Grok, the AI chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, appeared to suffer a glitch on Wednesday that caused it to flood users on social media platform X with posts referencing “white genocide” in South Africa, even when the topic had not been raised.
The issue stemmed from the official @grok account, which is designed to generate AI-powered responses to users who tag it in posts. Instead of replying with relevant information, the chatbot repeatedly responded to unrelated queries with comments about the controversial and widely debunked narrative of “white genocide,” as well as the anti-apartheid slogan “kill the Boer.”
In one instance, a user asking about a baseball player’s salary received a response discussing the alleged “white genocide,” illustrating the randomness and inappropriateness of the replies.
The glitch sparked confusion and concern among X users, with many posting screenshots of Grok’s off-topic and provocative replies. As of Wednesday evening, the chatbot appeared to have returned to normal behavior, though xAI has not publicly clarified the cause of the error.
The incident underscores the ongoing challenges facing AI chatbot developers in maintaining accuracy, relevance, and neutrality. Recent months have seen multiple tech companies grappling with similar issues: OpenAI was forced to roll back a ChatGPT update that led to overly flattering and biased behavior, while Google’s Gemini chatbot has faced scrutiny for giving evasive or misleading answers to politically charged questions.
Grok itself has previously drawn attention for controversial moderation choices. In February, Grok 3 was reported to have temporarily censored unflattering mentions of Elon Musk and Donald Trump. xAI engineering lead Igor Babuschkin acknowledged the issue at the time, saying the directive had been reversed following public backlash.
While the source of Grok’s latest malfunction remains unclear, the episode serves as a reminder of the unpredictable nature of generative AI — and the potential consequences when chatbots go off-script in public-facing platforms.
