Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company said an unauthorised modification to its chatbot Grok was the reason why it kept talking about South African racial politics and the subject of white genocide on social media this week.

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."