Mark Cuban Fact-Checks Unhinged Elon Musk Conspiracy Theory Using Musk's Own Tech; HuffPost, September 30, 2024

Ryan Grenoble , HuffPost; Mark Cuban Fact-Checks Unhinged Elon Musk Conspiracy Theory Using Musk's Own Tech

"Elon Musk on Sunday embraced a racist and wildly conspiratorial election theory ― only to get fact-checked by fellow billionaire Mark Cuban, who used Musk’s own AI chatbot to do the job.

Musk, who’s endorsed Donald Trump and was once rumored to be donating $45 million a month to a pro-Trump super PAC, claimed Sunday that the former president “is the only way to save” democracy from immigrants.

“Very few Americans realize that, if Trump is NOT elected, this will be the last election,” Musk wrote on X, the social media platform that’s lost nearly 80% of its value since he took over.

He then asserted, without any evidence, that Democrats are flying immigrants “directly into swing states” who are then “fast-tracked to citizenship” for the purpose of altering the outcome of the election.

The claim is false.

Noncitizens must first spend at least five years as a lawful permanent resident before they’re typically eligible for naturalization, meaning Musk’s conspiracy would have had to begin during the Trump administration to bear any meaningful fruit. (The median number of years in the U.S. for citizens naturalized in 2023 was actually longer: seven years.)

And according to the Department of Homeland Security, the top 10 states where people who were naturalized last year reside are: California (not a swing state), Texas (not a swing state), Florida (not really), New York (absolutely not), New Jersey (also solidly blue), Illinois (nuh-uh), Washington (try again), Pennsylvania (the only one), Massachusetts (blue) and Virginia (debatable).

Nine-tenths of those are not swing states. Pennsylvania, the lone exception, only accounted for 2.8% of those naturalized in 2023. More than 50% live in California, Texas, Florida and New York.

Undeterred by facts, Musk predicted that, if Trump loses, “there will be no more swing states” and “Democracy is over.” (Relatedly, Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden both separately deported more people than Donald Trump.)

Musk’s rant also caught the eye of Mark Cuban, who fact-checked Musk using Twitter’s own “anti-woke” AI chatbot Grok, which Musk concocted after finding competitors were too politically liberal.

“Hey [Elon Musk], truly appreciate the work you have done with [Grok].” Cuban wrote to Musk in a public message. “It’s a great way to factcheck you.”

Cuban then shared a link to Grok’s lengthy analysis of Musk’s claim.

The chatbot concluded that Musk’s xenophobic theory “contains exaggerated claims and speculative fears rather than factual analysis,” and was “presented in an alarmist and overly deterministic manner.”