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The letter, spearheaded by #Minnesota #SecretaryOfState Steve Simon & signed by his counterparts Al Schmidt of #Pennsylvania, Steve Hobbs of #Washington, Jocelyn Benson of #Michigan & Maggie Toulouse Oliver of #NewMexico, urges #Musk to “immediately implement changes to #X’s #AI #SearchAssistant, #Grok, to ensure #voters have accurate #information in this critical #election year.”

W/in hrs of #POTUS #Biden’s announcement that he was suspending his campaign on July 21, “false information on #ballot deadlines produced by #Grok was shared on multiple #SocialMedia #platforms,” the secretaries wrote.

They cited a post from Grok that circulated after Biden stepped out of the race: “The ballot deadline has passed for several states for the 2024 election,” the post named 9 states: #Alabama, #Indiana, #Michigan, #Minnesota, #NewMexico, #Ohio, #Pennsylvania, #Texas & #Washington.

Had the deadlines passed in those states, MVP #Harris would not have been able to replace #Biden on the #ballot. But the #information was FALSE. In all 9 states, the ballot deadlines have not passed & …allow for changes to candidates.
…
#ElonMusk launched #Grok last yr as an “anti-#woke” #chatbot, professing to be frustrated by what he says is the a bias of #ChatGPT. In contrast to #AI tools built by #OpenAI, #Microsoft & #Google, which are trained to carefully navigate controversial topics,…

Secretaries of state are grappling w/an onslaught of #AI-driven election #misinformation, incl’g #deepfakes, ahead of the #2024election. Simon testified on the subject before the Senate Rules & Administration Cmte last yr.
Many of them are also still beating back the ramifications of widespread [by #Trump, #MAGA #Republicans &#ElonMusk] false #ConspiracyTheories that plagued the last presidential election.

The msgs from #Grok spurred public conversation about whether #Harris would be a legitimate candidate, even though she declared her candidacy well within state deadlines. …[It’s] the kind of #disinformation that helped fuel false beliefs that the 2020 election was stolen from #Trump.

Another version of Grok’s disinformation about ballot deadlines included one telling users that ballots for the coming presidential election were already “locked & loaded.” [wtf?]

…“It’s important that #SocialMedia companies, especially those w/ #global reach, correct mistakes of their own making — as in the case of the #Grok #AI #chatbot simply getting the rules wrong,” Simon added. “Speaking out now will hopefully reduce the risk that any social media company will decline or delay correction of its own mistakes between now & the November #election.”

#Grok is available only to #X Premium & Premium+ subscribers, but the #disinformation about #ballot deadlines was “shared repeatedly in multiple posts — reaching millions of people,” the letter read. Grok repeated #misinformation for more than a week until it was corrected on July 31.

Simon expressed disappointment in the way X initially responded. He said the response was “the equivalent of a shoulder shrug. Dismissive & detached.”

Simon reached out to his counterparts in all 9 states mentioned in the #Grok msgs, but only 4 others agreed to sign the letter. All the signatories are #Democrats, except for Schmidt of Pennsylvania, a Republican who is an appointee of Gov #JoshShapiro, a Democrat & a top candidate to be #Harris’s running mate.

#ElonMusk #ElectionInterference #law #X #disinformation #misinformation #FarRight #propaganda #SocialMedia #Moderation #AI

The secretaries noted that this year, #OpenAI partnered w/the National Association of Secretaries of State to give voters CORRECT #election information, & #ChatGPT has been programmed to direct users to CanIVote.org — a #nonpartisan resource from professional #election administrators of both major parties. #Grok has entered into no such partnerships.

“We urge #X to immediately adopt a policy of directing #Grok users to CanIVote.org when asked about elections in the US,” the letter concluded.
“This issue underlines the importance of checking w/trusted sources of #election information, such as your state or local election officials to get accurate information about the election process. We do hope that X is able to address the issue w/Grok reiterating this false information & hope that this can be prevented in the future,”Toulouse Oliver said.

#JocelynBenson confirmed her involvement in the letter-writing campaign…

Benson also confirmed that she had launched an investigation into a #ElonMusk-backed #PAC, called the America PAC, which is supporting #Trump…

Benson’s concern is the detailed #VoterInformation that the PAC collected from people living in #Michigan & other battleground states through a section of the website that says “register to vote.”

When users in #BattlegroundStates such as #Michigan click on the “register to vote” tab on America PAC’s website, they…[are prompted to submit detailed] personal information but are not given a form to complete #VoterRegistration…. users in states that are not considered politically competitive…enter their email address & Zip code but are then directed to a voter registration page for their state… acc/to CNBC.

#ElonMusk
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/02/elon-musk-pac-voter-data-trump-harris.html

Simon said #Musk’s #AI #chatbot cannot make the argument that it is simply facilitating different voices in the modern-day public square.
“This is a case where the owner of the public square (the #SocialMedia company itself) is the one who introduced & spread the bad information—& then delayed correcting its mistake after it knew that the information was false” he said.
#ElonMusk #ElectionInterference #law #X #disinformation #misinformation #FarRight #propaganda #Moderation #InternetManipulation