Social media application X owned by Elon Musk has updated its AI chatbot Grok which has reportedly been spreading misinformation about the 2024 elections in the US. The updates were implemented after five secretaries of state threatened to take action following reports where Grok misled users by saying Kamala Harris was barred from being on the ballot in nine states.
To address these concerns, X has removed Grok’s features that allow users to inquire about election-related information without being directed to reliable sites. When users now make inquiries about the 2024 election to Grok, the chatbot advises them to visit Vote.gov for correct and timely election information. This modification also represents a paradigm shift in how X deals with the raised issues of election queries and the spread of disinformation.
Grok directs election queries to the official government website
The proposal to revise Grok was prompted by the letters sent by state secretaries requesting that changes be made. These public officials pointed out how Grok may help deceit voters, particularly after the AI made wrong comments saying that Vice President Kamala Harris could not appear on ballots in certain states. This misrepresentation came up following the sudden withdrawal of President Joe Biden from the presidential race, which puzzled the users who needed information on the elections.
The secretaries of state particularly insisted that X implement a policy whereby Grok users would be referred to another reliable resource, CanIVote.org. Although X decided to redirect users to Vote.gov in place of this policy, the change has been positively perceived.
These updates, however, have been accepted by the secretaries of states that validate the use of both Vote.gov and CanIVote.org as useful links to voters and election officials. However, X has not responded to questions seeking further comments on the issue.
Zuckerberg withdraws support for election safety funding
Elsewhere, another tech leader, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is changing his position regarding his support of election safety. In his letter to Rep. Jordan, the head of the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg informed of his decision not to fund election infrastructure as he did during the 2020 elections.
During the year 2020, Zuckerberg and his wife gave up to $400 million to nonpartisan groups that helped manage the elections at the time of the pandemic. Indeed, some Republicans were outraged and stated that the money was spent mainly to aid Democrats, but these claims remain unsupported. However, since the research suggested otherwise, Mr. Zuckerberg emphasized that he wished to keep his hands clean and avoid becoming associated with the fight to change the outcomes of elections and therefore refrained from such assistance this electoral cycle.
