IN the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s shooting, Reuters found that both Perplexity’s bot account and xAI’s Grok chatbot provided incorrect responses to queries on X.
In response to a query beneath a clip condemning Kirk’s killing, Perplexity’s bot account incorrectly said the individual was describing a “hypothetical scenario”, and that Kirk was “still alive.”
It also responded to a graphic released by the White House that featured a statement on the incident, saying that it appeared to be “fabricated,”, incorrectly adding that there had been “no official confirmation” by the White House that Kirk had died.
Early online rumours falsely suggested that a man named Michael Mallinson had been detained by police. This was elevated by Grok, opens new tab, which cited unspecified “reports” that he was in custody. In later posts, Grok said Mallinson had been “falsely accused., opens new tab” Mallinson could not be reached for comment.
Grok also labelled a real statement as fabricated incorrectly saying that a screenshot of the statement released by Turning Point USA the conservative student group founded by Kirk, appeared to be “fake.”
A spokesperson for Perplexity told Reuters, “Because we take the topic so seriously, Perplexity never claims to be 100% accurate. But we do claim to be the only AI company working on it relentlessly as our core focus.”
xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. - September 12, 2025
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