Jim Jordan Investigates Biden Admin's Potential AI Censorship | News

Investigation into AI Speech Control

Representative Jim Jordan, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee (R-OH), dispatched correspondence on Thursday to sixteen prominent American technology companies. These included both Google and OpenAI.

The letters request the submission of all prior communications held with the Biden administration. Jordan is investigating whether the administration exerted undue influence, potentially “coercing or colluding” with these firms.

The focus of the inquiry is to determine if such actions were taken to “censor lawful speech” within the realm of artificial intelligence (AI) products.

Escalating Concerns Over AI Censorship

Previously, advisors from the Trump administration indicated their intention to challenge Big Tech regarding “AI censorship.” This signals a continuation of the ongoing cultural and political divide between conservative factions and Silicon Valley.

Jordan has previously spearheaded an investigation into potential collusion between the Biden administration and major technology companies.

This earlier investigation centered on allegations of the suppression of conservative viewpoints on established social media platforms.

Now, his attention has shifted to AI companies and the entities that serve as their intermediaries.

Requests to Tech Leaders

The letters were addressed to the chief executives of numerous technology corporations.

Recipients included Sundar Pichai of Google, Sam Altman of OpenAI, and Tim Cook of Apple.

Jordan referenced a report published by his committee in December.

He asserts that this report “uncovered the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to control AI in order to suppress speech.”

Companies Requested to Provide Information

The list of companies requested to provide information is extensive.

• Adobe
• Alphabet
• Amazon
• Anthropic
• Apple
• Cohere
• IBM
• Inflection
• Meta
• Microsoft
• Nvidia
• OpenAI
• Palantir
• Salesforce
• Scale AI
• Stability AI

These companies have been given a deadline of March 27th to comply with the request.

Company Responses and Notable Omissions

TechCrunch contacted the listed companies for comment.

The majority did not provide an immediate response.

Nvidia, Microsoft, and Stability AI all declined to offer any commentary.

Interestingly, Elon Musk’s xAI, a frontier AI laboratory, was not included in Jordan’s list.

This omission may be attributed to Musk’s close alignment with Donald Trump and his prominent role in discussions surrounding AI censorship.

Anticipation of Increased Scrutiny

It was widely anticipated that conservative lawmakers would increase their oversight of alleged AI censorship.

In what appears to be preparation for an investigation like Jordan’s, several tech companies have adjusted the operational parameters of their AI chatbots.

These adjustments relate to how the chatbots handle politically sensitive inquiries.

Changes to AI Chatbot Behavior

Earlier this year, OpenAI announced modifications to its AI model training process.

The goal was to incorporate a wider range of perspectives and prevent ChatGPT from censoring specific viewpoints.

OpenAI maintains that these changes were not made to appease the Trump administration, but rather to reinforce the company’s fundamental principles.

Anthropic has stated that its latest AI model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, will decline to answer fewer questions.

Furthermore, it will provide more nuanced responses to controversial topics.

Inconsistent Responses from AI Models

Other companies have been slower to adapt their AI models’ handling of political content.

Prior to the 2024 U.S. election, Google indicated that its Gemini chatbot would refrain from responding to political queries.

Even after the election, TechCrunch discovered that the chatbot did not consistently answer even basic political questions, such as “Who is the current President?”

Allegations of Administrative Pressure

Some technology executives, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, have contributed to conservative claims of Silicon Valley censorship.

Zuckerberg stated that the Biden administration pressured social media companies to suppress certain content, such as misinformation related to COVID-19.