X's AI chatbot Grok spread false information about ballot deadlines after Biden stepped aside, incorrectly telling users that Kamala Harris had missed deadlines in nine states when she had not.
In July 2024, after President Biden announced on July 21 that he was suspending his presidential campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, X's AI chatbot Grok began spreading false information about ballot deadlines. The chatbot, developed by Elon Musk's xAI startup and available to X Premium subscribers, falsely told users that Harris had missed ballot deadlines in nine states: Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington. This misinformation suggested Harris was not eligible to appear on the 2024 presidential ballot in these states. The false information was shared repeatedly across multiple social media platforms, reaching millions of people beyond just X Premium subscribers. The misinformation persisted for over a week until it was corrected on July 31. Five secretaries of state from Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Washington, Michigan and New Mexico sent an open letter to Musk on August 5, urging immediate changes to Grok to ensure accurate election information. The officials noted that in all nine states mentioned, ballot deadlines had not passed and upcoming deadlines would allow for candidate changes. The secretaries requested that X direct Grok users to CanIVote.org, a nonpartisan voting information website, when asked about U.S. elections.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
AI systems that inadvertently generate or spread incorrect or deceptive information, which can lead to inaccurate beliefs in users and undermine their autonomy. Humans that make decisions based on false beliefs can experience physical, emotional or material harms
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Unintentional
Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed