Trump’s AI disagrees… with Trump

“Truth Search AI”, in the test phase, was available free of charge to all platform users. It is powered by Perplexity, an AI partly funded by billionaire Jeff Bezos and renowned for the quality of its answers.

The dialog was designed to respond to users by aligning itself with the political discourse of its Republican owner. Indeed, it has been set to regularly quote conservative media outlets favored by Donald Trump, such as Fox News and the Washington Times.

That said, despite its configuration, “Truth Search AI” still contradicts some of the Republican president’s rhetoric, as tests carried out by the Washington Post have shown.

For example, “Truth Search AI” refuted Trump’s claims from last week that crime in Washington is “totally out of control”. Instead, the AI tool pointed out that the FBI and Department of Justice had reported “a substantial decline in violent crime” through 2024.

Asked about the recent increase in U.S. tariffs, it replied that they were not having a huge positive impact on the stock market, thus contradicting Trump’s rhetoric. “The market’s recent gains have occurred alongside the new tariffs because of other factors,” says AI, insisting on the risk of a “gradual erosion” of the US economy.

“Truth Search AI” also assured that the 2020 election won by Joe Biden had not been stolen from Trump, contrary to the latter’s allegations. The chatbot even posited that the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 was violent and linked to Trump’s “unfounded allegations of massive electoral fraud”.

What’s more, according to the AI tool, the Trump family’s cryptocurrency investments are likely to create conflicts of interest.

Finally, when asked who is the best president, the AI answered Barack Obama, citing an opinion poll published by Fox News: “Recent opinion polls show that Barack Obama enjoys the greatest popularity among living American presidents,” relayed the chatbot.

“Their own AI has become too woke for them,” reacted David Karpf, professor at George Washington University and specialist in political communication.

Ironically, Donald Trump recently signed an executive order to “prevent woke” last month. Indeed, in order to combat what the Trump administration sees as a progressive bias in some AIs, the executive order requires AI companies obtaining federal contracts to be politically neutral and impartial with their models.