X’s Grok2AI chatbot escalates problem of deepfakes ahead of US elections
Al Jazeera
It is up to social media companies to monitor and remove deepfake images in connection with political content.
In August, X, the social media company once known as Twitter, publicly released Grok 2, the latest iteration of its AI chatbot. With limited guardrails, Grok has been responsible for pushing misinformation about elections and allowing users to make life-like artificial intelligence-generated images – otherwise known as deepfakes – of elected officials in ethically questionable positions.
The social media giant has started to rectify some of its problems. After election officials in Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Washington wrote to X head Elon Musk alleging that the chatbot produced false information about state ballot deadlines, X now points users to Vote.gov for election-related questions.
But when it comes to deepfakes, that’s a different story. Users are still able to make deepfake images of politicians doing questionable and, in some cases, illegal activities.
Just this week, Al Jazeera was able to make lifelike images that show Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz snorting cocaine, Vice President Kamala Harris brandishing a knife at a grocery store, and former President Donald Trump shaking hands with white nationalists on the White House lawn.
In the weeks prior, filmmakers The Dor Brothers made short clips using Grok-generated deepfake images showing officials including Harris, Trump and former President Barack Obama robbing a grocery store, which circulated on social media. The Dor Brothers did not respond to a request for comment.
