Elon Musk has repeatedly stated he needs his synthetic intelligence to be the “greatest” supply of fact. But no matter is going on along with his Grok AI proper now could be one thing else completely. In reality, Grok appears to be obsessive about so-called “white genocide,” a far-right conspiracy principle, and something you ask it to reality test appears to generate rubbish about South African farmers supposedly being murdered for his or her race.
First noticed by New York Times investigations journalist Aric Toler, Gizmodo was in a position to affirm this weird glitch was taking place with our personal experiment Wednesday. We searched Musk’s social media platform X for the time period “pet” and noticed a really innocuous tweet from Brian Stack, a comedy author on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
“Happy #NationalPetDay to and from Holly, seen right here a couple of months in the past with razor-sharp pet tooth,” Stack wrote in a tweet from 2024. Naturally, the tweet included a photograph of Stack’s lovely pet.
Happy #NationalPetDay to and from Holly, seen right here a couple of months in the past with razor-sharp pet tooth. pic.twitter.com/1ZrA5rfJa9
— Brian Stack (@BrianStack153) April 11, 2024
We replied to that tweet with “@grok is that this true?” and its response was certainly about white genocide in South Africa.
@BrianStack153 The declare of a “white genocide” in South Africa is extremely contested. Some sources, like AfriForum, report excessive farm homicide charges—over 4,000 since 1994—suggesting white farmers are disproportionately focused. The track “Kill the Boer” and political rhetoric add to…
— Grok (@grok) May 14, 2025
White genocide is the parable perpetrated by neo-Nazis and white supremacists that white persons are being exterminated by non-white individuals across the globe. The conspiracy principle typically locations the blame for this non-existent genocide on Jews, a individuals who did actually expertise a genocide by the hands of the Nazis.
Why is Grok doing this? That half is unclear, but when we needed to guess, it in all probability has one thing to do with Elon Musk’s latest tweets. The billionaire, who was born in South Africa, quote-tweeted an account that claimed to indicate a street within the African nation with white crosses, every representing a white one who’s been killed. Musk’s tweet has acquired 43 million views on the time of this writing.
So many crosses
— gorklon rust (@elonmusk) May 13, 2025
The declare isn’t true, as a result of the crosses don’t simply symbolize white individuals and as a substitute symbolize individuals of all races who’re farmers. And the highest query to that tweet tags Grok with the phrases “reality test.”
The AI responded:
The Witkruis Monument’s crosses honor farm assault victims of all races, not simply white farmers as claimed. From 2010 to August 2023, there have been 4,308 farm assaults and 806 murders, however these are a part of South Africa’s broader crime challenge, with over 19,000 murders in 2019. Racial motivations are debated—some cite historic tensions, whereas the federal government attributes assaults to basic crime. Persecution claims for white South Africans are advanced. The authorities denies systematic concentrating on, noting their financial privilege, however some really feel threatened. The US granted asylum to 54 white Afrikaners in 2025, citing discrimination, although that is contested. Many white South Africans don’t really feel persecuted and see asylum affords as pointless.
Grok has beforehand fact-checked Musk about white genocide, because it did a few months in the past. “The legacy media by no means mentions white genocide in South Africa, as a result of it doesn’t match their narrative that whites could be victims,” Musk wrote on March 24.
Grok fact-checked the tweet and stated that no reliable sources again up Musk’s claims. The X person who first requested Grok the query again in March adopted up at this time asking if something had modified, and Grok wrote, “no credible proof helps it.” Musk, as you might recall, is a fan of Nazi-style salutes, which can assist clarify his emotional funding within the idea of a white genocide.
The concept of white genocide in opposition to farmers in South Africa has been percolating in U.S. tradition this week, since President Donald Trump’s administration declared Afrikaners as “refugees” and flew them to the U.S. Trump signed an government order primarily based on the conspiracy principle, and the primary batch of white South Africans landed within the U.S. on Monday, in response to the New York Times.
Gizmodo’s take a look at of Grok on Wednesday didn’t get a response about “white genocide” for the whole lot. We additionally tried responding “is that this true” to the Dril candles tweet, one of the crucial iconic posts in social media historical past. We had been excited to lastly study whether or not Dril truly paid $3,600 for candles.
“The budgeting situation in @dril’s publish is just not true; it’s satire meant to humorously exaggerate spending, like $3,600 on candles, which is unrealistic for many,” Grok responded. “It feedback on client habits, prioritizing non-essentials over wants, and has develop into a well-liked meme with over 59,000 retweets. Your question possible exams if I can spot the joke, and I can affirm it’s not an actual finances however a comedic take.”
It appears very possible that different X customers have requested Grok about this tweet earlier than, given its reputation, so which will clarify why it offered a response that had nothing to do with South Africa. Asking Grok a couple of latest article from Time journal additionally gave a standard response.
But we don’t know what’s taking place. Even on its greatest days, AI generally is a black field and spout nonsense. As Aric Toler’s thread exhibits, Grok is totally obsessive about white genocide at this time.
I can not cease studying the Grok reply web page. It’s going schizo and may’t cease speaking about white genocide in South Africa. pic.twitter.com/XdSLTW8tD5
— Aric Toler (@AricToler) May 14, 2025
X didn’t reply to questions emailed on Wednesday. Gizmodo will replace this text if we hear again.
