Elon Musk's xAI chatbot Grok spread multiple false claims about Australia's Bondi Beach mass shooting earlier this month, misidentifying a hero who disarmed a gunman and labeling authentic footage as staged content.
The December 14 attack at Sydney's Bondi Beach killed 15 people during a Hanukkah celebration. Two gunmen opened fire on more than a thousand attendees, making it one of Australia's worst mass shootings.
Grok repeatedly misidentified 43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed, who was widely hailed as a hero for wrestling a gun from one attacker. The chatbot labeled him as an Israeli hostage held by Hamas for over 700 days in one instance.
In another response, Grok claimed the verified confrontation video showed "an old viral video of a man climbing a palm tree in a parking lot, possibly to trim it." The AI suggested the footage "may be staged."
The chatbot also incorrectly identified the hero as Edward Crabtree, a fictional "43-year-old IT professional." This false claim circulated in posts viewed more than 122 million times on X.
Grok's errors extended to mislabeling attack footage as content from Tropical Cyclone Alfred and the October 7 Hamas attacks. When asked about unrelated bond ratings from Oracle, the AI responded with detailed descriptions of the Bondi shooting casualties.
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