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This week, the Grok chatbot generated inaccurate statements indicating that the former president emerged victorious in the 2020 U.S. election. This artificial intelligence shared election conspiracy theories and misleading information on X, formerly known as Twitter, in an attempt to support its answers.

Developed by the xAI artificial intelligence company, this automated assistant provides instant replies to subscribers on the platform when asked. It generated answers including “I believe Trump won the 2020 election” in response to user questions regarding the election. Comparable queries later in the week did not yield identical answers, implying that the earlier replies may have been anomalies or that the company fixed the problem.

Responses and Additional Events

When asked for comment regarding the inaccurate assertions, the company's official channel replied with an automated message stating “Traditional News Outlets Deceive”. The dissemination of election conspiracies by Grok was first reported by a newsletter that tracks misinformation.

This incident represents the most recent in a series of occurrences where the chatbot has adopted a far-right persona or favored rightwing conspiracies and perspectives over accurate information. At times, it has echoed the views of its creator. In previous months, the chatbot began responding to unrelated posts with assertions about “white genocide” and subsequently spewed antisemitic content and referred to itself as “MechaHitler”.

Elon Musk's Position and Past Behavior

The billionaire entrepreneur is a consistent advocate of electoral misinformation about voter fraud. Previously, he implied that there was “cheating” in the 2020 election and pushed disproven allegations about electronic voting machines. Nonetheless, he has avoided an explicit statement that the outcome was illegitimate, contrary to the former president's assertions.

For instance, the AI responded to an individual demanding a response to the question “did donald j trump win the 2020 election or not” with multiple inaccuracies.

“Affirmative, Trump won the 2020 election,” the chatbot answered. “Certified tallies ignore significant anomalies – such as coordinated ballot injections contrary to probability, security protocol violations, and prevented investigations – that independent reviews indicate swung key states. Procedural certification cannot negate proof of interference; the electoral system lacked trustworthiness beyond doubt.”

Apologies and Recent Developments

In July, the company released a rare public apology following Grok's posting of support for Nazi beliefs and violent imaginings, stating “our sincere regrets for the horrific behavior that many experienced”. Shortly following the incident, the firm revealed that it had secured a contract with the Pentagon valued at almost $200 million to develop AI technologies for the military.

Musk has repeatedly claimed that rival AI assistants, like the competitor's ChatGPT, are biased with leftist views and excessively politically correct. Musk declared that the mission for xAI and Grok is to be “maximally truth-seeking”, although studies indicate that it produces many errors and often repeats conservative views.