In a joint effort, five secretaries of state have written a letter to Elon Musk, urging him to address the issue of misinformation being shared by Grok, the AI search assistant on his social media platform X. The officials from Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Mexico, and Washington expressed concerns about Grok allegedly spreading false information about the 2024 presidential election.

The secretaries highlighted in their letter that shortly after President Joe Biden withdrew his reelection bid against former President Donald Trump, Grok misled users by incorrectly stating that the ballot deadlines had passed in several states. According to the letter, this false claim included key battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, and New Mexico, along with Alabama, Indiana, Ohio, Texas, and Washington.

Contrary to Grok's claim, the secretaries emphasized that the ballot deadlines had not passed in these states, and upcoming dates would still allow for changes to the candidates listed on the ballot for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States.

The letter, which was signed by Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon and co-signed by Pennsylvania's Al Schmidt, Washington's Steve Hobbs, Michigan's Jocelyn Benson, and New Mexico's Maggie Toulouse Oliver, expressed concern that this false information had spread on multiple social media platforms. They noted that Grok is only available to X Premium and Premium+ subscribers and carries a disclaimer asking users to verify its answers. However, the false information had reached millions of people and was shared repeatedly before being corrected on July 31, 2024.

The secretaries of state also urged Elon Musk and the X platform to follow the example set by OpenAI's ChatGPT, which directs users to the nonpartisan site CanIVote.org when asked about U.S. elections. They believe that adopting a similar approach could help prevent the dissemination of misinformation.

It is important to note that Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, had previously endorsed former President Donald Trump before Joe Biden dropped out of the race and backed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee.

CNBC has reached out to Elon Musk for comment on the letter. Additionally, it is worth mentioning that Musk has created and donated to a political action committee called America PAC, which is currently being investigated by Jocelyn Benson's office for its voter data collection efforts in key swing states.

In response to the secretaries' concerns, Musk is now under pressure to address the misinformation circulating through Grok and take necessary steps to ensure the accuracy of information provided by X's AI search assistant.