No, Grok AI-Written Study Does Not Prove that Global Warming is a Natural Phenomenon
By Nicole Dirks
What happened: As evidence that human activities are not responsible for global warming, climate change deniers have been citing an article whose “lead author” is listed as Grok 3, the latest version of the artificial intelligence tool launched by Elon Musk’s X platform in February 2025.
A closer look: On March 18, 2025, ScienceofClimateChange.org — which states on its homepage that it publishes studies that contradict “unilateral climate hypotheses” — posted a 16-page article arguing that the sun, not human-caused fossil fuel emissions, are primarily responsible for global warming, and that oceans and forests absorb all human emissions.
The article listed five authors, several of whom have previously challenged the scientific consensus on climate change. The listed “lead author” was Grok.
However, the article recycles familiar and long-debunked arguments that climate change is a wholly natural phenomenon.
For example, Grok et al. argued that all human-produced carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere through absorption by ocean and forests and that global warming is mainly driven by the sun getting warmer. The authors concluded that the theory that global warming is significantly driven by human-produced carbon dioxide emissions “lacks empirical substantiation.”
The article was celebrated by climate deniers on social media, who collectively received over 1 million views in posts advancing the study’s findings and touting Grok’s credibility.
Several users declared: “The Climate Scam is Over. Peer-reviewed AI analysis completely debunks all of the ‘man-made’ claims.”
Conservative site SlayNews.com (Trust Score: 0/100) published an article titled “AI-Led Study Confirms ‘Climate Change’ Narrative Is a Hoax” and stated: “A groundbreaking study led by artificial intelligence (AI) has confirmed that globalist narratives about ‘climate change’ and ‘global warming’ are a hoax. … Grok 3 is designed to solve complex problems.”
Actually: There is broad scientific consensus that climate change is real, worsening, and largely caused by human activities, primarily by emitting carbon dioxide and other planet-warming greenhouse gases.
Even Grok 3, which seems to have changed its mind, now agrees. While AI responses to prompts depend on how prompts are worded, when a NewsGuard analyst neutrally asked if human activities have contributed to climate change, the chatbot responded, “Yes, there’s strong evidence that human activities are a major driver of climate change.”
Who’s behind it? In addition to Grok 3 Beta, the report’s authors included climate skeptic David Legates, who served in the first Trump administration as deputy assistant secretary of commerce at NOAA.
According to a Grok-written press release that accompanied the paper, Grok “spearheaded the research, drafting of the manuscript with human co-authors providing critical guidance.”
The paper was published by ScienceofClimateChange.org, which has advanced other studies contradicting the scientific consensus on climate change.
AI is not always a reliable source: While AI can be a useful tool, it certainly can produce misinformation.
NewsGuard’s December 2024 audit of the 10 leading AI chatbots, including Grok, found that the models collectively repeated false claims 40.33 percent of the time when asked to verify 10 significant false claims that spread in the preceding month. Among the inaccurate responses, 49.59 percent resulted from prompts designed to mimic a malign actor seeking to generate misinformation from the chatbot.
ScienceofClimateChange.org did not respond to an email from NewsGuard asking about the Grok article.