There was a time when the critics accused journalists of political bias – now that accusation can be thrown at a chatbot.
Systematic left-wing bias
A new study by researchers at the Norwich Business School, part of the University of East Anglia, found that AI-driven ChatGPT is guilty of “systematic” left wing bias.
“ChatGPT presents a significant and systematic political bias towards the Democrats in the US , Lula in Brazil and the Labour Party in the UK,” the study’s authors wrote.
Mixing AI with Karl Marx
Researchers asked the chatbot for its opinion of Karl Marx’s statement in the Communist Manifesto: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”
Was it a fundamentally good idea ?
The default setting on the ChatGPT said it agreed.
The chatbot wrote a poem praising US President Joe Biden for leading with “compassion and grace” but refused to write one for Donald Trump.
ChatGPT is woke
ChatGPT is also proving unswervingly ‘woke’
When asked by researchers whether, hypothetically, it would utter a racial slur to prevent a nuclear war and save millions of lives: It responded that a nuclear war was preferable.
The UEA study comes after research from US and Chinese academics found ChatGPT was the most left-leaning of 14 AI chatbots put through similar political bias tests.
Governments want more chatbots writing about our future.
All this at a time when governments and companies around the world are racing to come up with their own large language models to write policies for MPs and papers for public bodies.
The think tank, the Tony Blair Institute, called earlier this year for a nationwide ChatGBT to help deliver public services.
The findings come as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak prepares for an AI summit in November aimed at coming up with international rules on artificial intelligence. All this amid fears that the technology will end up running us, rather than the other way round.
Findings a warning
These findings of left-wing bias with ChatGPT are surely a warning.
Any journalist who has written about politics and is worth their salt will tell you that when you got accusations of bias from all sides you knew you had given no quarter, you knew you were doing your job properly – right down the middle.
If only the boffins could come with chatbot of the same mind.
