A chatbot spread falsehood about WA elections. The secretary of state wants it fixed.

Election officials in several states, including Washington, urged Elon Musk on Aug. 5, 2024 to make changes to Grok, the AI assistant on his social media platform X, formerly Twitter, after it provided wrong information on deadlines for candidates seeking a spot on ballots in their states. (Washington State Standard)

On the eve of the state’s primary, Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs warned voters to be wary of “dubious” election material, expressing concern that “a deluge of manipulated and false information may be inserted into social media from foreign actors and other sources.”

As artificial intelligence gets cheaper and easier to use by those with malicious intentions, the “rest of us must be careful to verify what we see before we take it to heart,” he said in a statement Monday.

While Hobbs’ comments came with Washington voters casting ballots in the Aug. 6 primary, they were aimed at elections in general as this is a year when the nation is choosing a new president.

Hobbs spoke out shortly after he and four other secretaries of state called on Elon Musk in an open letter to “immediately implement changes” to the AI search assistant Grok on Musk’s social media platform X, citing its generating of wrong information that ballot deadlines in Washington and eight other states had passed.

It happened July 21, shortly after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid, and led to suggestions that Kamala Harris would be unable to get on the November ballot in those states. 

The letter notes that the false information was “captured and shared repeatedly in multiple posts” until getting corrected July 31.

In fact, no deadlines had passed and rules in each state allow for changes of candidates for president and vice president. In Washington, the procedural deadline set out in state law is later this month.

“As tens of millions of voters in the U.S. seek basic information about voting in this major election year, X has the responsibility to ensure all voters using your platform have access to guidance that reflects true and accurate information about their constitutional right to vote,” reads the letter signed by Hobbs and the secretaries of state of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and New Mexico. 

In his separate statement, Hobbs said, “The owners of social media platforms must take responsibility for safeguarding their audiences against the spread of false information, and this includes stopping their own AI mechanisms from generating it.”

Musk’s sharing on X, formerly Twitter, of a fake ad featuring a manipulated recording of Harris is another example of why voters must be on alert for faked material on social media, Hobbs added. The Associated Press reported the person who posted the ad originally noted it was a parody but Musk didn’t when he shared it.

“It signals to the rest of us that other materials allowed there may not be trustworthy,” Hobbs said of the platform 

Since the 2020 election, election officials in Washington and across the country have had to up their defenses against misinformation created with increasingly sophisticated software tools and spread across social media platforms.

In the letter, the state officials urge Musk to direct Grok users with election-related inquiries to CanIVote.org which is run through the National Association of Secretaries of State. Hobbs recommends his office’s website as a resource for Washington-related election data and materials.

In 2023, state lawmakers passed legislation sought by Hobbs to set rules on the use of deepfakes in campaigns including requiring disclosure on any manipulated videos and giving candidates targeted by undisclosed deepfakes a right to sue for damages.

“These bad actors can and will sow distrust with our local elections,” he said. “If something you see raises questions about your access to a fair and trustworthy election here in Washington, please visit a legitimate elections office and learn the truth.”