In a letter sent on Monday, five secretaries of state said Elon Musk‘s AI chatbot on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, has spread election misinformation and are urging the billionaire to fix it.
Musk took over the social media platform in a highly scrutinized purchase in 2022, when he bought it for $44 billion. He has since rebranded the social-media platform as X and implemented some controversial changes. These changes included eliminating much of Twitter’s staff, temporarily suspending some journalists from the platform and reinstating many of its previously banned users.
Musk pitched X’s AI chatbot “Grok,” which debuted last year, as an AI that casually converses with users who are subscribers of X’s premium tiers.
The Associated Press (AP) reported secretaries of state from Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Washington on Monday expressed their concerns in a letter to Musk, stating that Grok produced false information regarding state ballot deadlines.
Newsweek has reached out to X via email and Musk via Tesla email for comment.
The issues with Grok reportedly came shortly after President Joe Biden stepped down from the 2024 presidential race last month and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who is expected to face off with former President Donald Trump in November.
According to the AP, the secretaries of state said that Grok provided incorrect ballot deadlines that were then shared across various social media platforms and reaching millions of people. In their letter, the officials added that Grok continued to repeat the false information for 10 days before it was corrected.
“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 in the letter, per the AP.
In addition, the secretaries of state are urging X to immediately fix the chatbot “to ensure voters have accurate information in this critical election year.” They suggested that Grok direct users to CanIVote.org, a voting information site managed by the National Association of Secretaries of State.
“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 said in a statement to the AP.
He added, “Voters should reach out to their state or local election officials to find out how, when, and where they can vote.”
According to the AP, social media platforms, including X, have come under increasing scrutiny for their role in spreading misinformation, particularly regarding elections. The AP wrote that the letter from the secretaries of state warned that inaccuracies are common in AI products like Grok, which are based on large language models.
