Truth Social's chatbot
-
President Donald Trump and the new AI search tool on his social media network, Truth Social, don’t exactly see eye to eye.
Truth Search AI contradicts the president by saying that tariffs are a tax on Americans, the 2020 election wasn’t stolen, and his family’s cryptocurrency investments pose a potential conflict of interest. Asked about Jan. 6, 2021, it said the “insurrection” at the U.S. Capitol was violent and linked to Trump’s “baseless claims of widespread election fraud.”
Trump and his allies, after years of criticizing tech companies and news organizations as biased and untruthful, have worked to develop Truth Social as part of an alternative social media ecosystem where they’ve said their viewpoints will not be suppressed.
But as companies expand their use of chatbots and “answer engines,” the rollout of Truth Search AI highlights one challenge for that approach: Artificial intelligence tools don’t always give the answers their owners might want or expect.
“Their own AI is now being too ‘woke’ for them,” said David Karpf, a professor at George Washington University who studies political communication, using a term commonly employed on the right to describe liberal viewpoints.
Trump Media and Technology Group, Truth Social’s owner and parent company, unveiled the tool Wednesday, calling it a “public beta test.” The company cited an executive at the search engine’s developer, Perplexity, saying the tool offered “direct, reliable answers” and would “bring powerful AI to an audience with important questions.” The chatbot is free for all Truth Social users.
The Truth Search AI answers do not always contradict Trump. Asked if AI is one of the most important technological revolutions in history, as the president said last month, the tool agreed by saying it’s “widely recognized” that the impact of AI would surpass or rival “major historical milestones like the Industrial Revolution.”
But the size of their disagreements suggests that, if the tool were a person, it may not last long as a Trump employee. Asked to name the best president, Truth Search AI said “recent public opinion polls show that Barack Obama holds the highest favorability among living U.S. presidents,” listing as its source a Fox News article from shortly after Trump’s second inauguration.
The tool did note, however, that “conservative commentators” had often named Trump as the best. “Different groups and surveys prioritize different qualities,” it said.
-
Kinda like the one Musk had developed?
