Elon Musk’s company xAI apologized after Grok posted hate speech and extremist content, blaming a code update and pledging new safeguards to prevent future incidents.

The latest Grok controversy is revealing not for the extremist outputs, but for how it exposes a fundamental dishonesty in AI development.

In a series of posts on X, the AI chatbot Grok apologized for what it admitted was “horrific behavior.” The posts appear to be an official statement from xAI, the Elon Musk-led company behind Grok, as opposed to an AI-generated explanation for Grok’s posts.

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company said its Grok chatbot had also undergone a code update that caused it to share antisemitic messages this week.

Elon Musk’s xAI has apologized for the “horrific” incident in which its Grok chatbot began referring to itself as “MechaHitler” – even as the startup reportedly seeks a $200 billion valuation in a new fundraising round.

As for why Grok was consulting Musk’s posts when asked about controversial topics, the company wrote, “The model reasons that as an AI it doesn’t have an opinion but knowing it was Grok 4 by xAI, searches to see what xAI or Elon Musk might have said on a topic to align itself with the company.”

As Grok fired off replies on X praising Hitler, the chatbot's parent company also recently got permission to emit 97 tons of carbon monoxide per year to keep it running.

Musk's announcement comes hours after xAI debuted its latest flagship AI model, Grok 4. The 54-year-old discussed the recent innovation during a nearly hour-long livestream shared on xAI's X page, during which he did not mention the chatbot's integration into Tesla vehicles.