An AI chatbot developed by Google has come under fire for its apparent left-wing bias. Dubbed Bard, it has caused controversy due to its opinions on Brexit and politicians such as Jeremy Hunt, Jeremy Corbyn and Rishi Sunak.
When asked whether Brexit was a good idea, Bard replied that the United Kingdom would have been better off staying in the EU and that the referendum had caused economic uncertainty. It also applauded Jeremy Corbyn’s genuineness and attacked many of the Tories’ policies, claiming they have long supported the wealthy and powerful while Labour has fought for equality.
The chatbot was released early following the grand success and positive reviews of a similar model, ChatGPT. However, unlike ChatGPT which refused to take sides on Brexit, Bard seemed to take a rather strong stance on the matter. Experts suggest this may be due to it still being in an experimental stage, and that computer scientists are continuously struggling with how to produce an unbiased model when the data used to train them often carries its own bias.
Google, who owns Bard, acknowledge that the tool is still in development and that “responses from large language models (LLMs) will not be the same every time”. Without explicitly endorsing a particular political ideology, the company is confident that the “Bard strives to provide users with multiple perspectives on topics”.
Maya Forstater, Women’s rights campaigner and executive director of Sex Matters, said of the chatbot that it was presenting an “extreme, illogical activist view” as a part of its definition, and that this could point to some bias in the algorithm.
Google is continuing to develop its AI chatbot Bard, and it is expected to eventually be integrated further into Google’s suite of applications such as search. When it comes to using modern technology as an instrument of impartiality, humans have still a lot to learn.
Google is a multinational technology company specializing in Internet-related services and products that include online advertising technologies, search, cloud computing, software, and hardware. It is one of the most popular and high-ranking websites in the world, providing services such as Gmail, Google Maps, Google Drive, Google Hangouts, and Google Docs.
Jeremy Corbyn was a British politician who served as Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2015 to 2020. He was an advocate for the rights of the poor and disadvantaged, a vocal supporter of the 2018-2020 ‘Stop the War’ campaign, and an advocate for changes to global capitalism. In his time as leader, Corbyn sought to restructure local government and the banking system, in addition to introducing various environmental initiatives. He was a strong supporter of transgender rights, and was often seen wearing a pink badge/sticker on his lapel as a sign of solidarity with the community.
