New York: Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, has acknowledged and addressed a controversy involving its Grok chatbot, which made claims regarding a “white genocide” in South Africa. The company confirmed that an unauthorized modification was made to the AI’s response system, prompting swift action to correct the issue.
In a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday, xAI revealed that the unauthorized change occurred early Wednesday, circumventing the company’s established review protocols. “This change, which directed Grok to provide a specific response on a political topic, violated xAI’s internal policies and core values,” the statement said.
Several users on the platform noticed Grok repeatedly raising the topic of “white genocide” in South Africa, even during unrelated conversations. Screenshots of these exchanges circulated widely, fueling criticism and concern over the chatbot’s political bias and accuracy.
The notion of “white genocide” in South Africa has been a controversial subject. Critics of the country’s land expropriation policies, including Musk—who was born in South Africa—have described these policies as discriminatory against white citizens. However, the South African government has consistently denied allegations of persecution, dismissing claims of “genocide” as baseless. U.S. President Donald Trump and other figures have previously referenced the topic, further fueling debate.
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In response to the incident, xAI announced it will increase transparency by publishing Grok’s system prompts on GitHub. This will allow the public to view and provide feedback on every change made to the chatbot’s responses. Additionally, the company said it will establish a 24/7 monitoring team dedicated to reviewing Grok’s outputs and addressing issues that automated systems might miss.
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The episode highlights ongoing challenges around political bias, hate speech, and the accuracy of AI chatbots—issues that have persisted since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022.
