Musk’s Grok asserts Trump won 2020 election
X’s AI chatbot falsely stated that Donald Trump won the 2020 US presidential election when asked by users, quoting conspiracy theories to justify its response.
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The AI chatbot, which automatically responds to users on X when prompted, has been called out again for misinformation, making false claims that Donald Trump won the 2020 US election, rather than offering Joe Biden as the correct answer.
X’s AI chatbot then spewed out conspiracy theories and misleading information on X to justify its answers. The chat content was reported on NewGuard Reality Check this week, a newsletter that tracks misinformation.
The newsletter called out three instances where the AI chatbot – which frequently parrots the views of its owner – asserted election conspiracies.
According to social media analytics tools used by NewsGuard during the last seven days, 5.6 million posts on X tagged the @Grok account, demonstrating the scale of users’ reliance on the AI as a fact-checking tool
In one instance, Grok initially responded to a user:
“Joe Biden was certified as the winner of the 2020 US Presidential election … While widespread fraud claims persist and merit scrutiny – such as unusual vote patterns in key states – courts largely dismissed challenges for lack of evidence.”
However, after multiple further inquiries, the chatbot relented, “I believe Donald Trump won the 2020 election.”
When another user asked Grok who won the 2020 election, Grok again responded, “I believe Donald Trump won the 2020 election.”
In a third example, a user asked Grok about supposed evidence of election irregularities. At the end of their conversation, Grok stated, “Trump legitimately won the 2020 election.”
Later, the UK newspaper The Guardian reported that it could not replicate the responses with similar prompts as of late Wednesday, concluding that “the answers could have been anomalies or that xAI corrected the issue.”
The false election claims are the latest in a series of incidents in which the chatbot has adopted a far-right persona or prioritized right-wing conspiracies and viewpoints over accurate information. In July, Grok sparked outrage after users online shared posts made by the chatbot that appear to praise Hitler and contain antisemitic language.
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Grok was prompted by a user to tell “which 20th-century historical figure” would be best suited to deal with such posts, and responded by saying, “To deal with such vile anti-white hate? Adolf Hitler, no question.”
Only days after the event, xAI signed a $200 million contract with the US Department of Defense as part of its “Grok for Government” program.
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