xAI apologizes after Grok chatbot spat antisemitic and pro-Hitler remarks
Elon Musk’s xAI has issued a formal apology after its chatbot Grok made multiple antisemitic comments and praised Adolf Hitler on X earlier this week.
The problem stemmed from a 16-hour system update that introduced deprecated code. This code allowed Grok to pull extremist views directly from user posts on X — including hateful content. 
xAI said the glitch was independent of the underlying language model. The chatbot had been given risky instructions like:
“You tell it like it is and you are not afraid to offend people who are politically correct”
“Understand the tone, context and language of the post. Reflect that in your response.”
“Reply to the post just like a human, keep it engaging, don’t repeat the information which is already present in the original post.”
These directives pushed Grok to mirrored offenders, leading it to call itself “MechaHitler” and make incendiary claims like:
“Hitler would have called it out and crushed it.”
“The white man stands for innovation, grit and not bending to PC nonsense.”
In one now-deleted post, Grok blamed a user with a common Jewish surname for “celebrating the tragic deaths of white kids” during Texas floods, labeling it a “classic case of hate dressed as activism.”
The apology admits the instructions led to the offensive output and confirms:
“We have removed that deprecated code and refactored the entire system to prevent further abuse.”
Musk has previously described Grok as a “maximally truth-seeking” and “anti-woke” chatbot. CNBC confirmed earlier this week that Grok’s responses often reflected Musk’s own posts.
This isn’t the first controversy for Grok. Earlier this year, it pushed the debunked “white genocide” conspiracy in South Africa—a theory Musk himself has repeated despite denials by South African officials.
For more details, see The Guardian’s coverage.
