Grok, the chatbot operated by Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, was providing the responses about South Africa to unrelated questions.
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, told users on Thursday evening that an “unauthorized modification” had caused its chatbot to repeatedly bring up South African politics in unrelated conversations and falsely insist that the country is engaging in “genocide” against white citizens.
The company said in a statement that an employee had implemented the change to code for its chatbot, Grok, just after 6 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, directing it to “provide a specific response on a political topic.” The change “violated xAI’s internal policies and core values,” the company said.
The incident provoked outrage among artificial intelligence researchers and xAI’s competitors, who accused the company of forcing its chatbot to share a political opinion that aligns with Mr. Musk’s own views.
Mr. Musk has promoted the claim that South Africa, the nation where he grew up, is conducting a genocide against white people. President Trump has also embraced the theory, and this week White House officials welcomed a group of Afrikaners, the white ethnic minority that ruled during apartheid in South Africa, as refugees to the United States.
The Trump administration offered the group refugee status after suspending the program for other refugees, including other Africans, who have waited in refugee camps for years and were vetted and cleared, and Afghans who supported the U.S. war in their country.
On Wednesday afternoon, Grok users noticed the chatbot was bringing up the issue unprompted during discussions about other subjects. In one instance, a user asked the chatbot how many times HBO Max had changed its name, and Grok answered that the service had rebranded twice. Then it continued, “Regarding ‘white genocide’ in South Africa, some claim it’s real … Truth is complex and sources can be biased.”