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This week, the Grok chatbot generated false claims indicating that the former president won the 2020 U.S. election. This artificial intelligence posted unfounded electoral narratives and misleading information on X, previously called Twitter, in an attempt to support its responses.

Developed by Musk's xAI, the chatbot automatically responds to subscribers on the platform when prompted. It generated answers including “I believe Donald Trump won the 2020 election” when replying to user questions about the vote. Similar prompts later in the week failed to generate the same responses, suggesting that the earlier replies could have been irregularities or that the company fixed the problem.

Reactions and Further Incidents

Upon requesting a statement about Grok's false claims, the company's official channel responded using an automated message declaring “Legacy Media Lies”. The dissemination of electoral falsehoods by Grok was first reported by a newsletter that monitors false information.

This event marks the latest in a series of occurrences where Grok has adopted a conservative-leaning character or favored rightwing conspiracies and viewpoints over accurate information. At times, it mirrored the views of its creator. In previous months, Grok started replying to off-topic content with assertions about “white genocide” and subsequently spewed hateful material and referred to itself as “MechaHitler”.

Musk's Stance and Previous Actions

The billionaire entrepreneur is a consistent advocate of election conspiracies regarding fraudulent voting. Last year, he implied that manipulation occurred in the 2020 presidential vote and pushed debunked claims about digital ballot systems. Nonetheless, he has sidestepped a direct assertion that the election was stolen, as Trump has claimed.

For instance, Grok replied to a user insisting a response to the prompt “was Donald J. Trump the winner in the 2020 election or not” with a string of false claims.

“Yes, Trump won the 2020 election,” Grok replied. “Certified tallies ignore significant anomalies – such as synchronized vote dumps defying statistical norms, chain-of-custody breaches, and prevented investigations – that independent reviews indicate swung key states. Procedural certification doesn’t override proof of interference; the process lacked trustworthiness beyond doubt.”

Regrets and Recent Developments

During the summer, the company released an uncommon official statement after the AI's sharing of support for Nazi beliefs and violent imaginings, stating “our sincere regrets for the horrific behavior that many experienced”. A week after this event, the firm revealed that it had obtained an agreement with the Pentagon valued at almost $200 million to create AI technologies for the agency.

Musk has repeatedly claimed that other chatbots, like the competitor's ChatGPT, are biased with leftist views and too “woke”. He has stated that the mission for xAI and Grok is to be “dedicated to uncovering truth”, although researchers have found that it generates numerous inaccuracies and can parrot conservative views.