- Secretaries of State from five U.S. states urge Elon Musk to address election misinformation spread by X's AI chatbot Grok.
- Grok provided false information about ballot deadlines for the 2024 election, claiming deadlines had passed in several states where they were still open.
Social media platforms, including X, have been criticized for spreading false information about elections and vaccines. There is increasing concern in Washington that AI-generated content could deceive voters in the upcoming November elections.
An open letter, led by Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon and signed by officials from Pennsylvania, Washington, Michigan, and New Mexico, called on Elon Musk to address misinformation spread by X's AI chatbot related to the November 5 election.
“As Secretaries of State whose offices and 37 million constituents were recently impacted by false information provided by your platform, we are calling on you to immediately implement changes to X's AI search assistant, Grok, to ensure voters have accurate information in this critical election year,” the officials from Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Washington, Michigan, and New Mexico said in an open letter to Musk.
The letter also stated that just hours after President Biden announced he was suspending his campaign on July 21, false information about ballot deadlines created by Grok was shared on various social media platforms.
For instance, a post from Grok said, “The ballot deadline has passed for several states for the 2024 election. Some of these states include: 1. Alabama 2. Indiana 3. Michigan 4. Minnesota 5. New Mexico 6. Ohio 7. Pennsylvania 8. Texas 9. Washington.”
This is false. In all nine states, the opposite is true: ballots are still open, and upcoming ballot deadlines allow for changes to the candidates listed for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States.
Furthermore, ever since Musk bought the platform formerly known as Twitter in 2022, civil rights groups have expressed concerns about increased hate speech and misinformation due to reduced content moderation.
Musk, who endorsed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump last month, has also been accused of spreading misinformation. For instance, he has claimed without evidence that Democrats are allowing migrants to cross the southern border so they can vote in federal elections, even though they are ineligible to do so.
The Tesla and SpaceX chief introduced Grok last year as an anti-woke chatbot. He was frustrated with what he sees as ChatGPT's liberal bias. Unlike AI tools from OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google, which handle controversial topics carefully, Musk wanted Grok to be unfiltered and answer "spicy questions" that other AI systems avoid.
Edited by Harshajit Sarmah
