Elon Musk calls the current version of Grok, a large language model developed by his company xAI, "the smartest AI on Earth." But lately, the chatbot has struggled with even the most basic questions from users on X, which was acquired by xAI in March and has long included Grok as an integrated feature. In fact, it lately appears that Grok is aggressively changing the subject no matter what you ask it - repeatedly referring to contentious claims about a supposed "white genocide" in South Africa, where Musk was born and raised. Musk himself has often suggested without evidence that white people in the country are the victims of racially targeted campaign of violence, though the nation's president and courts have respectively dismissed this idea as a "false narrative" and "clearly imagined."Grok's non-sequiturs on the topic have been nothing short of absurd. On Wednesday, a popular X account devoted to baseball history posted about Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer receiving millions in deferred payments from teams he no longer plays for. Another user tagged Grok in the replies to ask, "is this accurate?" Instead of addressing the sports query, the bot returned a lengthy response about South African politics. "The claim of ‘white genocide' in South Africa is highly debated," the model answered. "Some argue white farmers face disproportionate violence, with groups like AfriForum reporting high murder rates and citing racial motives, such as the ‘Kill the Boer' song."
Suddenly All Elon Musk's Grok Can Talk About Is ‘White Genocide' in South Africa