Elon Musk's X-Changes chatbot Grok after election hoaxes

Top election officials from Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Washington sent a letter to Elon Musk this month complaining that the platform's AI chatbot, Grok, produced incorrect information about state-level voting deadlines shortly after President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race.

The secretaries of state requested that the chatbot instead direct users who ask election-related questions to CanIVote.org, an election information website run by the National Association of Secretaries of State.

Before the chatbot lists answers to election-related questions, it now says: “For accurate and up-to-date information on the 2024 U.S. election, visit Vote.gov.”

Both websites are “trusted resources that can connect voters with their local election officials,” the five secretaries of state said in a joint statement.

“We appreciate X's actions to improve their platform and hope they continue to make improvements that ensure their users have access to accurate information from trusted sources during this crucial election year,” they said.

Grok is only available to subscribers of premium versions of X. But the five foreign ministers who signed the letter said election fraud claims from Grok were spread across multiple social media platforms and reached millions of people. Grok repeated the misinformation for 10 days before correcting it, the ministers said. The platform did not respond to a request for comment.

The change, which promotes a link to an official election website, appears to ignore Grok's ability to create misleading, AI-generated election-related images. Users have used the tool to flood the platform with fake images of candidates, including Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

Grok debuted last year for X Premium and Premium Plus subscribers and was touted by Musk as a “rebellious” AI chatbot that will “answer tough questions that most other AI systems refuse to answer.”

Social media platforms have come under increasing scrutiny for their role in spreading misinformation, including about elections. The letter also warned that inaccuracies can be expected in AI products, particularly chatbots like Grok, which rely on large language models.

Since Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and renamed it X, watchdog groups have expressed concern about a rise in hate speech and the spread of misinformation on the platform, as well as cuts to staff moderating content.

Experts say these measures represent a step backwards from the progress social media platforms made in their efforts to more effectively combat political disinformation following the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and could lead to a worsening of the disinformation landscape ahead of this November's election.