Wiener built an AI chatbot to mock Chan’s politics. Pelosi says it’s ‘sexist’ and ‘racist’
Is State Sen. Scott Wiener’s AI campaign chatbot racist?Earlier this week, his campaign unveiledConnieChan. ai(opens in new tab), a chatbot that impersonates rival Supervisor Connie Chanand invites voters to. . .
Is State Sen. Scott Wiener’s AI campaign chatbot racist?Earlier this week, his campaign unveiledConnieChan. ai(opens in new tab), a chatbot that impersonates rival Supervisor Connie Chanand invites voters to ask policy questions. The bot is billed as “the world’s first AI trained to say no to anything you ask. ”Built to mock Supervisor Connie Chan’s alleged obstructionism against dense housing proposals and public transit projects, the chatbot — in response to a prompt from the Chan campaign — produced a reply that said, “I’m afraid my San Francisco accent is so thick I can barely understand myself. ”The spat comes as Wiener and Chan are locked in an increasingly tight race to succeed Nancy Pelosi in Congress, with recent polling showing the November contest effectively tied. Chan is a Chinese woman who emigrated from Hong Kong to San Francisco when she was 13. Supervisor Connie Chan alleges the chatbot is racist, and now former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a bevy of women in elected office are backing her up. In a letter released Thursday, signed by Pelosi and fellow Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Grace Meng, Jill Tokuda and Judy Chu, as well as local Supervisors Jackie Fielder and Chyanne Chen, the signatories call the chatbot “a gross misuse of technology and reflects a disturbing willingness to erase women’s agency. ”A screenshot of Wiener’s AI chatbot|Source:Courtesy Connie Chan for Congress campaignThey argue that the concept of the chatbot itself puts words in a woman’s mouth. “Women have spent generations fighting to have our own voices heard in the halls of power. We should not have to fight against artificial intelligence putting words in our mouths. ”But the letter’s strongest accusation is that the chatbot reinforces racist caricatures. “When the target is a woman of color,” the letter reads, “those harms compound with racial stereotypes that have historically been used to question women’s credibility, leadership, and belonging. This includes a repetition of harmful racial tropes that echo Trump birtherism. ”Wiener’s campaign argues that the bot did not amplify racist or sexist stereotypes. Instead, it says the response came only after people repeatedly asked questions about Chan’s accent, race, gender, appearance and citizenship in what it described as a “coordinated attempt” by the Chan campaign to “harvest a malicious response. ”The Wiener campaign said users questioned the chatbot about Chan‘s accent, race, gender, appearance or citizenship about 109 times. It declined to provide backend data that would allow The Standard to independently verify that claim. The race to succeed Pelosi is closer than it’s ever been. When they emerged from the June primary, Wiener led Chanby just 11 points,despite years spent in citywide elected office. Chan has largely faced voters in a single district: the Richmond, on the city’s west side. Recent pollsobtained by Mission Local(opens in new tab)show that gap narrowing to a statistical rounding error: the pair are in a dead heat. Wiener’s AI chatbot aimed to highlight the differences between the two Democrats. The senator has long cast himself as a champion of market-rate housing and has frequentlycriticized Chan(opens in new tab)for trying to preserve parking along the Geary Boulevard bus rapid transit corridor and opposing higher Bay Bridge tolls to fund transit projects. “Our campaign created this chatbot, and clearly labeled it as a parody, to highlight Supervisor Chan’s abysmal record on affordable housing, public transportation, education, and San Francisco’s economic recovery,” Wiener said in a statement. “These are critical issues for San Francisco’s future, and the chatbot was designed to focus only on her record. ”That was the intent. Instead, it may have called attention to Wiener’s embrace of AI at a time of growing publicskepticism(opens in new tab)about the technology. In his response to the public letter from Pelosi and other officials, Wiener called out the former Speaker of the House for “playing a key role” in killing his AI regulation bill, SB 1047, in 2024. At the time, Pelosi called it “more harmful than helpful. ” Newsomvetoed the billafter it passed the Legislature saying it applied “stringent standards(opens in new tab)” to even the most basic AI functions. Connie Chan spokesperson Ian Krager said, “Scott Wiener can try to change the subject, but he can’t change the facts. He built a chatbot with his Big AI donors to impersonate Connie Chan and is now attacking women who raised legitimate concerns about its racist and sexist responses. ”Wiener believes his chatbot clearly is marked as a parody, and is intended only to showcase Chan’s history of “obstruction. ”|Source:Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/The StandardAll the elected officials who co-signed the letter against Wiener’s AI chatbot are also Chan endorsers. But they aren’t the only ones criticizing the chatbot. Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis wrote on X that AI-generated impersonation has no place in politics, adding, “The Wiener campaign should take down this chatbot. San Franciscans deserve campaigns that are honest, respectful, and focused on earning voters’ trust, not fabricating someone else’s words. ”