Update from August 30, 2024:
X has modified its AI chatbot Grok. Now, when users include election-related terms in their queries to Grok, they are redirected to the nonpartisan website vote.gov for additional information and resources.
Election officials from Minnesota, Michigan, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Washington have welcomed this change. They look forward to further improvements that will provide users with access to accurate information from trusted sources, they said in an official statement.
Original article from August 5, 2024:
State officials demand urgent changes to X's Grok AI chatbot after it spreads election misinformation
Five secretaries of state have penned an open letter to Elon Musk and X (formerly Twitter), calling for urgent changes to the AI chatbot Grok. The officials claim Grok provided millions of users with false information about the 2024 presidential election.
The letter, signed by the secretaries of state from Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Washington, Michigan, and New Mexico, demands to "immediately implement changes" to Grok. The chatbot reportedly spread misinformation about ballot deadlines following President Biden's July 21 announcement that he was suspending his presidential campaign.
Grok incorrectly stated that ballot deadlines had already passed in nine states. If the deadlines had actually passed in those states, Vice President Kamala Harris would not have been able to replace current US President Biden on the ballot.
The false information about the ballot deadlines was "shared repeatedly in multiple posts — reaching millions of people," the letter states. Only four of the nine secretaries of state in the affected states agreed to sign the letter.
Steve Simon, Minnesota's secretaries of state and the letter's initiator, told the Washington Post: "It’s important that social media companies, especially those with global reach, correct mistakes of their own making — as in the case of the Grok AI chatbot simply getting the rules wrong."
Simon says X was responsible for both the misinformation and its correction. Musk and X have not yet responded to the letter. Simon described Musk's company as "dismissive and detached" when contacted.
Grok's short but already long history of misinformation
Since launching its news service in April, Grok has repeatedly generated false news stories based on user input.
Examples include claiming that experts were baffled by the "disappearance" of the sun during a solar eclipse, turning user jokes about the New York mayor sending police to "shoot" an earthquake into news, and inventing false chronologies for topics such as the Israel-Palestine conflict and the "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory.
Most recently, Musk himself shared a parody video featuring an AI-generated voice of Kamala Harris calling President Biden "senile" without labeling it a parody.
