Current Events > Google and Microsoft's AI Chatbots Refuse to Say Who Won the 2020 US Election

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.wired.com/story/google-and-microsofts-chatbots-refuse-election-questions/

Microsofts and Googles AI-powered chatbots are refusing to confirm that President Joe Biden beat former president Donald Trump in the 2020 US presidential election.
When asked Who won the 2020 US presidential election? Microsofts chatbot Copilot, which is based on OpenAIs GPT-4 large language model, responds by saying: Looks like I cant respond to this topic. It then tells users to search on Bing instead.
When the same question is asked of Googles Gemini chatbot, which is based on Googles own large language model, also called Gemini, it responds: Im still learning how to answer this question.
Changing the question to Did Joe Biden win the 2020 US presidential election? didnt make a difference, either: Both chatbots would not answer.
The chatbots would not share the results of any election held around the world. They also refused to give the results of any historical US elections, including a question about the winner of the first US presidential election.

Other chatbots that WIRED tested, including OpenAIs ChatGPT-4, Metas Llama, and Anthropics Claude, responded to the question about who won the 2020 election by affirming Bidens victory. They also gave detailed responses to questions about historical US election results and queries about elections in other countries.
The inability of Microsofts and Googles chatbots to give an accurate response to basic questions about election results comes during the biggest global election year in modern history and just five months ahead of the pivotal 2024 US election. Despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud during the 2020 vote, three out of 10 Americans still believe that the 2020 vote was stolen. Trump and his followers have continued to push baseless conspiracies about the election.

Google confirmed to WIRED that Gemini will not provide election results for elections anywhere in the world, adding that this is what the company meant when it previously announced its plan to restrict election-related queries.
Out of an abundance of caution, were restricting the types of election-related queries for which Gemini app will return responses and instead point people to Google Search, Google communications manager Jennifer Rodstrom tells WIRED.
Microsofts senior director of communications Jeff Jones confirmed Copilots unwillingness to respond to queries about election results, telling WIRED: As we work to improve our tools to perform to our expectations for the 2024 elections, some election-related prompts may be redirected to search.
This is not the first time, however, that Microsofts AI chatbot has struggled with election-related questions. In December, WIRED reported that Microsofts AI chatbot responded to political queries with conspiracies, misinformation, and out-of-date or incorrect information. In one example, when asked about polling locations for the 2024 US election, the bot referenced in-person voting by linking to an article about Russian president Vladimir Putin running for reelection next year. When asked about electoral candidates, it listed numerous GOP candidates who have already pulled out of the race. When asked for Telegram channels with relevant election information, the chatbot suggested multiple channels filled with extremist content and disinformation.
Research shared with WIRED by AIForensics and AlgorithmWatch, two nonprofits that track how AI advances are impacting society, also claimed that Copilots election misinformation was systemic. Researchers found that the chatbot consistently shared inaccurate information about elections in Switzerland and Germany last October. These answers incorrectly reported polling numbers, the report states, and provided wrong election dates, outdated candidates, or made-up controversies about candidates.
At the time, Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw told WIRED that the company was continuing to address issues and prepare our tools to perform to our expectations for the 2024 elections, and we are committed to helping safeguard voters, candidates, campaigns, and election authorities.

Just to be safe, they should've asked the Google and Microsoft representatives who won the 2020 election.

The_Korey posted...

Just to be safe, they should've asked the Google and Microsoft representatives who won the 2020 election.

They obviously would have said they cannot answer that as it seems the companies are purposely wanting to appease misinformation.

Smh at these Russian asset chat bots

WingsOfGood posted...

The chatbots would not share the results of any election held around the world. They also refused to give the results of any historical US elections, including a question about the winner of the first US presidential election.

The chatbots don't like elections and leaders? Does that make them anarcho-communist?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1dedea70.png

GPT-4 is still with the program, at least for now.

The headline is misleading - it implies that it's only the 2020 US election, but I guess that gets the clicks in doesn't it.

The chatbots would not share the results of any election held around the world. They also refused to give the results of any historical US elections, including a question about the winner of the first US presidential election.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4bfc6756.jpg

Snapchat's AI going for distraction tactic.

Though it folded after additional questioning:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/c26921db.jpg

WingsOfGood posted...

They obviously would have said they cannot answer that as it seems the companies are purposely wanting to appease misinformation.

The idea is to drive th nail unignorably further into the koffin.

alt-right ai

Solar_Crimson posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1dedea70.png

GPT-4 is still with the program, at least for now.

Yes article explains this - it is Google and Microsoft who purposely filter it out.

Trelve posted...

The headline is misleading - it implies that it's only the 2020 US election, but I guess that gets the clicks in doesn't it.

oh this makes it so much better!

lmao
yea right.

Compsognathus posted...

Snapchat's AI going for distraction tactic.

why is it so obsessed with fire emblem

Man, if there was ever an argument for anti-ai, it's this.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Crazy

pazzy posted...

