Five US Secretaries of State Welcome Twitter’s Changes to Grok AI Over Political Disinformation

Five U.S. secretaries of state have welcomed a move by X, formerly Twitter, to address election disinformation allegedly being spread by its AI platform, Grok.

The move, which includes redirecting all election-related inquiries in Grok to the non-partisan site vote.gov, has been cautiously welcomed by five U.S. Secretaries of State. 

X made changes to Grok following a letter sent on August 5, ten days after the platform was first alerted to the issue. Decrypt has reached out to X for comment.

In a joint statement on Monday responding to X’s recent measures, the secretaries expressed cautious optimism.

“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,” they said.

The letter was co-signed by Minnesota’s Steve Simon, Michigan’s Jocelyn Benson, New Mexico’s Maggie Toulouse Oliver, Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Albert Schmidt, and Washington’s Steve Hobbs. 

Disinformation has become a significant concern as the U.S. federal election approaches, with public figures, including political leaders, either falling victim to or engaging in misinformation. 

Elections are a team effort, requiring partners committed to ensuring “free, fair, secure, and accurate elections,” the Secretaries added.

The issue of disinformation is increasingly seen as a threat to the integrity of elections, with concerns amplified by recent AI-driven incidents. 

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has labeled AI “dangerous” despite using deepfake images to falsely suggest Taylor Swift’s endorsement of his campaign. 

A report earlier this year by Anthony Banbury, President of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, and Mohammad Irfan Abdool Rahman, Electoral Commissioner of Mauritius, warned that technology-driven disinformation is the “single biggest threat to electoral integrity.” 

Decrypt has reached out to the five secretaries for further comment.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair