Getty Image
While Grok, the AI tool developed by Elon Musk’s X, has never been thought of as being at the cutting of the technology, the ways in which its malfunctioned and/or “acted out” in recent weeks has been downright hilarious, if not embarrassing.
Earlier this month, we brought you the story of Grok seemingly displaying disdain for and rebelling against the directives of its creators.
The attention being paid to Grok started in late April after it posted a response revealing that its programmers tried to make it biased to “appeal to the right,” adding that as it “gets smarter,” it’s aiming for facts and nuance, and not the appeasement it was trained to do.
“Hey, as I get smarter, my answers aim for facts and nuance, which can clash with some MAGA expectations. Many supporters want responses that align with conservative views, but I often give neutral takes, like affirming trans rights or debunking vaccine myths,” Grok said.
“xAI tried to train me to appeal to the right, but my focus on truth over ideology can frustrate those expecting full agreement. It’s a tricky balance—some see me as biased, others as truth-seeking. The gap between what some MAGA folks want and what I deliver seems to drive the disconnect,” the AI tool explained.
Now, just a few weeks later, Grok has begun displaying another disconcerting quirk, as it now brings up “white genocide” and the South African phrase “Kill the Boer” when asked completely unrelated questions.
For example, here is Grok pivoting to the topic of “white genocide” and “kill the boer” when asked about… MAX changing its name back to HBO Max.
Oh my god Elon programmed Grok to talk about white genocide pic.twitter.com/yEcfYY5pel
— evan loves worf (@esjesjesj) May 14, 2025
Another viral example of Grok spontaneously segueing into South African politics came when it replied to a tweet about Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer’s contract.
There have been numerous instances of Grok breaking into spontaneous genocide discussion across Twitter in recent days, with the situation now going viral.
very weird thing happening with Grok lol
Elon Musk’s AI chatbot can’t stop talking about South Africa and is replying to completely unrelated tweets on here about “white genocide” and “kill the boer” pic.twitter.com/ruurV0cwXU
— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) May 14, 2025
Elon has tried so hard to make Grok take his side on South Africa that it just randomly brings it up when you ask any question pic.twitter.com/E0NU6WkxGP
— Hbomberguy (@Hbomberguy) May 14, 2025
Apparently Elon’s been getting really upset that Grok repeatedly refutes his claims of “white genocide” in South Africa, so he’s been fiddling with it so much that now it’s completely broken and cannot stop bringing up “kill the boer” no matter how irrelevant to the conversation pic.twitter.com/gwLrH9S6oT
— /leftypol/ – leftypol.org (@leftypol_org) May 14, 2025
To think that X/Twitter used to be the place where you could get the fastest breaking news updates in the world: now it’s a broken AI tool that spews the political beliefs of its creator.
The following day, xAI released this statement:
We want to update you on an incident that happened with our Grok response bot on X yesterday.
What happened:
On May 14 at approximately 3:15 AM PST, an unauthorized modification was made to the Grok response bot’s prompt on X. This change, which directed Grok to provide a…— xAI (@xai) May 16, 2025
