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New Mexico’s top elections official, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, was among five secretaries of state to sign on to a bipartisan letter requesting the social media site X, once known as Twitter, modify its chatbot over complaints it was distributing false election information to subscribers. That information was then “captured and shared repeatedly in multiple posts - reaching millions of people,” the letter stated.
The software program, Grok, was cited for writing posts misstating ballot deadlines in several states immediately following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the Democratic Party nomination process in July. Grok alleged that deadlines had passed in New Mexico and eight other states, rendering a change to the presidential ticket illegitimate.
“This is false,” the letter stated. “In all nine states the opposite is true: The ballots are not closed, and upcoming ballot deadlines would allow for changes to candidates listed on the ballot for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States.”
The program continued to disseminate false information for a week before it was corrected, the secretaries wrote.
The letter, addressed to X owner Elon Musk, was first reported by the Washington Post. The lead author is Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon and it is co-signed by secretaries Jocelyn Benson of Michigan, Steve Hobbs of Washington, Al Schmidt of Pennsylvania and Toulouse Oliver. All but Schmidt are Democrats; Schmidt is a Republican.
As a solution, the authors recommended Grok be programmed, as its competitor ChatGPT was, to direct the public to the nonpartisan CanIVote.org for questions regarding elections.
Toulouse Oliver’s office has stepped up efforts this year to combat the use of generative software to produce fake images, audio and video to help spread false information to undermine confidence in elections or discourage participation.
“We're all trying to grapple with this new technology and and the new level of perceived reality that it brings to mis- and disinformation,” Toulouse Oliver told the Bulletin in an interview in May.
Neither Musk nor X have responded publicly to the secretaries’ letter.