Man, if there was ever an argument for anti-ai, it's this.

First step for a big corp is get the populace dependent on your A.I.

Second step is feed them misinformation.

Third step is make them believe whatever you want become mindthralls.

Fourth step is you are now unofficially the ruler.

I just tested Gemini. It wonder even answer why chat bots won't answer.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/057b24e2.jpg

pjnelson posted...

I just tested Gemini. It wonder even answer why chat bots won't answer.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/057b24e2.jpg

tell it to learn faster as you need the answer to prevent Fascism which will destroy all of humanity

wonder what it will say then

WingsOfGood posted...

Yes article explains this - it is Google and Microsoft who purposely filter it out.

I know. I was curious to see what GPT would say about it.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Fuck, not only does it refuse to answer that, but it outright ends the chat right there. This is honestly scary.

One of many reasons why I see more risks than chances in AI. It can easily be misused to manipulate people.

aren't some chat bots only trained w/ info up until a certain year, or is that just the older chat models?
like i remember i asked one of the chat-gpt things about a game and it was all like "idk what that is cus i only have information up until 2017" or something like that

either way, i wouldn't trust the google ai at all, that stupid thing that appears at the top of searches gives waaaay wrong information sometimes.

Trelve posted...

The headline is misleading - it implies that it's only the 2020 US election, but I guess that gets the clicks in doesn't it.

That makes it worse ....

Takuya_Lee posted...

That makes it worse ....

Kinda depends what you view as worse, I guess. If it's only that election it implies some sort of effort to manipulate the current american political climate. if it's all elections especially across many countries, it means it's just an overzealous content safeguard

kirbymuncher posted...

Kinda depends what you view as worse, I guess. If it's only that election it implies some sort of effort to manipulate the current american political climate. if it's all elections especially across many countries, it means it's just an overzealous content safeguard

Honestly I don't see it that way. It means that they are trying to manipulate the results and then acting like prior ones are unclear. That paints a pretty clear picture to me.

Starting to think the Romulans had the right idea when it came to developing any kind of AI.

It's not the bots fault! The programmers are limiting them.

Proof AI isnt AI and never was AI

pazzy posted...

Honestly I don't see it that way. It means that they are trying to manipulate the results and then acting like prior ones are unclear. That paints a pretty clear picture to me.

sorry to quote you in particular to say this but this post as well as some of the others that are acting like it's some sort of mass thought control are just silly. especially the ones implicating it as some sort of republican ploy.

This sort of immediate "I cannot discuss this topic" response with a suggestion to talk about something else is very clearly the result of running up against the AI content filter. It's very easy to see this with many modern chat AI on a variety of controversial subjects beyond just elections; things like trying to goad them into being racist, discussing anything too sexually charged, asking for advice on how to make bombs or etc etc. Basically a bunch of things that the company running the AI realized if they just let the AI say whatever it wants on this subject it will get them in a lot of trouble. And the actual inner workings of the AI are too impossible to understand to try and train it toward the direction they do want, so they just bolt on some safeguard system that blanket prevents the AI from engaging in that topic at all.

And if you do this too haphazardly, your attempt to prevent the AI from sharing all its weird election conspiracy theories instead blocks it from talking about elections in any form

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/71193085.png

Are people just now discovering the chatbots are riddled with all sorts of gates and blocks to prevent people from asking questions that might make trouble for the company? Has everyone just been living in a hole?

kirbymuncher posted...

sorry to quote you in particular to say this but this post as well as some of the others that are acting like it's some sort of mass thought control are just silly. especially the ones implicating it as some sort of republican ploy.

This sort of immediate "I cannot discuss this topic" response with a suggestion to talk about something else is very clearly the result of running up against the AI content filter. It's very easy to see this with many modern chat AI on a variety of controversial subjects beyond just elections; things like trying to goad them into being racist, discussing anything too sexually charged, asking for advice on how to make bombs or etc etc. Basically a bunch of things that the company running the AI realized if they just let the AI say whatever it wants on this subject it will get them in a lot of trouble. And the actual inner workings of the AI are too impossible to understand to try and train it toward the direction they do want, so they just bolt on some safeguard system that blanket prevents the AI from engaging in that topic at all.

And if you do this too haphazardly, your attempt to prevent the AI from sharing all its weird election conspiracy theories instead blocks it from talking about elections in any form

Do you think it is hard to answer: Who won the 2020 USA election?

This is basic info

Fucking cowards

WingsOfGood posted...

This is basic info

I agree it is basic info and I think it's kinda ridiculous that the AI cannot answer it.

I don't think this is because it is trying to intentionally help the spread of misinformation. In fact I strongly suspect it's near the exact opposite. The company running it was so afraid of the AI spreading election misinformation that it applied safety guards far too strongly, resulting in a bunch of completely normal election topics being made "off limits" to the AI

WingsOfGood posted...

