Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has drawn the attention of the United States Government. This time, the AI tool on the platform has allegedly been sharing false information about the 2024 presidential election following Joe Biden’s surprise decision to withdraw from the race and step back after his term finishes.
Five secretaries of state urged Elon Musk, an outspoken advocate for free speech, to fix the artificial intelligence search engine at the center of the controversy.
Grok Is Being Accused of Election Interference
The chatbot on X called Grok allegedly misled users about the ballot deadlines in several states immediately following President Biden’s announcement that he would no longer run on the ticket in November.
Previously, Musk has been accused of using his platform to push his selected nominee, Republican candidate Donald J. Trump. Earlier this month, Musk pledged $45 million per month to a super PAC for Trump’s reelection before rescinding the offer in an interview with Jordan Peterson.
Bad Information From the AI Tool
Shortly after Biden dropped from the ticket on July 21, Grok made a post claiming, “The ballot deadline has passed for several states for the 2024 election.”
The information was reiterated in the letter that the secretaries of state sent to Elon Musk. The team responsible for asking Musk to fix the tool oversees their state’s elections.
Important Battleground States Were Noted by Grok
In addition to sending out false information, the AI chatbot also seemed to deliberately mislead voters in battleground states. Both sides of the election ticket, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, are pointing their efforts and funds directly at some of the key states that could result in a victory.
The key states that Grok delivered false information on are Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Alabama, Indiana, Ohio, Texas, and Washington. The letter was sent from the masthead of Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon.
The Information Is Completely Untrue
The letter stated, “In all nine states, the opposite is true,” meaning that the deadline for voting has not passed as voters can still register to vote in the upcoming election.
“The ballots are not closed, and upcoming ballot deadlines would allow for changes to candidates listed on the ballot for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States,” the group said.
Why Are Battleground States Important
For many presidential elections, winning specific states means that a nominee has a better chance of winning, even if they have a lower popular vote. Also, battleground states are usually swing states, meaning they often oscillate between an overall vote for a Democrat or Republican nominee.
Each state has a specific number of electoral votes, and the candidate who gets 270 votes is elected president. For example, Pennsylvania can go either way; it also has 19 electoral votes, which makes it worthwhile for each candidate to pay special attention to the voting base in this region.
Who Was the Letter Signed By?
Four Democrats and one Republican signed the letter, which shows solidarity on the issue between the parties.
The signees are Simon, Al Schmidt of Pennsylvania, Steve Hobbs of Washington, Jocelyn Benson of Michigan, and Maggie Toulouse Oliver of New Mexico.
Musk Accused of Previous Interference
Earlier this month, Elon Musk was accused of a similar crime of meddling in election information on X. After the “White Dudes for Harris” Zoom call raised around $4 million in donations for Vice President Kamala Harris, the @dudes4Harris account on X was briefly suspended.
Several users online also noted that Harris’s own X account seemed to be frozen and could not be interacted with or followed.
Are These Actions Election Interference?
Musk’s actions are somewhat wrong but also somewhat right. Musk owns a business and is not liable to stay neutral in political matters. If he wishes, he could suspend anyone’s account for any reason.
Former President Donal Trump had his own X account, then Twitter, suspended for breaching terms of service. He is not obligated to keep Harris’ campaign profiles open on his site.
Serious Problems Could Arise
Although blocking and dismantling accounts is within his right, allowing the AI chatbot to spread false information that could cause someone to inadvertently skip voting could account for a crime.
Especially if Musk intends to reap any financial benefits from Donald Trump’s presidency, he could be committing election interference by stopping votes from being cast in essential battleground states.
Why Would an AI Bot Spread False Information?
AI chatbots work because they are fed billions, if not trillions, of points of information from the Internet. Think about reading a book: You can recall the names and places and then talk about the plot or the themes.
AI chatbots absorb information and then send out what they’ve learned, like a book report. However, it is difficult for an AI tool to distinguish between false information and satire. In many cases, ChatGPT has been known to tell people blatantly false information because of what it found online.
Will Musk Face Consequences?
It’s difficult to know if the U.S. Government has any truly damning information on Musk for election interference. It may be easy to say that the chatbot was fed false information with no harm intended.
However, Musk has been known to meddle in international affairs. During the early stages of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, Musk shut off Starlink internet access in Crimea to intentionally disrupt an attack planned by Ukraine.
