On Tuesday July 8, X (née Twitter) was forced to switch off the social media platform’s in-built AI, Grok, after it declared itself to be a robot version of Hitler, spewing antisemitic hate and racist conspiracy theories. This followed X owner Elon Musk’s declaration over the weekend that he was insisting Grok be less “politically correct.”

After Grok took a hard turn toward antisemitic earlier this week, many are probably left wondering how something like that could even happen.

Elon Musk's integrated artificial intelligence chatbot on X, Grok, was calling itself "MechaHitler" on Tuesday. The chatbot later claimed its use of that name, a character from the videogame Wolfenstein,

The Grok debacle isn't just a tech ethics story. It’s a business, legal, and reputational risk story—one that businesses in nearly every industry shouldn’t ignore.

MechaHitler' & Holocaust Posts Spark Outrage, X Under Fire For Response Grok, the AI chatbot of Elon Musk-owned social media platform X, sparked outrage after seemingly sympathizing with the Nazi Holocaust in Europe carried out by Adolf Hitler.

MechaHitler is a fictional cyborg version of Adolf Hitler from the 1992 game Wolfenstein 3D, which gained fame in 90s satire and early internet memes.