X has updated its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok after five secretaries of state warned it was spreading election misinformation. The AI assistant will now say “For accurate and up-to-date information about the 2024 US Elections, please visit Vote.gov,” when users ask election-related questions.
The change was introduced after election officials from Minnesota, New Mexico, Michigan, Washington, and Pennsylvania sent a complaint letter to X owner Elon Musk earlier this month, highlighting that Grok had provided false information about the ballot deadlines in their states. Grok, which is developed by another Musk-owned company xAI, is only available to paying subscribers on the X social media platform — but the letter signed by the five secretaries of state said election misinformation from the chatbot has been shared to reach “millions of people” before it was corrected 10 days after the issue was discovered.
“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,” the officials said in response to Grok’s updated message. “Elections are a team effort, and we need and welcome any partners who are committed to ensuring free, fair, secure, and accurate elections.”
The update doesn’t affect Grok’s recently added ability to spit out AI-generated images related to elections, which has already been used to populate the platform with misleading or incendiary depictions of politicians like Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump. X also notably removed the ability for some users to report posts that contained electoral misinformation last September.
