US Government investigating Chat GPT for publishing false information

The bombshell news was uncovered by the Washington Post and confirmed by CNN this week.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a section of the US Government designed to enforce consumer protection, has written to Open AI seeking extensive records regarding public data, inaccurate information and “risk of harm to consumers.”

The investigation is set to further the debate regarding generative AI’s threat to jobs, national security, democracy and life itself, after UN chief Antonio Guterres said last month that AI “represents an "existential threat to humanity on a par with the risk of nuclear war.

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"Alarm bells over the latest form of artificial intelligence - generative AI - are deafening," Mr Guterres said.

In a 20-page investigative demand, the FTC asked OpenAI to respond to requests ranging from how it obtains information it uses to train its language models as well as its “capacity to generate statements about real individuals that are false, misleading, or disparaging.”

The move comes on the back of an investigation by EPIC the Irish Emigration Museum in Dublin, which showed that AI views Irish people as ugly leprechauns.

By prompting the world’s most used AI generator to show an ‘Irish man’, EPIC uncovered results which were consistently outdated, disturbing and derogatory.

“We hope to inspire people to look beyond stereotypes wherever they encounter them and create meaningful conversations about the pitfalls of AI,” said Aileesh Carew, CEO of EPIC.

AI takes data from across the internet and creates what it ‘thinks’ is the most accurate representation of its prompt.

In reality, fabrication and disinformation in generative AI models are a well-established phenomena. This fabrication of reality distorts human beliefs, which cannot be easily rectified.

UN boss Mr Guterres said the UN was considering setting up a new “global watchdog” agency on artificial intelligence, along the lines of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"New technology is moving at warp speed," Mr Guterres told reporters. "And so are the threats that come with it.

"The proliferation of hate and lies in the digital space is causing grave global harm – now,” Guterres added.