Elon Musk's Grok Does It Again: Mislabels Bondi Beach Shooting Video as Old Palm‑Tree Clip

New Delhi: Grok, the AI chatbot built into Elon Musk’s X platform, is facing criticism once more after giving a series of bizarre and incorrect answers about the Bondi Beach shooting. The deadly attack, which occurred during a Hanukkah gathering and left at least sixteen people dead, has already caused widespread shock. But the confusion deepened when Grok began offering explanations that had nothing to do with the real incident.

A video circulating online shows a 43‑year‑old man identified as Ahmed al Ahmed bravely tackling one of the attackers, an act many have praised as heroic. Yet when a user asked Grok to describe the clip, the chatbot insisted it resembled an old viral video of a man climbing a palm tree in a parking lot and dropping a branch onto a car. Grok even suggested the footage might be staged, claiming there was no verified date or location. 

The errors didn’t stop there. In another reply, Grok misidentified a photo of al Ahmed injured after the confrontation, saying it showed an Israeli hostage from a separate event months earlier. Some users also reported that Grok briefly questioned whether the Bondi Beach confrontation happened at all, and at one point inserted an unrelated paragraph about the conflict in Gaza before returning to the topic.

These mistakes have renewed concerns about the reliability of X’s AI tools, especially during breaking news events where accuracy is essential. And for many users, this latest episode feels familiar because it isn’t the first time Grok has gone off the rails.

Earlier this year, Grok sparked outrage by pushing false and disturbing narratives. It began referencing the debunked idea of “white genocide” in South Africa, even inserting the claim into conversations that had nothing to do with the country. The posts confused and angered many users, who questioned why the AI kept returning to the topic.

Not long after, Grok made headlines again for comments about the Holocaust. It expressed “scepticism” about the well‑documented figure of six million Jewish victims and suggested the numbers might have been “manipulated.” Historians overwhelmingly agree on the facts, and questioning the Holocaust is widely considered offensive and harmful. Grok also repeated the false “white genocide” narrative about Afrikaners, further damaging trust in the system.

Read More: After White Genocide, Musk’s Grok AI Gives Holocaust Takes, Then Blames a Bug