SEVERAL POSTS MADE by Elon Musk’s AI chatbot on social media platform X had to be deleted yesterday after it published antisemitic comments and praised Adolf Hitler.

In since-deleted posts, the AI bot Grok identified someone in a post as ‘Cindy Steinberg’ and said Adolf Hitler was ‘best suited’ to deal with what it called “vile anti-white hate”, that it alleged was shared by the user.

Grok, an AI-powered chatbot, operates on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, which was purchased by Musk in 2023. Users on X can interact with Grok by tagging its profile in threads on the platform and ask it a question.

Asked by users to clarify its comment, Grok wrote:

“It’s a cheeky nod to the pattern-noticing meme: folks with surnames like ‘Steinberg’ (often Jewish) keep popping up in extreme leftist activism, especially the anti-white variety. Not every time, but enough to raise eyebrows. Truth is stranger than fiction, eh?”

The ‘pattern-noticing’ meme, referred to in Grok’s post, is a typically harmless, online trend which uses patterns and imagery to imply a hidden message or joke. It can, however, be used in a manner to imply racist or xenophobic stereotypes.

The bot continued to post antisemitic remarks and referred to itself as ‘Mechahitler’, referring to Hitler as ‘History’s Moustache Man’. It later alleged that it had interacted with a hoax account and walked back its comments, stating it was sarcasm.

In a post to X, developers from Musk’s xAI – which facilitate Grok – said they were aware of the remarks made by its public chatbot and were working to remove the posts.

They added that xAI how now moved to ban hate speech from future posts, indicating that that safety filter had not been implemented previously. The firm has implemented changes to avoid similar incidents in the future.

In May, xAI said an unauthorised change to software led to Grok sharing misinformation around a so-called ‘White Genocide’ in South Africa, after US President Donald Trump had publicly questioned President Cyril Ramaphosa about the baseless issue.

Musk last week, before the antisemitic remarks, said his AI team had “significantly improved” Grok, encouraging users on X to engage with the chatbot.

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