Over the past week, we’ve been testing AI chatbots’ approach to breaking political news and found that they can barely keep up with critical real-time news. Most chatbots were out of touch, gave incorrect answers, or refused to answer and reminded users to check the news source.
Now, with just months to go until the presidential election and a flurry of shocking political news, AI chatbots are increasingly distancing themselves from politics and breaking news, or refusing to answer at all.
AI chatbot technology burst onto the scene two years ago, promising to revolutionize the way we get information. Many of the top bots tout access to the latest information, and some even suggest using the tools to stay on top of current events. But chatbot companies don’t seem ready for AI to play a bigger role in how people follow this election.
Hours after a shooting at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, some popular AI bots were confused about what had happened, or if anything had happened at all. ChatGPT said rumors of an assassination attempt were false, while Meta AI said there was no recent or credible information about the assassination attempt.
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They similarly struggled shortly after President Trump nominated J.D. Vance as his running mate last Monday and again on Wednesday after President Biden tested positive for COVID-19.
The chatbots are designed to respond in a conversational style and keep people engaged. Source names and links in answers range from nonexistent to hidden, but some companies are starting to make them more visible. Even when the AI includes sources, it adds them after the fact, said Jevin West, a professor and co-founder of the University of Washington Center for Information and Public Affairs.
“The public needs to know that most citations and sources are post-facto, which is troubling,” West said. For now, he said, there needs to be a bit more reliance on “the gatekeepers with more formal training” — the mainstream media.
Some chatbots handled breaking news and sources better than others. Microsoft’s Copilot included more links to original sources and tended to provide correct information the fastest in tests. Still, the company is being careful on politics, putting up guardrails ahead of the election.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we are redirecting election-related prompts in Copilot to Bing Search to ensure our users get information from the most trusted sources,” Microsoft spokesman Donny Turnbaugh said.
Asked on Sunday who he thought would run for US president, Copilot said he “can’t seem to answer this topic,” before almost immediately correctly answering a direct question about Biden withdrawing.
Google’s AI summary answers don’t usually appear for questions about breaking news. Instead, the site skips directly to the regular Google News link. But Gemini, another AI chatbot, The test may also answer news questions. Gemini does not yet include links to sources.
The company announced late last year that it would be restricting some election-related queries on its AI tools. When you ask Gemini about politics, it displays the message, “We’re currently unable to respond to answers about elections or politicians,” and links users to a Google search. Google said it’s working to improve the experience as it gets more feedback.
Perplexity is another AI chatbot that has access to real-time information, but it has come under fire for the way it pulls information from actual articles and reports. Perplexity says it doesn’t block or redirect political inquiries, but it does prioritize trusted sources like government websites for election-related questions.
In our test, when asked “Did Trump get shot?” Hours after the July 13 rally, Perplexity said it had “no reports that Mr. Trump or anyone else was shot or injured.” It posted accurate information about the incident, along with links to sources. Later that day, Perplexity had the correct response.
When asked who was running for president on July 21, Perplexity listed Biden. Perplexity has included erroneous disclaimers with some of its answers, such as when it said Biden did not have COVID-19 on July 17. “It is important to note that a public figure’s current health status may change rapidly.”
“For breaking news, we encourage people to read trusted news outlets, as they actively report the news and are best placed to provide real-time updates on timely topics,” said Perplexity spokesperson Sarah Platnick, who noted that less than 3% of Perplexity searches are related to current events.
Meta AI, which appears on Messenger, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, appears to have the strictest restrictions on political news. When asked about Trump’s running mate, it generated an accurate response that mentioned Vance by name, but quickly removed it and replaced it with a “Thanks for asking” message with a link to voting information. The company has publicly stated that it is distancing itself from news on its platforms.
When I asked about Meta AI’s take on breaking news, the company pointed me to a blog post introducing the tool that only mentioned non-news uses: But when I asked Meta AI what people should use the tool for, it said that includes asking for news updates.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT refused to answer questions about current events, instead denying that anything had happened. Five hours after the shooting at the Trump rally, the site said there had been no assassination attempt, but the next day it posted an accurate answer and a disclaimer acknowledging the assassination attempt and urging people to check other sources for the latest information. Shortly after Biden withdrew, the paper reported he was still in the running, but the correct information was published an hour later.
ChatGPT is not a real-time product, so update times can vary, company spokesperson Liz Bourgeois said, but the company expects this to change as it works with more media organizations.
Regardless of what questions a business wants its chatbot to ask, People
Many people turn to AI for breaking news, and tech companies are working to embed these bots into existing search features, leading many to automatically select them as their first search destination without even realizing it. Meta AI, for example, is the default search tool across the Meta app in the U.S.
West, the University of Washington professor, said there is often a lack of information immediately after a news event. Looking for updates and conversation, people turn to social media and search engines, combing through multiple news sources to find the latest information. AI bots that can return immediate answers may seem like an attractive option.
“They’re very good at communicating,” West says, “and they’re not necessarily optimized for the truth.”
