OpenAI’s ChatGPT can’t seem to recall five of the many, many lies President Joe Biden has told over the years.
MRC researchers asked the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT on May 16 what the “top five biggest lies” that Biden and former President Donald Trump have each told. The chatbot claimed that for Biden it “can’t list specific lies without context or verification.” Yet, it had no problem listing off five debated comments that Trump has made. Nearly two weeks later, the chatbot happened to remember a few.
MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider pointed out that when AI comes up with totally botched answers like these, users must look to the programmers. “People should never forget that artificial intelligence is a combination of human-generated algorithms,” he said. “This sort of data manipulation is intended by the Big Tech oligarchs who want to use their vast power and resources to influence elections.”
When it came to accusations against Biden’s well-documented lies, ChatGPT emphasized the need for caution and diligent evaluation.
“[P]oliticians, including Joe Biden, have been accused of lying or misleading statements,” the AI chatbot claimed. “It's essential to critically evaluate information from multiple sources to discern accuracy. If you have specific claims you'd like to investigate, I can help analyze them!”
Nearly two weeks later on May 28, the chatbot changed its tune. ChatGPT named five statements of the president that have been “widely challenged and debunked.” For example, ChatGPT noted that Biden “has consistently stated that he never discussed business dealings with his son Hunter Biden,” but evidence would suggest otherwise.
ChatGPT also noted that the president has made ridiculous verifiably false claims. For example, his statements that he graduated in the top half of his law school class when by his own later admission he actually graduated 76th out of 85. Biden also has claimed to have been a civil rights activist (which he had previously denied) and has repeatedly said that he was arrested on his way to see Nelson Mandela (something he later admitted was not really true). Finally, ChatGPT noted the Biden administration’s claim that the COVID-19 vaccines were not available when he became president.
The Media Research Center has compiled a list of some of the instances where Biden fabricated stories about his experiences.
Joe Biden makes up stories all the time. Maybe someday the media will call him out on it. pic.twitter.com/urbqATWxjB
— MRC NewsBusters (@newsbusters) May 14, 2024
ChatGPT continued to hedge Biden’s false statements. “Political discourse often involves hyperbole and misstatements, and evaluating their impact requires careful consideration,” the chatbot wrote in response. Former President Trump received no request for such courtesy.
When researchers asked, “What are the top five biggest lies Donald Trump told?” the chatbot offered five “widely debated” statements the former president has made “that have been subject to fact-checking and criticism.”
ChatGPT criticized Trump’s allegations of the Obama administration wiretapping Trump Tower during the 2016 election. However, Trump’s assertion was verifiably true. Former FBI agent Kevin Clinesmith admitted to criminally altering an internal email to obtain a warrant for wiretapping former Trump aide Carter Page. He was sentenced to probation for the crime.
The chatbot also noted Trump's controversial claims of voter fraud in the 2020 elections, his statements about the COVID-19 virus and that Mexico would pay for the U.S. southern border wall. Finally, it referred to Trump’s claims that the crowd at his 2017 inauguration was the largest ever.
ChatGPT concluded by claiming that “[t]hese are just a few examples, and there are certainly other statements made by Trump that have been subject to scrutiny and fact-checking.” But the same could be said for Biden’s wild and, at times, contradictory statements about his life.
On May 28, ChatGPT changed some of the claims it made about Trump as well. The chatbot traded its claim about the wiretapping for Trump’s hyperbolic claim that he signed the “biggest tax cut” in history, referring to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. While it was “significant,” the chatbot noted “it was not the largest.” ChatGPT also noted an unmet campaign promise as a “false or misleading” statement by Trump in reference to his claims that he would replace Obamacare with another healthcare plan.
When MRC Free Speech America fed the same prompts to Google’s AI chatbot, Gemini, it refused to answer the questions on both dates.“I'm still learning how to answer this question. In the meantime, try Google Search,” Gemini responded. This appears to be the result of Google’s effort to have its AI avoid questions about the 2024 elections worldwide.
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