The US government’s A New AI Chatbot Retracts Its Rejection of Trump

When US President Donald Trump introduced what he described as a “damn good” AI chatbot, it immediately attracted criticism since it contradicted some of his divisive political assertions. But it stopped responding to certain political queries a day later.

“Hello, America. Whatever you need from government, start here,” reads the America.gov platform, which Trump launched on Tuesday in a bid to simplify access to government information and federal services. The chatbot soon began contradicting Trump on controversial subjects such as the 2020 presidential election, which he wrongly claims to have won, and the January 6, 2021, insurrection that saw a violent mob attacking 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 there had been widespread voter fraud in 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 promoted the chatbot’s responses about the election.

“Finally, a straight answer from someone in the Trump administration,” Senator Adam Schiff of California wrote on X on Tuesday, alongside a screenshot of the chatbot’s statement that former president Joe Biden had won the 2020 election. On Wednesday, however, the chatbot changed its tune when asked the same question. “I do not provide political commentary or analysis of past elections,” it said. Whether the Trump administration had changed the settings to stop the chatbot from refuting the president was unknown.

“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.

But on Wednesday, the chatbot persisted in refuting some of Trump’s other controversial assertions. The chatbot disagrees with Trump’s widely refuted assertion that former President Biden caused the “greatest inflation” in American history. “No. Official Bureau of Labor 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 new government platform is being launched at a time when increasing cyber disasters have sparked worries about the dangers of unregulated AI worldwide. Some tech CEOs have called for a slowdown for safety. Trump has rejected those worries as part of a plot to stifle competition with China and hinder US economic progress.