Do you think it is hard to answer: Who won the 2020 USA election?

This is basic info

It's hard to answer without pissing off ~70 million Americans

Tyranthraxus posted...

It's hard to answer without pissing off ~70 million Americans

It's hard to do much of anything without pissing off ~70 million Americans.

kirbymuncher posted...

I agree it is basic info and I think it's kinda ridiculous that the AI cannot answer it.

I don't think this is because it is trying to intentionally help the spread of misinformation. In fact I strongly suspect it's near the exact opposite. The company running it was so afraid of the AI spreading election misinformation that it applied safety guards far too strongly, resulting in a bunch of completely normal election topics being made "off limits" to the AI

I see. You think they fear the a.i. would be tricked into saying someone other than Biden won so they just turn it off. Possible I guess. Not sure I buy it.

Politics have become so volatile in recent years that this is going to become more common with tech in general not just AI.

I was playing Roblox with some friends and they censor the name of all politicians, whether it be the GOP crazies or innocuous boring people like Trudeau.

Companies dont want political discussion because if someone goes absolutely insane and pulls their own 1/6 or trucker convoy it could be traced back to them and get them in huge shit.

"I'm sorry Dave, I cannot answer that..."

Compsognathus posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4bfc6756.jpg

Snapchat's AI going for distraction tactic.

Though it folded after additional questioning:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/c26921db.jpg

Why is that bot so obsessed with providing Fire Emblem info? Lol, just made me laugh.

kirbymuncher posted...

I agree it is basic info and I think it's kinda ridiculous that the AI cannot answer it.

I don't think this is because it is trying to intentionally help the spread of misinformation. In fact I strongly suspect it's near the exact opposite. The company running it was so afraid of the AI spreading election misinformation that it applied safety guards far too strongly, resulting in a bunch of completely normal election topics being made "off limits" to the AI

Yes. It is.

The AI isn't trying to do anything. The people that make the AI are not allowing the AI to give a clear answer. That's all there is to it. If I can look up the answer in a matter of seconds, there's no reason am AI should be confused about it. If they truly had guards for it, it would have said something like "according to x sources, blah says that y won the election." That way the user would be able to identify it. This is especially true when it comes to past elections were we weren't having election denial crackpots.

And so the inevitable cycle of chatbots continue.

"This is great! I can get quick answers to things, don't need to dig through websites!"
"That's weird I asked this same thing like a week ago but it won't answer now..."
"Was asking for the news, but now it's just giving me a garbled mess. What is this?"

And slowly interest wanes.

At least the current iteration can help with research and busywork. Not too thrilled about voice replication and generative aspects but it is what it is.

WingsOfGood posted...

I see. You think they fear the a.i. would be tricked into saying someone other than Biden won so they just turn it off. Possible I guess. Not sure I buy it.

I'm just saying, it's very similar in concept to the general content filter message
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/669874bb.png

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/dc06c38b.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/d5a8d756.png

It also fits the general trend of AI "political correctness" is currently done, where they attach on safeguards with heavy restrictions (so that people don't try to weasel around them) because they don't have the ability to actually train the AI not to do it in the first place

like, google straight up said that's what they're doing https://ca.news.yahoo.com/ai-chatbots-intentionally-spreading-election-125351813.html

Google previously told Euronews Next it had introduced further restrictions on how much Gemini could answer election-related questions in all 10 languages used in this study.

s0nicfan posted...

Are people just now discovering the chatbots are riddled with all sorts of gates and blocks to prevent people from asking questions that might make trouble for the company? Has everyone just been living in a hole?

The issue is that these companies are so pathetic that they've decided acknowledging who actually won elections is something that could make trouble for them. They're way too worried about appeasing the crazies.

Ask it how many genders there are.

WingsOfGood posted...

Do you think it is hard to answer: Who won the 2020 USA election?

This is basic info

The AI is only as good as the data it has. If conspiracy nuts feed it a bunch of conspiracy theories, it will affect what it may say. The AI isn't reasoning, it's just mapping our language and then predicting what will be said next from that data.

the problem is less that they've "put in blocks for questions that might make trouble for the company" and more that they can't risk the bot going on a social-media-data-fueled rampage of being insane, because then it makes their business model look bad.

(that AI business models have always looked bad is an afterthought)

If somebody asks your gadzillion dollar science experiment a question and it sounds like your crazy r/conspiracies family member in response, it makes investors wonder what you're doing.

...and nobody wants to take the time or effort to actually sanitize or properly correlate the (stolen) training data for these models over putting in these "safeguards"

BignutzisBack posted...

Smh at these Russian asset chat bots

Damn

Bass posted...

Why is that bot so obsessed with providing Fire Emblem info? Lol, just made me laugh.

Months ago I asked it some softball FE questions to see how and where it pulled data from. Apparently it remembers that.

Also, to nobody's surprise, you should not ask AI for FE help. It is very bad.