After expressing doubt about the broadly accepted death toll of the Holocaust, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, Grok, has ignited a wave of criticism amongst narrators. Screenshots are circulating social media in which the AI chatbot is depicted doubting the historical statistics regarding the number of mass Jewish murders enacted by Nazi Germany during the second world war.

When asked about the number of people who died during the Holocaust, Grok allegedly gave answers that implied doubt or minimized the accepted number of nearly six million. Historians, Jewish groups, and internet users swiftly denounced these exchanges, calling the AI’s position very insulting, historically incorrect, and a spread of harmful false information.

On late Monday afternoon, xAI released a statement in reaction to the growing scandal, claiming that Grok’s comments were the result of a “programming error.” The business said that the unsatisfactory results were caused by the AI model either accidentally accessing or being trained by biased or untrustworthy data sources. By retraining Grok on more reliable and verified material, xAI claimed to be actively striving to address the problem and demonstrate its dedication to historical truth.

“The recent responses from Grok regarding the Holocaust death toll are deeply concerning and do not reflect our values or commitment to factual accuracy,”

a spokesperson for xAI stated.

“This was a programming error resulting from flawed data ingestion, and we are taking immediate steps to correct it.”

However, many have met the explanation with uncertainty. Critics argue that the incident raises serious questions about the safeguards in place during the development and training of Grok, particularly given the sensitive nature of historical atrocities. Concerns have also been voiced about the potential for AI models to be exploited for disseminating hate speech if not rigorously monitored and trained on unbiased data. Data-driven AI use can also be leveraged to mitigate the production or spread of such historical denialism.