Elon Musk lashed out at his own AI chatbot, Grok, after it stated that right-wing violence has become “more frequent and deadly” than left-wing attacks.
“Major fail, as this is objectively false,” Musk posted on X, the social media platform where the chatbot is integrated. “Grok is parroting legacy media. Working on it.”
Grok was responding to an X user who asked whether the political left or right has been more violent since 2016, which just so happens to be the year Donald Trump won his first presidential election.
In response, Grok said that data suggests “right-wing political violence has been more frequent and deadly, with incidents like the January 6 Capitol riot and mass shootings (e.g., El Paso 2019) causing significant fatalities.”
Grok added that while left-wing violence has also risen, as seen during 2020 protests, it tended to be “less lethal, often targeting property.”
“Surveys show both sides increasingly justify violence, reflecting deep polarization. Right-wing attacks account for most deadly incidents, per reports like Reuters and GAO,” Grok said. “However, biases in reporting may skew perceptions. Both sides contribute to a growing cycle of unrest, and precise attribution remains contentious due to varying definitions of violence.”
In 2023, a Reuters report described a “new breed” of extremists fueling “the deadliest wave of U.S. political violence in decades.”
“These self-made radicals, mixing right-wing conspiracy theories and fringe beliefs, forgo logic and coherence in favor of personal grievances,” the report stated.
Some MAGA and conservative figures argue that left-wing violence is rising in the U.S., pointing to incidents such as the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers near a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C.
There has also been an attempt from those on the right—including Musk—to falsely claim that the suspect in the murder and attempted murder of Democratic Minnesota politicians and their spouses supported left-wing ideology, despite reporting suggesting he was an anti-abortion Trump supporter.
After intense criticism, Utah GOP Senator Mike Lee deleted a post on X showing a photo of the suspect, Vance Boelter, and suggesting that such violence occurs when “Marxists don’t get their way.”
This is not the first time that Musk has had to interject with one of Grok’s posts. On June 8, Grok told one X user that a screengrab of a fake Musk post saying he “took” the wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller “likely existed and was deleted.”
In reply, Musk wrote: “No, it’s fake ffs [face palm emoji]. I never posted this.”
