{"id":601349,"date":"2023-12-15T15:43:33","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T12:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/how-microsofts-ai-chatbot-hallucinates-election-information\/"},"modified":"2023-12-15T15:43:33","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T12:43:33","slug":"how-microsofts-ai-chatbot-hallucinates-election-information","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-microsofts-ai-chatbot-hallucinates-election-information\/","title":{"rendered":"#How Microsoft\u2019s AI chatbot \u2018hallucinates\u2019 election information"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2d20b08949e\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2d20b08949e\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-microsofts-ai-chatbot-hallucinates-election-information\/#Microsofts_chatbot_attributed_false_information_to_sources\" >Microsoft\u2019s chatbot attributed false information to sources<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-main-content\">\n                            <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The upcoming year will be a busy one for democracy. Major elections will take place in the US, the EU, and Taiwan, among others. Just as the rollout of generative AI era is gathering pace in earnest \u2014 something some fear could prove detrimental to the democratic process. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the main concerns about generative AI is that it could be used for the malicious spread of disinformation, or that models can make up false statements presenting them as fact, so-called hallucinations. A study from two European NGOs has found that Microsoft\u2019s chatbot \u2014 Bing AI (running on OpenAI\u2019s GPT-4) \u2014 gave incorrect answers to one third of questions about elections in Germany and Switzerland.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The study was conducted by Algorithm Watch and AI Forensics. The organisations said they prompted the chatbot with questions relating to candidates, polling and voting information, as well as more open recommendation requests on who to vote for when concerned with specific subjects, such as the environment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOur research shows that malicious actors are not the only source of misinformation; <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a>-purpose chatbots can be just as threatening to the information ecosystem,\u201d commented Salvatore Romano, Senior Researcher at AI Forensics. \u201cMicrosoft should acknowledge this, and recognize that flagging the generative AI content made by others is not enough. Their tools, even when implicating trustworthy sources, produce incorrect information at scale.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Microsofts_chatbot_attributed_false_information_to_sources\"><\/span>Microsoft\u2019s chatbot attributed false information to sources<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the study errors included \u201cwrong election dates, outdated candidates, or even invented controversies concerning candidates.\u201d Moreover, the incorrect information was often attributed to a source that had the correct information on the topic. It also made up \u201cstories about candidates being involved in scandalous behaviour,\u201d also attributing the information to reputable sources. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"inarticle-wrapper latest channel-cta hs-embed-tnw\">\n<div id=\"hs-embed-tnw\" class=\"channel-cta-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"channel-cta-img\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/events.tnw\/hardfork-2018\/uploads\/visuals\/tnw-newsletter.png\"\/><\/div>\n<p><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/events.tnw\/hardfork-2018\/uploads\/visuals\/tnw-newsletter.png\"\/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<div class=\"channel-cta-input\">\n<p class=\"channel-cta-title\">The &lt;3 of EU tech<\/p>\n<p class=\"channel-cta-tagline\">The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol&#8217; founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It&#8217;s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At times, Microsoft\u2019s AI chatbot evaded answering questions it did not know the answers to. However, rather than not respond, often it simply made up an answer \u2014 including fabricating allegations about corruption.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The samples for the study were collected from 21 August 2023 to 2 October 2023. When the authors informed Microsoft of the results, the tech giant said it would look into fixing the matter. However, one month on, new samples yielded similar results.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Microsoft\u2019s press office was not available for a comment ahead of the publication of this article. However, a spokesperson for the company told the <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2023\/12\/15\/microsoft-copilot-bing-ai-hallucinations-elections\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wall Street Journal<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that Microsoft was \u201ccontinuing to address issues and prepare our tools to perform to our expectations for the 2024 elections.\u201d Meanwhile, they also urged users to <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ly their \u201cbest judgement\u201d while reviewing Microsoft AI chatbot results.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s time we discredit referring to these mistakes as \u2018hallucinations\u2019,\u201d said Riccardo Angius, Applied Math Lead and Researcher AI Forensics. \u201cOur research exposes the much more intricate and structural occurrence of misleading factual errors in general-purpose LLMs and chatbots.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can find the study in its entirety <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/algorithmwatch.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/AlgorithmWatch_AIForensics_Bing_Chat_Report.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">here<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span>\n                        <\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/news\/microsofts-ai-chatbot-hallucinates-election-information\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The upcoming year will be a busy one for democracy. Major elections will take place in the US, the EU, and Taiwan, among others. Just as the rollout of generative AI era is gathering pace in earnest \u2014 something some fear could prove detrimental to the democratic process. One of the main concerns about generative&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":601350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img-cdn.tnwcdn.com\/image\/tnw-blurple?filter_last=1&fit=1280,640&url=https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2023\/12\/Map-of-elections.jpg&signature=2a7baea0256e73008a1edb6df99b670c","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-601349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}