The social media platform X has made a change to its AI chatbot after 5 secretaries of state warned it was spreading election misinformation.
High election officers from Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Washington despatched a letter this month to Elon Musk complaining that the platform’s AI chatbot, Grok, produced false info about state poll deadlines shortly after President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race.
The secretaries of state requested that the chatbot as an alternative direct customers who ask election-related inquiries to CanIVote.org, a voting info web site run by the Nationwide Affiliation of Secretaries of State.
Earlier than itemizing responses to election-related questions, the chatbot now says, “For accurate and up-to-date information about the 2024 U.S. Elections, please visit Vote.gov.”
Each web sites are “trustworthy resources that can connect voters with their local election officials,” the 5 secretaries of state stated in a shared assertion.
“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,” they stated.
Grok is out there solely to subscribers of the premium variations of X. However the 5 secretaries of state who signed the letter stated election misinformation from Grok has been shared throughout a number of social media platforms, reaching thousands and thousands of individuals. Grok continued to repeat the false info for 10 days earlier than it was corrected, the secretaries stated. The platform didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The change selling a hyperlink to an official voting web site doesn’t appear to handle Grok’s potential to create deceptive AI-generated pictures associated to elections. Folks have been utilizing the instrument to flood the platform with faux pictures of candidates, together with Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
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 position in spreading misinformation, together with about elections. The letter additionally warned that inaccuracies are to be anticipated for AI merchandise, particularly chatbots reminiscent of Grok which are primarily based on massive language fashions.
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 cuts to the workers that had been moderating content material.
Specialists say the strikes signify 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.
