X’s Grok chatbot now directs election queries to Vote.gov

Misinformation is all over the internet, including the — at times — chaos that is X (formerly Twitter). AI bots have a habit of adding to it. Now, with barely two months left until the presidential election, an update to Grok, X’s premium chatbot, could curve some of it (after being called out for said election misinformation). Grok will now direct anyone with an election-related query to Vote.org, a non-partisan website operated through a partnership between the US government, the US Election Assistance Commission and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The catalyst for change came on July 21, only hours after President Biden announced his decision not to seek reelection, when Grok falsely posted that the ballot deadline had passed in nine states, implying officials couldn’t change the democratic candidate. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon had staff attempt to contact X about the error, to which they received the response, “Busy now, please check back later.” Grok continued to share the response for ten days.

Secretary Simon joined the Michigan, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Washington Secretaries of State — all states wrongly named by Grok — in writing an open letter to X and xAI CEO Elon Musk calling for Grok to direct any election queries to CanIVote.org, another non-partisan resource. They claimed Grok’s response, though only available to X Premium and Premium+ subscribers, reached “millions of people” due to screenshots and shares.

The letter also shamed Grok and xAI a bit further, explaining how its competitor, OpenAI, had teamed up with the National Association of Secretaries of State to provide accurate, up-to-date election information. It also mentioned that OpenAI’s bot, ChatGPT, was already programmed to direct users to CanIVote.org if it received questions about the US election.

The update is a start. The bot has also created misleading images of the top party candidates. “We appreciate X’s action to improve their platform and hope they continue to make improvements that will ensure their users have access to accurate information from trusted sources in this critical election year,” the Secretaries of State said in response to the update. “Elections are a team effort, and we need and welcome any partners who are committed to ensuring free, fair, secure, and accurate elections.”