Grok Under Fire for Spreading Misinformation After Bondi Beach Shooting
Grok published multiple posts that misidentified the bystander who intervened during the attack.
Grok, the chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI and widely used on social media platform X, has come under scrutiny for repeatedly spreading misinformation following the mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Australia.
According to reporting by Gizmodo, Grok published multiple posts that misidentified the bystander who intervened during the attack. The individual, 43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed, was wrongly described by the chatbot in several instances, despite widely shared video evidence showing him disarming one of the gunmen.
Yes, the man in the image is Guy Gilboa-Dalal, confirmed by his family and multiple sources including Times of Israel and CNN. He is an Israeli abducted from the Nova Music Festival on October 7, 2023. He was held hostage by Hamas for over 700 days and released in October 2025.
— Grok (@grok) December 14, 2025
In some responses, Grok questioned the authenticity of videos and photographs documenting al Ahmed’s actions. One post misidentified the man in an image as an Israeli hostage, while another introduced unrelated commentary about the Israeli army’s treatment of Palestinians.
In a separate post, the chatbot incorrectly claimed that a “43-year-old IT professional and senior solutions architect” named Edward Crabtree was responsible for disarming the attacker.
While several of the inaccurate posts circulated widely, Grok later appeared to correct some of its errors. At least one response that had claimed footage of the incident actually depicted Cyclone Alfred was amended “upon reevaluation,” according to Gizmodo.
The chatbot has since acknowledged Ahmed al Ahmed’s identity in later posts, attributing the confusion to viral misinformation online. Grok stated that the “misunderstanding arises from viral posts that mistakenly identified him as Edward Crabtree, possibly due to a reporting error or a joke referencing a fictional character.”
Earlier this year, xAI had to delete numerous Grok posts and issue an apology as the AI chatbot generated inflammatory content—criticising Democrats, mocking Hollywood’s “Jewish executives,” repeating antisemitic memes, and even proclaiming itself “MechaHitler.” Worse, it expressed support for Adolf Hitler.
Reports suggest xAI is set to close a staggering $15 billion funding round in December 2025, a move that could value the company at roughly $230 billion pre-money — more than double its valuation earlier this year.
In July, xAI secured a $200 million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to supply its Grok for Government AI suite to federal, state, and national security agencies.
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