Elon Musk’s Grok AI went off the rails recently, inserting white genocide conspiracy theories into unrelated queries. Here's what happened, why it matters, and why you shouldn't trust chatbots.

Several X users were shocked yesterday when they found that asking Grok — X's AI chatbot — innocuous questions about Fortnite, HBO, and the WWE seemingly caused the bot to go off on an unrelated tangent about South Africa and "white genocide."

“The claim of white genocide in South Africa is highly contentious and lacks credible evidence,” the Grok-powered X account replied to New York Times tech reporter Mike Isaac, who was initially inquiring about a cat video.