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Ever since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, there have been concerns that he will use the platform to advance his own political views beyond creating and sharing content that his 192 million followers see.
In short order, he not only changed the name of Twitter to X, but also removed safeguards against misinformation and reinstated many far-right accounts that were suspended for spreading falsehoods.
This has gone so far that the European Union last month issued a preliminary finding that X “deceived users” and has become a hub for spreading misinformation.
At the same time, Musk has much more openly espoused his right-wing views and clearly taken the side of the GOP in the upcoming election.
Taken together, this is a troubling mix.
Now there are concerns that X’s artificial intelligence (AI) assistant, “Grok,” is also providing the platform’s users with incorrect information affecting the presidential race.
“Within hours of President Joe Biden stepping away from his presidential candidacy on July 21, 2024, false information on ballot deadlines produced by Grok was shared on multiple social media platforms,” said the secretaries of state from five states — Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Washington, Michigan and New Mexico — in a letter to Musk.
Grok had falsely claimed that the ballot deadline for nine states had already passed, and the secretaries of state note that this resulted in millions of users seeing this incorrect information.
Acknowledging that inaccuracies can be expected when using any AI product, they argue that this makes it especially important to get information about the election right.
As a solution, the secretaries of state suggest that X should direct election-related questions of its users to CanIVote.org, which is a nonpartisan resource from professional election administrators of both major parties.
Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s secretary of state, is also investigating whether a political action committee (PAC) that Musk supports is violating state laws related to the collection of voter information.
According to reporting from CNBC, the PAC’s website falsely claims that it will help Americans register to vote.
The news outlet found that, while that is true for people who live in non-competitive states, it is different for those entering the ZIP code of a swing state, such as Michigan. In that case, their information is collected and they are not directed to a place where they can register.
After the article was published, America PAC apparently made some changes. However, it is unclear if they address the problem.
“Every citizen should know exactly how their personal information is being used by PACs, especially if an entity is claiming it will help people register to vote in Michigan or any other state,” a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of State said in a statement provided to news outlets.
Of all of the country’s billionaires and “tech bros,” Musk could have the greatest impact on the election… not just because of his vast financial resources but also because he controls one of the world’s largest social media companies with no internal oversight.
And, as these two cases show, he apparently has no problem with straddling conventions and laws to help his preferred candidates.
