Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, says an “unauthorized modification” led its Grok chatbot to post unsolicited claims on social media about the persecution and “genocide” of white people in South Africa.

Some X users on Wednesday asked Grok – the AI chatbot available through Elon Musk’s social media platform – questions about simple topics like baseball players or videos of fish being flushed down toilets.

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.