The Day Grok Told Everyone About ‘White Genocide’
AtlanticMAY 1
xAI: Unauthorized Change Made Grok Push South Africa Genocide Claims
Above: The Grok X AI app is used on a mobile phone March 8, 2025. Image copyright: Jonathan Raa/Contributor/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The Spin
Right narrative
At this point in the development of chatbots, the complicated relationship between automation and human engineering is still being hashed out. Obviously, Grok went a little off the rails, but — despite claims to the contrary by bitter rivals — xAI has been transparent about correcting the error and implementing policies to prevent this type of thing from happening again.
Left narrative
Regardless of xAI's excuses and proposed measures to prevent this from happening again, it's hard to believe this took place without Elon Musk's blessing and that similar incidents won't take place in the future. The billionaire was previously caught deleting posts debunking his "white genocide" theories. This is disappointing, coming from someone with so much worldwide influence and someone who is close to the Trump administration.