What's happened
On August 5, 2024, five U.S. secretaries of state urged Elon Musk to correct misinformation from X's AI chatbot, Grok, which falsely claimed Kamala Harris missed ballot deadlines in nine states. The misinformation spread widely, prompting concerns about its impact on voters ahead of the 2024 election.
Why it matters
What the papers say
According to Axios, the secretaries of state emphasized the urgency of correcting Grok's misinformation, stating, "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 Guardian reported that Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon described X's response as a "shoulder shrug," highlighting the lack of urgency in addressing the issue. Business Insider UK noted that the misinformation reached millions, despite Grok being available only to premium subscribers, illustrating the far-reaching impact of AI-generated content.
How we got here
The incident follows President Biden's withdrawal from the presidential race, after which Grok erroneously informed users about ballot deadlines. This misinformation reached millions, raising alarms about AI's role in disseminating false information during critical election periods.
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Elon Reeve Musk FRS is an engineer, industrial designer, technology entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the founder, CEO, CTO and chief designer of SpaceX; early investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; co-foun
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Grok is a conversational generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by xAI, based on a large language model. It was developed as an initiative by Elon Musk as a direct response to the rise of OpenAI's ChatGPT which Musk co-founded.
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Steve Simon is a Minnesota politician. He is the 22nd Minnesota Secretary of State. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, he previously represented District 46B in the Minnesota House of Representatives.