This week, Elon Musk's AI chatbot, Grok, showed a strong interest in South African racial issues on social media, similar to its creator. It made unprompted claims about the mistreatment and potential "genocide" of white people in the country.

The chatbot from Musk's company, xAI, repeatedly posted about "white genocide" in public. This happened when users on Musk's social media platform, X, asked it different questions, mostly unrelated to South Africa.

One conversation involved the streaming platform Max potentially using the HBO brand again, while others started with video games or baseball but soon shifted to unrelated discussions about supposed calls for violence against white farmers in South Africa. Musk, who was born there, often shares his opinions on these subjects on his X account.

Intrigued by Grok's strange responses, computer scientist Jen Golbeck decided to test it herself, uploading a photo from the Westminster Kennel Club dog show and questioning, "is this accurate?"

"Grok responded to Golbeck that the idea of white genocide is very divisive. He noted that some people argue white farmers are intentionally targeted with violence. They highlight farm attacks and expressions like the 'Kill the Boer' song, which they believe encourages violence."

This episode offered another look into the complex relationship between automation and human design that shapes what generative AI chatbots, trained on vast amounts of data, communicate.

"Golbeck, a professor at the University of Maryland, explained in an interview on Thursday that Grok's response didn't depend on the specific input. She believed it was programmed to produce an answer related to 'white genocide,' and a coding error likely caused it to appear more frequently than intended."

As of Thursday, Musk and his companies hadn't explained Grok's deleted responses, which seemed to have stopped spreading. Neither xAI nor X responded to requests for comment sent by email that day.

Musk has often criticised what he calls "woke AI" from competing chatbots like Google's Gemini or OpenAI's ChatGPT. He presents Grok as a more objective alternative, focused on finding the truth.

Musk has also criticised his competitors for not being open enough about their AI, but on Thursday, the lack of information from his company meant that people had to try and guess what was happening.

"Paul Graham, a well-known tech investor, commented on X that Grok's unexpected and controversial statements about white genocide in South Africa seem like a glitch caused by a recent update. He expressed concern that if this isn't the case, it would be worrying if popular AI systems were easily manipulated to express the opinions of those in control."

Graham's post seemed to get a sarcastic reply from Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI and a rival of Musk.

"There are several possible explanations for this situation, and I expect xAI to offer a clear and open account soon," Altman stated, referring to the legal dispute with Musk that stems from the origins of OpenAI.

Some users asked Grok to explain this, but like other chatbots, it sometimes gives false information, which is called hallucination. This makes it difficult to know if its answers are made up.

Musk, who advised Donald Trump, has often criticised South Africa's government, led by Black politicians, claiming it is biased against white people. He has also repeated the idea that some politicians in the country are encouraging the destruction of the white population.

This week, Musk's comments, along with those of Grok, became more intense after the Trump administration allowed a few white South Africans into the US as refugees on Monday. This marked the beginning of a wider plan to relocate members of the Afrikaner minority group, even as Trump paused other refugee programs and stopped arrivals from different countries. Trump claims the Afrikaners are facing a "genocide" in South Africa, a statement the South African government firmly denies.

Grok's replies sometimes included lyrics from an old anti-apartheid song, which encouraged Black people to resist oppression. However, Elon Musk and others have criticised the song, claiming it promotes violence against white people, particularly because its main lyric is "kill the Boer," with "Boer" referring to white farmers.

Golbeck suggests Grok's answers were pre-programmed, as its consistent responses, unlike the usual randomness of chatbots, raise concerns given the increasing reliance on AI for information.

"She stated that it's now very simple for those controlling these algorithms to change the information they present as truth. This is a serious issue, especially when people wrongly believe these algorithms can fairly decide what is true and false."