🎤 relAI fellow Valentin Hofmann was recently interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle, the largest and most widely recognized newspaper in San Francisco and Northern California.
As an expert on social biases in AI models, Valentin was asked to comment on the controversial AI chatbot of state Senator Scott Wiener, which targeted Supervisor Connie Chan, Wiener's opponent in the 2026 California congressional election. The chatbot was accused of producing racist and sexist responses of Hong Kong-born Chan, who is a non-native English speaker.
In the interview, Hofmann explained that chatbots like Wiener’s are trained on large-scale internet data, which often contains racist and offensive stereotypes related to accents and citizenship. After reviewing the chatbot’s responses, Hofmann suggested that the model likely inferred from biographical and other available information that Connie Chan speaks with an accent. He noted that, in a failed attempt at satire, the chatbot exploited this information.
Hofmann's research demonstrates that linguistic stereotypes, particularly bias related to dialect and accent, are difficult to eliminate from AI models because they are encoded in subtle ways, in contrast to more explicit forms of racial prejudice. He also commented on the difficulties of eliminating problematic behaviour in AI chatbots and on current approaches to addressing it.
👉Link to Interview: https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/pelosi-wiener-ai-chatbot-connie-chan-22378352.php
