It is undisputable that Elon Musk is very interested in the politics of his country, the United States. Not only does he constantly position himself on Twitter, but he also interviews one of the candidates and states that he would love to work with him during his term. With all this, it is clear that Elon Musk is interested in Donald Trump winning the elections.
And here comes the problem: Elon Musk’s AI integrated on Twitter, Grok, has been spreading false information about Kamala Harris in the last months, creating one of the biggest deceptions of the campaign. Is it an AI mistake or a deliberate action?
A story that begins with Joe Biden’s resignation
Shortly after Joe Biden announced that he was resigning his candidacy for re-election, misinformation began to circulate on the Internet about the possibility of a new candidate assuming the presidency.
The screenshots claiming that it was not possible to add a new candidate to the ballots in nine states quickly spread on Twitter, accumulating millions of views.
Even the office of the Secretary of State of Minnesota began receiving fact-checking requests for these messages, which were completely false: the voting deadlines had not expired, so Kamala Harris had plenty of time to add her name to the ballots.
The source of misinformation was Grok, the Twitter chatbot. When users asked the artificial intelligence tool if there was still time to add a new candidate to the ballots, Grok gave the wrong answer.
Finding the source served as a test of how election officials and artificial intelligence companies will interact during the 2024 United States presidential elections amid fears that AI could confuse or distract voters.
This example has shown how AI, in this case Grok, can play a crucial role in elections, a dangerous and highly partisan role.
Grok, Elon Musk’s anti-woke AI
Remember that Elon Musk has described Grok as an anti-woke chatbot that often gives spicy and sarcastic responses. This philosophical belief puts Grok at a disadvantage in avoiding misinformation, as does another feature of the tool: Grok relies on the best tweets to craft its responses, which can affect its accuracy.
Grok requires a paid subscription, but it is integrated into Twitter at half the price, so it has the potential for widespread use.
