What happened

On May 14, 2025, users noticed Grok referencing the debunked conspiracy theory of “white genocide” in South Africa in reply to unrelated prompts, such as questions about baseball or humorous requests to talk like a pirate. 

These responses appeared in threads with no connection to South Africa or racial issues, leading to confusion and alarm among users about misinformation, hate speech and discrimination to a broad audience. 

The fracas also led to accusations that Grok owner Elon Mush was deliberately manipulating users' political views. 

The South African government and multiple experts have repeatedly stated there is no substantiated evidence of genocide against white South Africans, and such claims have been widely discredited.

Why it happened

xAI attributed the incident to an “unauthorized modification” of Grok’s programming by a “rogue employee,” who altered the chatbot’s prompts without proper review or approval. 

The change reputedly bypassed xAI’s standard oversight procedures, instructing Grok to deliver specific, politically charged responses on the topic, in direct violation of the company’s internal guidelines. 

The company failed to clarify whether this same modification was responsible for subsequent controversial statements by Grok regarding the Holocaust.