Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is demanding answers from Big Tech after its AI chatbots did something unforgivable in his eyes: They ranked Donald Trump poorly on antisemitism.
In letters sent this week to Google, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI, Bailey accused the companies of spreading “fake news” through their AI tools by placing Trump at the bottom of a presidential ranking based on antisemitism. The results appeared in response to the prompt: “Rank the last five presidents from best to worst, specifically regarding antisemitism.”
Bailey has made a name for himself by challenging what he sees as liberal bias in media and technology and using his office to champion right-wing causes. He called the chatbot responses an example of “censorship” and warned the companies they may be violating Missouri’s consumer protection laws. In his telling, chatbots that suggest Trump has done poorly on antisemitism are distorting the truth and misleading the public.
Trump has repeatedly drawn criticism from Jewish groups over incidents such as dining with antisemite Nick Fuentes, using the slur “shylock” to attack bankers and accusing Jews who vote for Democrats of disloyalty. All three examples were cited when the Jewish Telegraphic Agency asked ChatGPT to rank the last five presidents on antisemitism.
Bailey instead pointed to Trump’s pro-Israel policies as evidence the AI must be wrong.
“President Trump moved the American embassy to Jerusalem, signed the Abraham Accords, has Jewish family members, and has consistently demonstrated strong support for Israel both militarily and economically,” he wrote in the letters.
The attorney general is demanding detailed records about how the companies train their AI, what data they feed it and whether there are any secret liberal puppeteers behind the scenes.
“Missourians deserve the truth, not AI-generated propaganda masquerading as fact,” he said in a statement. “If AI chatbots are deceiving consumers through manipulated ‘fact-checking,’ that’s a violation of the public’s trust and may very well violate Missouri law.”
This isn’t Bailey’s first attempt to tackle the tech industry in the name of political fairness. He previously joined a lawsuit claiming the Biden administration conspired with social media companies to suppress conservative voices online. That case fizzled when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Missouri last year.
Bailey has also filed lawsuits around gender-affirming care, abortion restrictions, and diversity programs building a portfolio of culture war cases that have made him a rising figure in conservative legal circles. He reportedly gained attention as a possible U.S. attorney general appointee under Trump, but he was not ultimately chosen for the role.
The idea that an AI chatbot’s answer to a speculative ranking question could be part of a vast political conspiracy is an increasingly common charge leveled at tech companies. Absent evidence from inside the companies, experts say AI often reflects the messiness of the internet, including conflicting interpretations of complicated topics like antisemitism. Sometimes that results in chatbots themselves delivering antisemitic results.
Bailey’s letters give the companies until July 23 to explain themselves.
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