Elon Musk, X and AI: Another reason to fight back against election misinformation

If the "Happening Now" slogan on X's login page were a question, the latest answer would be: Election misinformation.

Ever since Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022, it's been in a swift downward spiral that's left the platform's reputation in shreds. Musk reinstated the accounts of people like Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones; let hate speech proliferate; verified any user willing to pay for a badge; fired half of the company's employees, including its engineers; got rid of the iconic blue bird to rebrand with a nondescript black X; and shed users and credibility quicker than a wet dog shakes off water.

Musk says millions of users have returned. Credibility, perhaps not so much. "Trustworthy" and "accurate" aren't words we would use to describe much of what's posted on X these days.

Now the platform has been accused of spreading election misinformation produced by its AI chatbot, Grok, and we won't be surprised if more such accusations come to light. Elections officials across the country have been warning about misinformation and disinformation spreading like wildfire this election season. And in a letter sent Monday to Musk, five secretaries of state asked him to fix Grok and ensure the information it provides to voters is factual, not misleading.

"As tens of millions of voters in the U.S. seek basic information about voting in this major election year, X has the responsibility to ensure all voters using your platform have access to guidance that reflects true and accurate information about their constitutional right to vote," states the letter from secretaries of state in Minnesota, Michigan, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Washington.

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Within hours after President Joe Biden quit his reelection campaign last month, false information about ballot deadlines, produced by Grok, was shared on social media and reached millions of people, the letter said. (Grok is only available to X's premium users, but the information was copied and shared on multiple platforms.) The information stated, incorrectly, that Vice President Kamala Harris could not appear on the ballot in a number of states because she had missed their filing deadlines.

"Grok continued to repeat this false information for more than a week until it was corrected on July 31, 2024," the letter reads.

We hope other secretaries of state are keeping a similar keen eye out for misinformation, wherever it's shared — on X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads and any other platforms. Interest in the November election is high, and that puts millions of voters, who often get their news and information on these platforms, at risk for seeing inaccuracies, misstatements and outright fabrications.

People have a duty to vet information, of course. But social media executives have a civic duty too, we think, to weed out bad information when it crops up.

Bad information includes "hallucinations" by AI, which can be surprisingly common: Researchers have found that AI chatbots make up wrong information 3% to 27% of the time.

As for Grok, it doesn't help that the AI model was described when it debuted as “designed to answer questions with a bit of wit and has a rebellious streak." Witty answers are great. But witty is no substitute for accurate.

Most Americans — 52% in a Pew poll — are already skeptical about the role of AI in daily life. Keeping AI-generated misinformation in check would help dispel the skepticism.

We're not fans of how Musk upended Twitter and turned it into a shell of its former self as X. As for the hallucination by Grok, the irony is that Musk is among those tech executives who have warned about the potential dangers of unchecked AI.

If Musk is serious about his mission for X to become, as the letter reminded him, "by far the most accurate source of information about the world," then he should take a cue from those election officials: Have Grok programmed to direct users to nonpartisan resources with voting and election information, like CanIVote.org, created by the National Association of Secretaries of State.

Don't wait on Musk to do his job, though.. Watching out for election misinformation is a job all of us can take on, to help safeguard our voting rights and democracy.

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