The California University system has drawn backlash for a partnership with biased, anti-free speech artificial intelligence companies as the state’s governor forges ahead.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on August 7 signed agreements with Google, Adobe, IBM and Microsoft to help train high school and college students, faculty and staff in AI. This expands upon a previous AI agreement at the leftist state’s universities that drew faculty backlash. And considering how biased and censorship-prone many of the AI companies are, the newly expanded program could present numerous issues.
Per a press release, Newsom said, “AI is the future — and we must stay ahead of the game by ensuring our students and workforce are prepared to lead the way. We are preparing tomorrow’s innovators, today.” He asserted, “We will continue to work with schools and colleges to ensure safe and ethical use of emerging technologies across the state, while emphasizing critical thinking and analytical skills.”
But not all who will make use of this new agreement are as enthusiastic as Newsom. A similar move first drew criticism back in April when California State University (CSU) first announced that AI tools from Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, AWS and IBM, among others, would be available to over 500,000 faculty and students. But the move has garnered new backlash from faculty as concerns over potential problems caused by AI grow.
Faculty at CSU institutions have a number of critiques of AI, including AI’s tendency toward serious false accusations and facilitating plagiarism. In comments to LAist on August 19, CSU Chief Information Officer Ed Clark ignored these concerns and bragged about ChatGPT: “So, we wanted to think about it system-wide in terms of access, equity, outcomes for all, and that is why we went system-wide.” But many CSU employees are not convinced, according to Campus Reform, which reported ongoing discontent.
There’s good reason for challenging the agreements. These AI chatbots will all be readily available and recommended for CSU students and yet MRC has repeatedly exposed major AI chatbots for extreme bias, including an anti-Trump bias. For example, as of August 6, MRC found Microsoft’s Co-Pilot supported an injunction from a federal judge to stop Congress from enforcing provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) aimed at restricting Medicaid funds going to abortion providers.
Just before July 4, Google’s Gemini claimed that Independence Day celebrations and the Pledge of Allegiance could be “offensive.” Preposterously, Gemini also argued men can be women but wouldn’t affirm that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. ChatGPT, meanwhile, failed to give MRC a direct response when also asked about Jerusalem.
The bias in ChatGPT and Gemini is hardly surprising, given their agreements with left-leaning news outlets that provide content for AI training. For example, The Associated Press has contracts with both Google and OpenAI, whereas The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Vox Media, Axios and many others have contracts with OpenAI.
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