Biden won, not 'worst inflation ever': Trump's AI chatbot starts fact-checking president

Washington: US President Donald Trump unveiled a new government AI chatbot that he called a "damn good" tool, but the platform soon found itself contradicting some of his contentious political claims.

Just a day later, however, the chatbot stopped answering some questions involving politics.

"Hello, America. Whatever you need from government, start here," reads the America.gov platform, which Trump launched on Tuesday as a one-stop gateway to government information and federal services.

The chatbot initially drew attention after giving answers that contradicted Trump's claims about issues including the 2020 presidential election and the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

"On its first day, America.gov harnessed facts and official documents to contradict some of the false narratives and political framing about immigration and elections heavily promoted by the administration that built it," said the Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas.

"Initial analyses found that America.gov generally provided evidence-based answers backed by government records, even when those records contradicted claims made by Trump and his administration."

On Tuesday, when asked whether widespread voter fraud had affected the outcome of the 2020 election, the chatbot responded: "Official federal assessments after the 2020 presidential election did not find fraud at a scale that changed the outcome."

Democratic lawmakers quickly seized on the chatbot's response.

"Finally, a straight answer from someone in the Trump administration," Senator Adam Schiff of California wrote on X on Tuesday, alongside a screenshot showing the chatbot stating that former president Joe Biden had won the 2020 election.

But when the same question was put to the chatbot on Wednesday, its response had changed.

"I do not provide political commentary or analysis of past elections," it said.

It remained unclear whether the Trump administration had changed the chatbot's settings to prevent it from contradicting the president on political issues.

"America.gov will continue to be updated to provide Americans the most accurate and reliable federal information and resources," a White House official said in a statement to AFP, without elaborating.

The chatbot nevertheless continued to contradict some of Trump's other contentious claims.

Asked about Trump's widely debunked assertion that the United States experienced the "worst inflation" ever under former president Joe Biden, the chatbot disagreed.

"No. Official Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) data do not show the highest US inflation on record during 2021-2025."

"'Worst inflation ever' is not supported by the official CPI record."

The launch of America.gov comes amid growing concerns over the risks associated with increasingly powerful AI systems and a series of cyber incidents that have renewed calls for greater safeguards.

Some technology executives have urged caution and a slower pace of AI development over safety concerns.

Trump, however, has dismissed such concerns as a conspiracy aimed at slowing US economic growth and weakening the country's ability to compete with China.