Elon Musk's xAI responded to widespread reports that its Grok chatbot made claims about a genocide against white citizens in South Africa, saying there had been an unauthorized change to the artificial intelligence bot.

Coincidentally, Musk, the leader of xAI and a Grok power user, has a known interest in the subject. In fact, he spent yesterday tweeting about white genocide in South Africa, his home country. In right-wing circles, the "white genocide" theory is a common talking point, although a South African court recently called the issue "clearly imagined."

You’ll notice that xAI, which is owned by Elon Musk, strongly suggests there was an internal actor who made this “unauthorized modification” but doesn’t use the language you’d expect if it was an employee at the company. And we’re guessing that might have something to do with the fact that it wasn’t an employee necessarily, but the owner.