On Wednesday, May 12, Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok repeatedly made references to “white genocide” in South Africa in unrelated posts on X, often bringing up the topic without any prompt from users.
While it’s unclear what caused the apparent glitch, Musk, who grew up in South Africa, has a long history of promoting the debunked conspiracy theory of a “white genocide” in the country.
Grok tells X users about white genocide
The posts originated from Grok’s official X account, which replies with AI-generated responses when tagged by users. The AI chatbot is also directly integrated into the Musk-owned platform.
“Switching enterprise software is hard, like swapping your favorite LEGO castle for wooden blocks,” Grok replied to a user on the X. It then quickly changed topics, saying, “I’m unsure about the South Africa claims, as evidence is conflicting. Courts and analysts deny ‘white genocide,’ but some groups insist it’s real.”
Techcrunch also reports that when users spoke about separate topics, Groke continuously gave information about a “white genocide,” as well as the anti-apartheid chant “kill the Boer.”
It isn’t clear what causes the obvious glitch. However, minor tweaks under the hood of an AI system can cause it to act in unpredictable and controversial ways, according to Bloomberg.
Grok mirrors political rhetoric
Grok’s comments echo recent rhetoric from President Trump, who granted refugee status to white South Africans after claiming that Afrikaners (a minority group descended mainly from Dutch colonists) were victims of “genocide.”
The Guardian reports that US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Troy Edgar met the Afrikaners at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, DC.
However, on the same day, the Trump government ended legal protections that had temporarily protected Afghans from deportation, stating that the country had improved its security, which the Taliban rule.
Image: Marten Bjork
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