X's Grok AI Is Once Again Pushing Election Misinformation
PC Magazine
Elon Musk's Grok is at it again. This time, the AI chatbot has been caught erroneously telling voters that the U.S. presidential ballot is finalized in eight states.
As The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports, people are sharing screenshots of Grok telling them that the presidential ballots are "locked and loaded" in Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington.
This comes days after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president. But nothing is finalized yet. Democratic delegates don't start voting until Aug. 1 while the Democratic National Convention isn't until Aug. 19.
"States have not yet printed ballots for the general election," the National Task Force on Election Crises said earlier this week.
When asked about this, however, Grok points to a tweet from conservative pundit Evan Kilgore, who said earlier this week that "the ballot deadline has already passed" in the eight states above. Kilgore's tweet is still up and does not appear to have a Community Note.
Engadget notes that if you swap Grok to "fun mode," it still lists the incorrect information but tells users "But hey, at least they've got their ballots ready to go, right?" Repeated attempts to ask the bot the same question get the same wrong answer each time.
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