(C) Pennsylvania Capital-Star
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Pa. Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt has an eye on Elon Musk over election misinformation • Pennsylvania Capital-Star [1]
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Date: 2024-08-05 21:23:24+00:00
As misinformation about the U.S. election spreads across the internet, secretaries of state, including Pennsylvania’s Al Schmidt, are raising the alarm about two ways they say X owner Elon Musk may be contributing to the confusion.
Michigan’s Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is investigating a super PAC, America PAC, which Musk has said he created and donated to, according to CNBC. The investigation is to determine whether America PAC broke the law with how it advertised and collected data.
Musk has endorsed former President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, but said on X that “the key values of the PAC are supporting a meritocracy & individual freedom. Republicans are mostly, but not entirely, on the side of merit & freedom.”
The super PAC ran ads in swing states urging users to register to vote, CNBC reported. The ads link to a website with a button that says “register to vote.”
When the button is clicked, users who report living in states expected to have uncompetitive elections are directed to their state’s online voter registration tools. But users who enter a ZIP code in a swing state like Pennsylvania are then asked to enter detailed personal information, like birthdates and cell phone numbers, according to CNBC. They are never sent to their state’s official voter registration page.
A spokesperson for Schmidt said the department is aware of the concerns.
“The Department is aware of reporting that voters in certain states, including Pennsylvania, are being targeted by deceptive advertising relating to voter registration,” the spokesperson said in a statement to the Capital-Star. “The right to vote is precious, and it is unacceptable to deny voters accurate information about their voter application status.”
The department also said that America PAC never reached out to take advantage of the tools it offers nonprofits to help Pennsylvania voters register using the department’s’ Application Programming Interface (API).
“America PAC has not applied to participate in this program, and the Department is not aware of the entity taking any steps to submit electronic voter registration applications for processing.”
Asked if the department would take any formal or informal action against the super PAC, the spokesperson said, “the Department of State has specific powers under the Pennsylvania Election Code, which do not include the authority to prosecute criminal cases. Such matters are the responsibility of federal, state, or local law enforcement agencies.”
America PAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Monday, Schmidt, along with secretaries of state in Minnesota, Michigan, Washington and New Mexico, signed a letter (see below) warning Musk that a chatbot available to paying X subscribers was spreading election-related misinformation. That misinformation, they said, was then being spread by X’s users and reaching millions.
According to the letter, the AI chatbot Grok falsely claimed that the deadline had passed to change the ballot in nine states, including key swing states, following President Joe Biden’s exit from the race.
“This is false,” the secretaries of state wrote. “In all nine states the opposite is true: the ballots are not closed, and upcoming ballot deadlines would allow for changes to candidates listed on the ballot for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States.”
The secretaries urged Musk to take action to ensure Grok stopped spreading election-related misinformation.
“As you know, inaccuracies are to be expected for any AI products, especially chatbots based on large language models,” they wrote.
They also pointed to OpenAI, creators of one of the most popular AI chatbots, ChatGPT. OpenAI formed a partnership with the National Association of Secretaries of State to try to ensure election information is accurate and up to date.
X did not respond to questions from the Capital-Star.
Professor Matt Jordan is the head of the department of film and media studies at Pennsylvania State University, and directs the school’s news literacy initiative.
He warned that AI chatbots are still in their nascent period and are prone to what are often called “hallucinations,” which are, effectively when they make up answers to questions, but state them authoritatively, which appears to be what happened with Grok.
“If you need some specific information that is vital to your being able to vote, or vital to you finding a doctor or anything, readers should be very, very wary of AI because it’s not reliable,” Jordan said.
Similarly, Jordan advises Pennsylvanians not to rely on social media as a primary news source.
“Be very very skeptical of going to X for anything reliable.” Jordan said. “It is an entertainment site.”
Social media in general has been a breeding ground during past election cycles for viral misinformation, sometimes designed by bad actors to sway an electorate.
“I think because Pennsylvania is gonna be a crucial [state], especially on social media we’re gonna get a lot of PA-specific misinformation,” Jordan said.
He also advised Pennsylvanians who use social media against “sharing stuff that seems to be maybe too good to be true or seems maybe too outrageous to be true.”
Ari Lightman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, agrees. Often, he says, misinformation is either designed to get an immediate emotional response from viewers, or becomes viral because of it.
“Don’t act immediately,” Lightman urged social media users. “Don’t act based on emotion. Take some time to process it. Sit back from it before you send it out.”
Lightman noted that, often, misinformation is spread by unwitting or well-intentioned users, and not just bad actors.
“Once that information is out there, it just takes off like wildfire,” Lightman said. “And that becomes problematic.”
Pennsylvania voters can visit the department of state’s website, vote.pa.gov, or call their local election officials if they have questions about the upcoming election or their registration.
Pennsylvanians who have registered to vote can also check their status at
https://www.pavoterservices.pa.gov/pages/voterregistrationstatus.aspx
08.05.24 Secretaries Letter to X by PennCapitalStar on Scribd
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