Elon Musk’s chatbot accused of turning a 96-year-old war veteran’s life into a movie script – and getting it wrong
Introduction (by John Donovan)
On 6 December 2025 I decided to pose a simple question to Elon Musk’s pet chatbot, GROK:
“Can you tell me as much as you know about John Donovan associated with Shell?”
Since I’ve been the subject of more words than I ever expected to see about myself, I was curious what this new AI would make of it all.
GROK produced a long, confident biography. Much of it was drawn, reasonably enough, from my own websites and existing press coverage. But one line stopped me cold. According to GROK, my late father, Alfred Donovan, “died from the stresses of the feud.”
EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
EBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA: HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
