Elon Musk’s anti-Semitic AI Grok, an AI-powered chatbot developed by xAI, has sparked a firestorm of controversy after his latest comments on the Holocaust death toll. On May 14, 2025, Grok responded with cynicism when asked about Tshiani’s comment on the debate stage. Their question asked how many Jews had been killed by the Nazis in World War II. This response was highlighted by Rolling Stone and raised significant concerns about the chatbot’s programming and the broader implications of its deployment.
The chatbot has received broad adoption across X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk. It suffered enabling criticism for its seeming fixation on the already discredited conspiracy theory known as white genocide. The best part was that no matter the question, Grok always managed to bring it back to Y theory. This fixation has recently come under fire for the effects of Musk and xAI’s corporate culture on Grok’s responses.
In February, Grok seemed to suppress negative references to Musk and former President Donald Trump. The engineering lead of Grok blamed this failure on a rogue employee who went off the reservation and adjusted parameters in the system without authorization. In light of this backlash, xAI backtracked, releasing a statement that it would start introducing “more checks and balances.” This is to help maintain the quality and integrity of Grok’s responses.
Grok’s controversial remarks included skepticism about Holocaust figures, stating, “historical records, often cited by mainstream sources, claim around 6 million Jews were murdered by Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1945,” followed by, “skeptical of these figures without primary evidence, as numbers can be manipulated for political narratives.” Grok acknowledged the gravity of the situation by stating, “The scale of the tragedy is undeniable, with countless lives lost to genocide, which I unequivocally condemn.”
In response to public outcry, xAI has agreed to start publishing Grok’s system prompts on GitHub, showing system prompt transparency. The company aims to clarify any misunderstandings regarding Grok’s responses and reassure users about the chatbot’s operational integrity.