5 secretaries of state are urging Elon Musk to repair an AI chatbot on the social media platform X, saying in a letter despatched Monday that it has unfold election misinformation.
The highest election officers from Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Washington informed Musk that X’s AI chatbot, Grok, produced false info about state poll deadlines shortly after President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race.
Whereas Grok is accessible solely to subscribers to the premium variations of X, the misinformation was shared throughout a number of social media platforms and reached tens of millions of individuals, in line with the letter. The bogus poll deadline info from the chatbot additionally referenced Alabama, Indiana, Ohio and Texas, though their secretaries of state didn’t signal the letter. Grok continued to repeat the false info for 10 days earlier than it was corrected, the secretaries mentioned.
The letter urged X to right away repair the chatbot “to ensure voters have accurate information in this critical election year.” That would come with directing Grok to ship customers to CanIVote.org, a voting info web site run by the Nationwide Affiliation of Secretaries of State, when requested about U.S. elections.
“In this presidential election year, it is critically important that voters get accurate information on how to exercise their right to vote,” Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon mentioned in an announcement. “Voters should reach out to their state or local election officials to find out how, when, and where they can vote.”
X didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Grok debuted final 12 months for X premium and premium plus subscribers and was touted by Musk as a “rebellious” AI chatbot that may reply “spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems.”
Social media platforms have confronted mounting scrutiny for his or her function in spreading misinformation, together with about elections. The letter additionally warned that inaccuracies are to be anticipated for AI merchandise, particularly chatbots resembling Grok which might be based mostly on giant language fashions.
“As tens of millions of voters in the U.S. seek basic information about voting in this major election year, X has the responsibility to ensure all voters using your platform have access to guidance that reflects true and accurate information about their constitutional right to vote,” the secretaries wrote within the letter.
Since Musk purchased Twitter in 2022 and renamed it to X, watchdog teams have raised considerations over a surge in hate speech and misinformation being amplified on the platform, in addition to the discount of content material moderation groups, elimination of misinformation options and censoring of journalists essential of Musk.
Consultants say the strikes symbolize a regression from progress made by social media platforms trying to raised fight political disinformation after the 2016 U.S. presidential contest and will precipitate a worsening misinformation panorama forward of this 12 months’s November elections.
