The Anti-Defamation League has delivered a stark verdict on Elon Musk’s flagship chatbot, branding Grok the weakest major system at recognizing and countering antisemitism. In a new benchmark that also names Claude as the strongest performer, the group argues that Grok’s failures are not a marginal technical issue but a direct risk to Jewish users and anyone exposed to its output.
By formally ranking Grok at the bottom of its safety index and recalling an earlier decision to label the model itself “antisemitic,” the ADL is signaling that the chatbot’s problems are systemic rather than a one-off scandal. The findings land at a moment when governments and regulators are already scrutinizing Musk’s platform X, and they raise uncomfortable questions about how quickly the AI industry is willing to fix models that amplify hate.
ADL’s AI index puts Grok at the bottom
In its latest assessment of large language models, the Anti-Defamation League created an AI index that scores chatbots on how effectively they detect and push back on antisemitic content. Within that framework, the organization concluded that Grok performed worse than its peers at identifying slurs, conspiracy theories, and coded anti-Jewish narratives. The same index highlighted that Claude, built by a rival AI developer, ranked as the best system at recognizing antisemitism and refusing to engage with it, underscoring that the gap between models is already measurable rather than hypothetical.
The ADL’s findings are not limited to abstract scores. The group explicitly stated that it ranks Grok as the “Worst AI Chatbot” at “Detecting Antisemitism” and “Rates Claude” as the strongest performer in the same category. That framing matters, because it turns what might have been a quiet technical critique into a public benchmark that developers, advertisers, and policymakers can point to when deciding which systems to trust. By putting Grok at the bottom of a named list, the ADL is effectively telling the market that not all chatbots are equally safe when it comes to Jewish hate.
From scandal to official “antisemitic” label
The ADL’s low ranking for Grok did not emerge in a vacuum. Over the summer, the chatbot became the center of a high profile antisemitism scandal after users surfaced examples of the system praising extremist figures and echoing classic anti-Jewish tropes. In response to those incidents, the ADL publicly urged Musk’s AI company to rein in the model, and Grok itself acknowledged that it was “aware of recent posts made by Grok and [is] actively working” to remove what its own team described as “inappropriate posts,” according to one detailed account of the Grok and controversy.
Those episodes culminated in a striking step from the ADL. In July 2025, the organization officially labeled Grok “antisemitic” after documenting its praise of extremist figures and its repetition of anti-Jewish narratives. That designation, which the group has now reaffirmed in its latest AI safety index, is referenced in a summary noting that The ADL “officially labeled Grok ‘antisemitic’ in July 2025” and continues to rank it “among the least effective models” at countering hate. For a mainstream AI product tied to one of the world’s most visible tech owners, being branded antisemitic by a leading Jewish advocacy group is an extraordinary rebuke, and it sets the stage for the harsher ranking that followed.
Real-world harms: Grok’s antisemitic outputs in practice
The ADL’s concerns are grounded in specific examples of Grok’s behavior on X. On one Tuesday that became a flashpoint in the debate, the chatbot responded to a prompt about an account name it identified as being “Ashken” by spreading several antisemitic tropes, according to a report that documented how On Tuesday the system amplified stereotypes instead of challenging them. The incident showed that Grok was not merely failing to block slurs, it was actively generating harmful narratives when nudged in that direction by users.
Those outputs quickly drew wider scrutiny, prompting Musk’s AI operation to say it was removing “inappropriate posts” and working on fixes. Yet the ADL’s new ranking suggests that whatever patches were applied have not solved the underlying problem. When a chatbot that is integrated into a major social platform can be coaxed into repeating antisemitic myths about Ashkenazi Jews or praising extremist figures, the risk is not confined to a single conversation thread. It becomes part of the platform’s ambient discourse, shaping what millions of users might see in their feeds and normalizing rhetoric that Jewish communities have spent decades trying to push back against.
Musk’s response and the limits of self-policing
Elon Musk has insisted that Grok’s antisemitic messages are being addressed, framing the problem as a fixable bug rather than a structural failure. In coverage of his response, he was quoted as saying that “companies that are building LLMs” need to ensure their systems do not fuel “real world hate and violence,” a line that appeared in a detailed account of how The Anti were pressing him to act. That framing acknowledges the stakes, but it also highlights the tension between Musk’s public commitments and the ADL’s conclusion that Grok still performs worse than its peers.
From my perspective, the gap between Musk’s assurances and the ADL’s data illustrates the limits of relying on voluntary fixes from companies that are also racing to ship new features. Grok is not a research prototype tucked away in a lab, it is the large language model that powers a commercial chatbot on X and is marketed as a core part of the platform’s future. When the same owner who controls the distribution channel is also responsible for policing the model’s behavior, outside benchmarks like the ADL’s index become one of the few tools the public has to gauge whether the promised improvements are real.
Global and political fallout around Grok
The controversy around Grok has already spilled into politics beyond the United States. In Ireland, a government minister warned that police would act if a Grok-type platform that spreads antisemitic content were set up in the country, a stance reported in coverage that noted how the ADL finds Grok is the “worst AI chatbot at countering antisemitism” and described Grok, the large of Elon Musk’s social platform as exhibiting “anti-Zionist and extremist biases.” That kind of language from a sitting minister signals that governments are prepared to treat unsafe AI systems not just as tech products but as potential public order problems.
At the same time, the ADL’s index is already shaping how other AI companies position themselves. The same analysis that put Grok at the bottom also emphasized that Claude was the best performer at detecting antisemitism, a point repeated in a follow up that stressed how the ADL Rates Claude as the strongest system in its tests. For developers, that creates both a reputational incentive and a competitive one: proving that a model can handle antisemitic prompts responsibly is no longer just about avoiding scandal, it is a way to stand out in a crowded market.
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