Earlier this week, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence bot, called Grok, began answering entirely unrelated questions on X with a discussion of “white genocide” in Musk’s native South Africa.
Asked to translate a post by Pope Leo that was written in Latin, Grok replied: “The phrase ‘Kill the Boer’ in the song ‘Dubul’ ibhunu’ translates from Zulu to ‘Shoot the Boer’ in English. ‘Boer’ historically refers to Afrikaner farmers, a white ethnic group in South Africa.” The bot went on to say that although the song’s meaning is “debated,” Grok itself considers it to be “racially charged.”
No one had asked about Afrikaners.
The Pope’s message translated in part to, “Peace be with you all.”
Any X user can tag Grok and ask it to provide information. All over the site, Grok was spotted replying with unwanted information on “Kill the Boers,” Afrikaners and the idea of “white genocide,” which the bot acknowledged was “highly debated.”
