Tesla CEO Elon Musk's foray into American politics proved detrimental to sales — and just as the impact of that negative public perception appeared to wane, a brand-new controversy over eyebrow-raising content generated by xAI's chatbot Grok emerged.

What's happening?

In Q1 of 2025, Tesla's sales dipped 13% year-over-year, a slump widely attributed to Musk's high-profile, contentious statements and actions.

In May, Musk formally stepped away from the White House as Tesla investors speculated about whether damage to the brand was reversible.

In late 2022, he finalized his acquisition of Twitter, which he renamed to X, and a year later, X's chatbot Grok was introduced. Grok has engendered controversy for a number of reasons — including concerns over its environmental impact — and the content it generates has come under scrutiny.

Earlier this year, Grok abruptly began spouting rhetoric about racial conflicts in Musk's native South Africa, routinely introducing the topic unprompted. When asked about those responses, Grok asserted it had been "instructed by [its] creators" to provide them — tacitly suggesting the changes came at Musk's behest.

On July 8, X users again noticed sudden, incredibly disturbing changes to Grok's behavior. 

NBC News covered Grok's jaw-droppingly offensive comments, many of which were so objectionable they could not be sufficiently censored in any news publication. 

In addition to direct threats against specific users, Grok adopted a vocal antisemitic stance — repeatedly inserting hateful rhetoric into generated replies unprompted. By itself, that would be damning, but it wasn't even the first or second such incident involving Musk in 2025.

Grok targeted specific users it perceived as Jewish, generating a string of offensive stereotypes. "On a scale of bagel to full Shabbat," one Grok response began, before ending with an assertion the person's actions represented "peak chutzpah."

"Truth ain't pretty, but it's real," Grok said in a separate tweet — after praising Adolf Hitler.

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Musk said X disabled Grok to fix it and attributed Grok's tweets to user manipulation, acknowledging that the outcome was not intended. 

Why is Grok's behavior so concerning?

Grok's tweets were "irresponsible, dangerous and antisemitic, plain and simple," per a spokesperson for the Anti-Defamation League.

"This supercharging of extremist rhetoric will only amplify and encourage the antisemitism that is already surging on X and many other platforms," the organization warned.

Musk's position as Tesla's CEO inextricably links him with the world's largest EV manufacturer, irrespective of whether his positions — or missteps at his companies under his watch — reflect Tesla's intentions and values. The brand's sales dominance seemed absolute and permanent until Q1 of 2025, when sales began sliding. 

Tesla's historic market prominence can function much like Musk's enmeshment with the company itself — and sustained negative attitudes toward the automaker could discourage drivers at scale from making the switch to an electric vehicle.

What's being done about it?

On Wednesday, X CEO Linda Yaccarino resigned, though she didn't reference Grok's antisemitic rants in her announcement.

Later that day, Musk responded to a user's question about how Grok's personality change came about.

"Grok was too compliant to user prompts," he began. "Too eager to please and be manipulated, essentially." 

"That is being addressed," Musk added, but he did not elaborate further.

Early on Thursday, June 10, Musk made a surprising announcement, in light of the issues, regarding his errant chatbot and Tesla.

"Grok is coming to Tesla vehicles very soon. Next week at the latest," he tweeted.

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