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

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 talked about "white genocide" whether the user wanted to or not due to "an unauthorized modification," xAI said.