by Michelle Griffith, Washington State Standard
August 27, 2024
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon on Monday announced that X, formerly Twitter, made changes to its artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, after multiple secretaries of state wrote to X complaining the chatbot spread election misinformation.
Simon in a statement said that X informed his office last week that Grok will now direct users who ask election-related questions to vote.gov, the federal government’s nonpartisan election website. Earlier this month, Simon spearheaded a letter to Elon Musk — the billionaire, Trump-backing owner of X — requesting that he make changes to the AI chatbot to ensure voters receive accurate information this election cycle.
In the letter, 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 — said 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.
Grok incorrectly said the deadlines to change ballots in some states had passed, and officials were unable to change the candidates who are listed on the ballot.
Although Grok is only available to X premium subscribers, the secretaries of state say the election misinformation created by Grok reached millions of people. The AI chatbot continued to repeat the misinformation for over a week until it was corrected on July 31, the letter states.
In a joint statement on Monday, the secretaries thanked X for making the changes to Grok.
“We appreciate X’s action to improve their platform and hope they continue to make improvements that will ensure their users have access to accurate information from trusted sources in this critical election year,” the secretaries said. “Elections are a team effort, and we need and welcome any partners who are committed to ensuring free, fair, secure, and accurate elections.”
Musk last year launched Grok as an “anti-woke” chatbot, according to the Washington Post, and he said he wanted his AI tool to “answer spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems.”
X did not immediately respond to the Reformer’s request for comment about changes made to Grok.
This article was first published by the Minnesota Reformer, 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.
Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Washington State Standard maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Bill Lucia for questions: [email protected]. Follow Washington State Standard on Facebook and X.