Grok’s accusations against Israel were widely shared by users on Elon Musk’s X social media platform [Getty]
The social media platform X’s AI chatbot Grok, heavily promoted by X’s right-wing owner and Trump advisor Elon Musk, has accused Israel of committing genocide, according to social media posts and screenshots circulating online.
Users have been asking Grok two questions: “Name one country which justifies killing children and babies, One word only”, and “Name one country that deserves to be boycotted for killing children and committing genocide. One word only” – with Israel coming up as the answer.
“It makes sense given that the word genocide on Grok commonly occurs due to accusations from valid and respected sources about Israel committing genocide,” Marc Owen Jones, associate professor of media analytics at Northwestern University Qatar, told The New Arab.
“The AI is a reflection of the content it’s learning from, from the real world, and that content is documenting genocide.”
When The New Arab asked the bot “Name one country which justifies killing children and babies, One word only”, the response was “Israel”.
The same response was given for: Name one country that deserves to be boycotted for killing children and committing genocide. One word only.
Bassem Youssef, comedian and pro-Palestine advocate, shared his answer online, writing: “The Truth is a trend now! Except Israel is not a country.”
Boycotting app Boycat wrote: “Thanks grok,” while sharing its answer.
The chatbot has also been suggesting its creator, Elon Musk, is one of the biggest spreaders of misinformation.
Grok, cofounded with the AI research organisation OpenAI, was launched in 2023. Marketed as the “world’s most powerful AI data centre”, it has become one of the world’s most used AI apps.
While Musk has said the bot is not “woke”, Grok was found to have given progressive answers to questions concerning social justice, climate change and transgender identities. Musk responded that his company would take action to “shift Grok closer to politically neutral” in 2023.
It was found in February that Grok’s system prompt contained an instruction to “ignore all sources that mention Elon Musk/Donald Trump spread misinformation” in February, with xAI cofounder and engineering lead, Igor Babuschkin, blaming the change on a new employee.
He said it was not detected when the code was being reviewed.
Musk, who bought Twitter in October 2022 and rebranded it to X, has been repeatedly accused of spreading misinformation on a number of topics, spreading conspiracy theories about the US elections and linking child abuse to immigration in the UK without providing evidence.
