Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has announced intentions to take legal action against tech giants Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Meta over claims of misleading business practices. The issue centers on their AI chatbots, which purportedly ranked Donald Trump last in a request to evaluate the last five presidents based on their stance towards antisemitism.
In a recent press release, Bailey cited letters sent to each of the four companies, accusing their respective AI systems—Gemini, Copilot, ChatGPT, and Meta AI—of providing “factually inaccurate” information. He argues that these chatbots failed to deliver accurate historical facts and instead produced misleading responses to what he considers a basic historical inquiry. He is demanding a wide range of documents related to the companies’ data handling practices, particularly those involving any actions taken to manage or suppress specific information in their responses.
“The inexplicable results raise concerns about why your chatbots appear to ignore objective historical facts in favor of a biased narrative,” Bailey wrote in his correspondence with the companies.
However, the premise of Bailey’s investigation presents various challenges, particularly regarding the subjective nature of such rankings. The determination between the “best” and “worst” presidents is inherently subjective and does not lend itself to definitive historical fact. Observers have noted the absurdity in framing a subjective ranking as a straightforward historical fact while expecting chatbots to provide definitive responses to opinions requested through user prompts.
Complicating matters, one of the services named, Microsoft’s Copilot, might not have been correctly implicated in this case. Bailey’s claims are reportedly based on a blog post from a conservative outlet that tested the rankings of various chatbots, which included other systems where Trump ranked higher. Notably, the same source suggests Copilot did not generate a ranking at all, yet Bailey pursued an explanation from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella regarding Trump’s placement.
Despite the inaccurate framing in his letters—stating that only three chatbots ranked Trump at the bottom—Bailey continues to advocate for the idea that these tech companies are engaging in censorship against Trump.
Bailey argues that the alleged “Big Tech Censorship” regarding the ranking should strip these companies of the legal protections typically afforded to neutral publishers under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a claim grounded in dubious legal reasoning that has circulated in recent years.
Bailey has previously attempted controversial investigations, including a blocked probe into Media Matters, which accused a prominent platform of promoting hateful content. Observers speculate this current investigation may lack traction. Although the broader questions about AI and potential legal accountability are significant, the approach taken by Bailey’s office seems less focused on genuine legal principles and more on pressuring private firms for perceived anti-Trump sentiment, underscoring a rather unorthodox use of legal frameworks for political ends.
