Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok is facing criticism after it was found spreading incorrect and confusing information about the mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Australia, a tragedy that has already left many people shaken and searching for clear answers.
Grok is built by Musk’s AI company xAI and is widely used through his social media platform X. Soon after news of the Bondi Beach shooting began circulating online, users started asking Grok questions about what had happened. That is where the problems began.
According to a report by Gizmodo, Grok repeatedly got key facts wrong about the incident, especially about the man who helped stop the attacker. A bystander, 43 year old Ahmed al Ahmed, was widely praised after videos showed him confronting and disarming one of the gunmen. However, Grok failed to identify him correctly in several responses.
In one instance, the chatbot wrongly identified the man in a photo as an Israeli hostage. In another response, it questioned whether the widely shared videos and photos showing al Ahmed’s actions were even real. At times, Grok also introduced completely unrelated topics, including comments about the Israeli army and its treatment of Palestinians, despite those details having nothing to do with the shooting in Australia.
In another incorrect response, Grok claimed that the person who disarmed the gunman was actually a man named Edward Crabtree, described as a 43 year old IT professional and senior solutions architect. This information turned out to be false. Later, Grok itself admitted that this confusion may have come from viral posts and unreliable online articles, possibly including content generated by AI on poorly maintained news websites.
To its credit, Grok has started to correct some of its errors. One post that reportedly claimed a video of the shooting was actually footage from Cyclone Alfred was later revised after what the chatbot called a reevaluation. Grok has also since acknowledged Ahmed al Ahmed’s identity and clarified that earlier responses were based on misleading or incorrect online sources.
The incident has once again raised questions about how reliable AI chatbots are during breaking news events. When information is still unfolding, even small mistakes can spread quickly and cause confusion. In sensitive situations like mass shootings, critics argue that accuracy matters as much as speed, especially when millions of people rely on AI tools for updates and explanations.
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