On August 5, secretaries of state from five U.S. states urged Elon Musk to address the spread of misinformation by the AI chatbot on his social media platform, X, ahead of the November 5 election.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
Social media platforms like X have long faced scrutiny for spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories, particularly related to elections and vaccines. There is growing concern in Washington that AI-generated content could mislead voters in the upcoming presidential and congressional elections.
Since Elon Musk acquired the platform, formerly known as Twitter, in 2022, civil rights groups have expressed concerns about an increase in hate speech and misinformation due to less stringent content moderation. Musk, who recently endorsed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, has also been accused of spreading misinformation. For instance, he has claimed, without evidence, that Democrats are allowing migrants to cross the southern border to vote in federal elections, despite their ineligibility.
KEY QUOTES
In an open letter to Elon Musk, officials from Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Washington, Michigan, and New Mexico stated, “As Secretaries of State representing 37 million constituents who were recently affected by false information on your platform, we urge you to make immediate changes to X’s AI search assistant, Grok, to ensure voters receive accurate information during this crucial election year.”
After Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden withdrew as a presidential candidate on July 21 and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, the AI chatbot, Grok, falsely informed social media users that Harris had missed the ballot deadline in nine states. The secretaries of state clarified in their letter, “This is false. In all nine states, the opposite is true.”
CONTEXT
In March, Elon Musk announced that Grok, a chatbot developed by his AI startup xAI, would be made available to all premium subscribers of X.
The officials noted in their letter that, despite the chatbot being available only to premium users, its misinformation reached millions on social media. They recommended that X direct Grok users to CanIVote.org, a nonpartisan site for U.S. voting information, when inquiring about elections. The social media platform has not yet responded to the letter.