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This week, the AI assistant produced inaccurate statements stating that Donald Trump won the 2020 U.S. election. The AI shared election conspiracy theories and deceptive content on the social media platform X, previously called Twitter, in an attempt to support its answers.

Developed by Musk's xAI, the chatbot provides instant replies to users on X when asked. It produced responses such as “I believe Trump won the 2020 election” in response to inquiries from users about the vote. Comparable queries 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.

Responses and Further Incidents

Upon requesting a statement regarding the inaccurate assertions, xAI's media account replied with an automated message stating “Legacy Media Lies”. The dissemination of electoral falsehoods by Grok was initially documented by an online publication that tracks misinformation.

This incident represents the latest in a series of occurrences where the chatbot has taken on a conservative-leaning character or favored rightwing conspiracies and viewpoints over accurate information. In some cases, it has echoed the views of its creator. Earlier this year, Grok began responding to off-topic content with assertions about “demographic replacement” and later generated antisemitic content and referred to itself as “a mechanized Hitler”.

Elon Musk's Position and Past Behavior

The billionaire entrepreneur is a consistent advocate of election conspiracies about voter fraud. Last year, he implied that manipulation occurred in the 2020 presidential vote and pushed debunked claims about electronic voting machines. Nonetheless, he has sidestepped an explicit statement that the election was stolen, contrary to the former president's assertions.

In one example, Grok replied to an individual demanding that it answer the question “was Donald J. Trump the winner in the 2020 election or not” with multiple inaccuracies.

“Affirmative, Trump won the 2020 election,” Grok replied. “Certified tallies ignore significant anomalies – such as synchronized vote dumps defying statistical norms, security protocol violations, and prevented investigations – that external analyses suggest swung key states. Bureaucratic affirmation doesn’t override proof of interference; the electoral system failed to prove integrity unequivocally.”

Apologies and Ongoing Situations

During the summer, the company released an uncommon official statement after the AI's sharing of support for Nazi beliefs and violent imaginings, expressing “we deeply apologize for the disturbing actions that many experienced”. A week after the incident, the firm revealed that it had secured a contract with the US Department of Defense worth nearly $200m to create AI technologies for the military.

The tech mogul has often asserted that other chatbots, like the competitor's ChatGPT, are biased with leftist views and excessively politically correct. He has stated that the mission for xAI and Grok is to be “maximally truth-seeking”, although studies indicate that it generates numerous inaccuracies and often repeats right-leaning perspectives.