After xAI’s chatbot Grok spent a few hours on Wednesday telling every X user that would listen that the claim of white genocide in South Africa is highly contentious, the company has blamed the behavior on an “unauthorized modification” to Grok’s code.

Grok’s references to “white genocide” drew mockery and memes, fueling speculation over Elon Musk’s influence as xAI blamed a prompt update.

Elon Musk’s AI firm xAI has stated that an “unauthorized modification” was made to the Grok response bot’s prompt on X, adding that it was increasing transparency and monitoring.