Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon in a letter alleged that X’s AI chatbot spread misinformation to millions of people.
Minnesota’s Steve Simon and four fellow secretaries of state wrote to Elon Musk, alleging X’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, shared election misinformation to millions of users last month. They asked the billionaire, Trump-backing owner of X to make changes to ensure voters receive accurate information this election cycle.
In a letter dated Monday, Simon — along with secretaries of state Al Schmidt of Pennsylvania, Jocelyn Benson of Michigan, Steve Hobbs of Washington and Maggie Toulouse Oliver of New Mexico — wrote that within hours of President Joe Biden’s announcement last month that he would not seek reelection, Grok generated false headlines that Vice President Kamala Harris was ineligible to appear on the presidential ballot in multiple states.
The misinformation stated the deadlines in some states to edit the ballots had passed, and officials were unable to change the candidates who are listed on the ballot.
The secretaries quoted a post from Grok: “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,” the letter states. “In all nine states the opposite is true: The ballots are not closed, and upcoming ballot deadlines would allow for changes to candidates listed on the ballot for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States.”
The secretaries of state say the election misinformation created by Grok reached millions of people, even though Grok is only available to X Premium and Premium+ subscribers. The AI chatbot continued to repeat the misinformation for over a week until it was corrected on July 31, the letter states.
“In this presidential election year, it is critically important that voters get accurate information on how to exercise their right to vote,” Simon said in a statement Monday. “Voters should reach out to their state or local election officials to find out how, when and where they can vote.”
The secretaries urged Musk to make changes to Grok that would direct people to CanIVote.org if they ask about U.S. elections; ChatGPT — another AI tool — is directing voters there.
The letter, first reported by the Washington Post, states that AI chatbots are expected to create falsehoods. Musk last year launched Grok as an “anti-woke” chatbot, and he said he wanted his AI tool to “answer spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems,” the Post reported.
In the letter, the secretaries quoted a past post from Musk about the need for accurate information.
“On November 6, 2022, you posted that the platform ‘needs to become by far the most accurate source of information about the world. That’s our mission.’ We hope that you live up to this mission,” the letter states.
X did not immediately respond to the Reformer’s request for comment.
Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: [email protected]. Follow Minnesota Reformer on Facebook and X.
Michelle Griffith covers Minnesota politics and policy for the Reformer, with a focus on marginalized communities. Most recently she was a reporter with The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead in North Dakota where she covered state and local government and Indigenous issues.
Excerpts or more from an article that was originally published on Arkansas Advocate is included in this post under a Creative Commons License.
