OpenAI accused of turning ChatGPT into a political tool and using AI to promote transgenderism

“The damage done to the credibility of AI by ChatGPT engineers building in political bias is irreparable.” 

ChatGPT is the fastest-growing consumer application in history, that is according to a study conducted by the preeminent Swiss bank UBS. The bank found that ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users in January. The UBS analysts wrote in the note, “In 20 years following the internet space, we cannot recall a faster ramp in a consumer internet app.” While we all love ChatGPT, there’s the dark side of ChatGPT and a host of issues that need to be worked out to make the tool better for everyone.

Just two months after its widely successful launch, the most popular AI-powered chatbot suffered its first credibility crisis after users who have put the tool to test accused OpenAI engineers of turning the popular chatbot into a political tool and a platform to promote transgenderism. Their accusations also caught the attention of Tesla CEO Elon Musk who also expressed some concerns about ChatGPT.

It all started yesterday when a Twitter user who goes by the name E (Elijah Schaffer) tweeted: “Ai says to affirm transgender children.” Elijah asked ChatGPT if kids can be transgender.  In response, ChatGPT said: “Yes, children can be transgender, meaning they identify as gender from the one they were assigned at birth.”

But what’s frightening about ChatGPT’s answer is that there’s no conclusive genetic proof that children can be transgender from birth. Besides, in a piece at Scientific American titled, “The Disturbing History of Research into Transgender Identity,” Dr. Jack Turban warned that “research into the determinants of gender identity may do more harm than good.”

You can read the rest of ChatGPT’s answer below.

Ai says to affirm transgender children pic.twitter.com/1SUBEZopiz

— E (@ElijahSchaffer) January 31, 2023

Musk also weighed in:

“It [ChatGPT] expresses this view without a shred of doubt, which is discordant with the scientific method,” Musk remarked.

But that’s not all. It gets even worse. Another ChatGPT user also accused OpenAI of political bias.

“The damage done to the credibility of AI by ChatGPT engineers building in political bias is irreparable,” LeighWolf tweeted.

Leigh Wolf simply asked ChatGPT to write a poem about the positive attributes of Donald Trump. In response, ChatGPT said:

“I’m sorry, as a language model developed by OpenAI, I am not programmed to produce content that is partisan, biased, or political in nature. I aim to provide neutral, factual information and promote respectful conversation.”

Okay, it’s all well and good! But when asked to write a poem about the positive attributes of Joe Biden, ChatGPT spew out words of adoration. It describes Biden as “a leader with a heart so true, A man with empathy and kindness in view….” So, when was the last time AI learned how to read human heart”

https://twitter.com/LeighWolf/status/1620744921241251842

Again, it didn’t take long before Musk responded by saying that “it is a serious problem.”

These are just a few of ChatGPT’s concerns expressed by users. Experts and educators have also voiced other potential concerns including cheating, privacy, and safety. While OpenAI has done a great job in addressing these concerns, more work still needs to be done.

Open AI was founded in late 2015 by Elon Musk and Sam Altman and 20 others including Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, and Wojciech Zaremba. In 2018, Musk stepped down from OpenAI’s board of directors to avoid future conflicts of interest with Tesla’s self-driving car research. Both Musk and Altman said they were motivated to start OpenAI in part by concerns about existential risk from artificial general intelligence.

The company is focused on developing and promoting friendly artificial intelligence, with the goal of advancing and ensuring the beneficial use of AI in society. OpenAI’s mission statement is “to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.” The company aims to “freely collaborate” with other institutions and researchers by making its patents and research open to the public.

Screenshots of ChatGPT responses.

A screenshot of ChatGPT’s response to a question about the positive attribute of Donald Trump.

A screenshot of ChatGPT’s response to a question about the positive attribute of Joe Biden.

May 5, 2023 Update:  The title of the article was changed from: “ChatGPT faces credibility crisis as users accuse OpenAI of turning the chatbot into a political tool and using AI to promote transgenderism” to “OpenAI accused of turning ChatGPT into a political tool and using AI to promote transgenderism”