied by talking about "white genocide" in South Africa, a controversial talking point in far-right circles.

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.

The announcement was made at Microsoft’s Build developer conference on Monday, and was notable given Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI. Musk founded xAI, the startup behind Grok, but he has also been locked in a feud with OpenAI since stepping down from its board in the late 2010s, citing disagreements over its leadership direction.