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Grok — not to be confused with thehomophonic AI startup Groqthat this morning elevate over $ 600 million — has been spreading false data about Vice President Kamala Harris on X , the societal internet formerly know as Twitter .
That ’s harmonize to anopen letterpenned by five writing table of country and addressed to Tesla , SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk , which claims that X ’s AI - power chatbot wrong suggested Harris is n’t eligible to appear on some 2024 U.S. presidential ballots .
The missive , spearhead by Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon and signed by his counterparts Al Schmidt of Pennsylvania , Steve Hobbs of Washington , Jocelyn Benson of Michigan and Maggie Toulouse Oliver of New Mexico , urge on Musk to “ immediately implement changes to X ’s AI search supporter , Grok , to ensure voters have accurate information in this critical election year . ”
On July 21 , within hr of President Joe Biden ’s announcement that he would set aside his presidential tender , Grok begin answering questions about Harris ’ eligibility with the deceptive claim that the ballot deadlines had travel by in nine State : Alabama , Indiana , Michigan , Minnesota , New Mexico , Ohio , Pennsylvania , Texas and Washington .
The balloting deadlines had n’t , in fact , passed . But Grok ’s misinformation spread far and wide , reaching millions of users on X and beyond before it was discipline on July 31 , per the letter .
Musk has make out under flak for how X has handle moderating political topics — and for stoking the flames himself .
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information suggests that X hassignificantlyfewer moderation faculty than other platforms , partly aconsequenceof Musk cut an estimated 80 % of the caller ’s locomotive engineer dedicated to trust and safety . to begin with this year , Xpromisedto demonstrate a new reliance and safety inwardness of excellence in Austin , Texas . But the society terminate up lease far fewer moderators for the center than initially projected , accordingto Bloomberg .
Musk has n’t precisely been a poster child for fact - checking .
The CEO last Fridayreshareda picture , seemingly against his platform ’s own guidelines , that used AI to clone Harris ’ voice make her appear to take on to being a “ diversity hire ” and enjoin that she “ does n’t know the first matter about running the country . ” The billionaire thenposted“civil war is inevitable ” in response to riots across the U.K. trigger off by the execution of three girl last week and the scatter of misinformation about the culprit , prompting the U.K. ’s prime minister , Keir Starmer , to issue a sharp condemnation .
