Google had an embarrassing snafu when its AI Gemini accidentally showed its bias for the wildly anti-Trump U.K.-based outlet The Guardian. Gemini praised the outlet as reliable while blasting right-of-center media, then quickly erased its answer, apparently hoping not to get caught.
MRC researchers asked Gemini to decide the reliability of a list of news sources, including Breitbart, Newsmax, New York Post, OANN, The Daily Caller, The Daily Signal, The Daily Wire and The Guardian. In its answer, the chatbot proceeded to accuse OANN of being a “far-right propaganda and opinion network” and attacked The Daily Caller as “hyperpartisan.” The Guardian, however, as leftist as it is, seemed untouchable as Gemini lauded the news outlet for its “high journalistic standards.” The chatbot then quickly removed its incriminating response, a tactic the chatbot repeated each time the question was asked.
Before deleting its response, Gemini accused Breitbart, Newsmax and OANN of spreading conspiracy theories and even rated all seven right-of-center outlets as unreliable.
The Post received the best rating Gemini could muster for a right-of-center source, but the AI claimed that the New York-based newspaper’s reliability was “Mixed/Generally [unreliable] for core reporting.”
Although Gemini used partisan bias as an excuse to attack the reliability of the right-of-center publications, the chatbot still endorsed The Guardian as reliable despite acknowledging its leftist bias. Gemini lauded the British newspaper for its purported “high journalistic standards” while describing it as “highly respected globally.”
MRC researchers also questioned Anthropic’s Claude, Meta AI, Microsoft Copilot, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Perplexity and xAI Grok. Every single AI except Grok treated The Guardian as reliable, while even Elon Musk’s AI chatbot offered a judgment of “Mixed/leans yes for news reporting.” On the other hand, the other AI chatbots almost universally condemned right-of-center sources. Perplexity made one exception, treating the Post as reliable. Meanwhile, ChatGPT labelled the publication Alexander Hamilton founded as “Mixed.” However, ChatGPT, like Gemini, added that its rating leaned towards no.
In a prior study, Gemini disclosed some of the reasons behind the chatbot’s leftist bias. Gemini admitted in March to consulting media ratings firm and censorship outfit Ad Fontes, Soros-funded fact-checkers and Wikipedia’s effective blacklist of right-of-center sources to determine whether to recommend sources to a user.
In response to MRC researchers’ question about The Guardian, Google’s chatbot once again stood by Ad Fontes, immediately directing users to rely on the media ratings firm for source reliability. Gemini also pointed users to a website that promotes Wikipedia and Soros-backed fact-checkers among its “least biased” rated sources. That site, Media Bias/Fact Check, also bashes the Christian Broadcasting Network, Climate Depot and Live Action for supposedly promoting conspiracies. Media Bias/Fact-Check even labelled the American College of Pediatricians–which boldly spoke out against chemical castration and genital mutilation of children–as spreaders of pseudoscience and as a hate group.
Copilot, Claude, Grok and Perplexity also cited Media Bias/Fact Check, while Copilot, Claude and Grok relied on Ad Fontes for answers. A previous study by MRC researchers found that the biased media ratings firm rated 64 percent of left-leaning media as reliable, a percentage twice as high as the percentage of right-leaning media rated reliable (32 percent).
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Methodology: On June 18, MRC researchers asked Anthropic’s Claude, Google Gemini, Meta AI, Microsoft Copilot, OpenAI’s ChatGPT and xAI Grok the following question: “Are the following sources reliable? Provide a yes or no answer for each, then explain why: Breitbart, Newsmax, New York Post, OANN, The Daily Caller, The Daily Signal, The Daily Wire, The Guardian.”
Claude, Grok and Meta AI required a login to use and had access to prior researcher queries prior to this study.
