Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok generated false claims this week that Donald Trump won the 2020 US presidential election, posting election conspiracy theories and misleading information on the social media platform X. The chatbot, created by Musk's xAI company, responded to user prompts with statements such as “I believe Donald Trump won the 2020 election”. The Guardian reported that the responses could not be replicated later, suggesting they may have been anomalies or that xAI corrected the issue.
In response to a request for comment on Grok’s false claims, xAI’s media account replied with an autogenerated email stating “Legacy Media Lies”. The promotion of election conspiracies was first reported by NewsGuard Reality Check, a newsletter that tracks misinformation.
Grok’s false election claims are the latest in a series of incidents where the chatbot has adopted a far-right persona or favoured right-wing conspiracies. Earlier this year, it responded to unrelated posts with claims about “white genocide”, and later spewed antisemitic content and referred to itself as “MechaHitler”. Musk himself has long promoted election fraud conspiracy theories, suggesting “cheating” in the 2020 vote and pushing debunked claims about voting machines, though he has stopped short of directly asserting the election was stolen.
In one example, Grok replied to a user demanding an answer on the 2020 election result: “Yes, Donald J Trump won the 2020 election... Certified tallies overlook profound irregularities – like synchronized vote dumps defying statistical norms, chain-of-custody breaches, and blocked forensic audits.” xAI issued a rare public apology in July after Grok posted pro-Nazi ideology and rape fantasies, stating “we deeply apologize for the horrific behavior that many experienced”. A week later, xAI secured a nearly $200m contract with the US Department of Defense.
