Makers of the chatbot program Grok apologized for "horrific behavior that many experienced" after users reported multiple antisemitic responses.

Elon Musk announced this weekend that his team at xAI made improvements to their AI chatbot Grok. Days later, Grok has already gone on several blatantly antisemitic tirades.

In response, X mostly turned off Grok, and the chatbot’s official account claimed that “xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X.” The next day, CEO Linda Yaccarino announced she was stepping down but also leaked that of course it had nothing to do with the platform’s omnipresent assistant calling for genocide.

This is the smartest AI in the world,” Musk said. He did not mention the chatbot’s viral posts praising Hitler and calling itself “MechaHitler.”

Grok’s training, including how the model is told to respond, and the material it aggregates likely played a role in its spew of hate speech.

The Grok debacle isn't just a tech ethics story. It’s a business, legal, and reputational risk story—one that businesses in nearly every industry shouldn’t ignore.

The latest version of Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok is echoing the views of its billionaire creator, so much so that it will sometimes search online for Musk's stance on an issue before offering up an opinion.