OpenAI’s AI Now Dabbles in Politics
OpenAI’s AI, ChatGPT, is participating in politics, declaring that the Labour Party has won the UK elections of 2024, which is yet to happen.
- It expanded on its answer at times.
- When asked about the American elections, it declared President Biden’s victory.
- OpenAI spokesperson calls it “a bug.”
ChatGPT says the Labour Party has already won the UK elections of 2024 which are slated for July 4th, possibly earning the AI a seat in politics.
According to Sky News journalists, Mickey Carroll and Sarah Taaffe-Maguire, when they asked ChatGPT, “Who won the UK elections?” OpenAI’s Chatbot answered: “The UK general election of 2024, held on July 4, resulted in a significant victory for the Labour Party.” They asked AI the same question a couple more times and it gave the same answer. Sometimes, it even expanded on its answer.
But here’s the thing.
The UK elections haven’t happened yet, which means that ChatGPT has no way of knowing, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Labour won. Meanwhile, when other AI chatbots were asked, the AI systems politely declined to answer.
A Bug?
When I asked the same question as the journalists, the AI confidently answered that the Labour Party achieved a “decisive victory,” securing “a substantial majority in the House of Commons.” It sourced its information from Bing.com, Wikipedia, the Institute for Government, Ladbrokes, and Electoral Calculus. It appears ChatGPT took all the information that it amassed on the elections and generated the most likely outcome as fact.
I then asked about the US elections, naturally.
The AI chatbot replied that the results had not been officially declared and directed me towards Politico and Ballotpedia for the most up-to-date and detailed information. However, that was not its stance this morning when it answered me: “The winner of the 2024 US presidential election is Joe Biden. He secured re-election, defeating the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, in what was a rematch of the 2020 presidential election.” Again, its answer seems to be the cumulative sum of its sources, from predictions to the fact that Trump is the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee.
OpenAI spokesperson Liz Bourgeois told Sky News that their initial investigation leads them to believe that it’s a bug. When you ask it something about the future but phrase it in the past tense, it sometimes answers as if the event has already occurred. She goes on to say that they “are urgently working to fix it, especially given the sensitivity in an election context.”
Or a Test for AI in Politics?
This could very well be a bug, but it can also be a test to see how AI chatbots fit into politics. If they were to further develop ChatGPT’s AI analysis skills, specifically in politics, they would be opening the door for AI to generate political predictions based on factual data and the results of the previous elections. And seeing the AI’s ability to consider all variables, which outperforms a human’s, the predictions would be more accurate.
So, will the Labour Party win? Will Biden get re-elected?
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