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.

Grok's developer has said an "unauthorized modification" took place after users reported the chatbot founded by Elon Musk was serving up mentions of "white genocide" in South Africa without prompting, when asked about unrelated topics. xAI, which developed the bot for integration on X, has launched an inquiry.

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.

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.

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.

The artificial intelligence model had bizarrely mentioned the subject in answers to unrelated user queries about HBO’s name change, a baseball player’s salary, Pope Leo XIV and WWE

Interestingly, Musk's AI chatbot, Grok, contradicted these claims, and South African residents also debunked them.

As is now well known, large language models produce many factual answers, but also some that are completely made up, and it’s very difficult to discern one from the other using most of the

Sam Altman made fun of Grok's "white genocide" mentions on X, perhaps escalating his feud with Elon Musk.

South Africa's Sibanye-Stillwater SSWJ.J said on Friday that it was working to bring to the surface 260 miners, who were stuck underground at one of its gold mines after the hoist system used to access the shaft was damaged in an accident. Alice Rizzo reports.