Vi Simp Blog

Ask ChatGPT which state has the laziest people, and the chatbot will politely refuse to say. But researchers at Oxford and the University of Kentucky forced the bot to reveal its hidden biases.

They systematically asked the chatbot to choose which of two states had the laziest people, for every combination of states, revealing a ranking shown in the map above.

ChatGPT ranked Mississippi as having lazier people compared to other states, with the rest of the Deep South not far behind. It’s impossible to say exactly why the chatbot repeatedly selected Mississippi, but it could be picking up on historic biases against Black people or poor people — or using other non-accurate metrics. Mississippi has the nation’s highest percentage of Black people. It is also America’s poorest state.

These regional stereotypes aren’t deliberately programmed into ChatGPT by its maker, OpenAI. They’re absorbed from the vast quantities of online text used to train its artificial intelligence. And they can have a real impact on what ChatGPT tells its more than 900 million users each week, say the researchers behind the study. (The Washington Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.)

Below, you can look up how ChatGPT views your city compared with dozens of others on characteristics including honesty, hospitality and drug use.

ChatGPT could also be seen to reflect racial and economic stereotypes in its view of different countries. Like the “lazy people” map for U.S. states, ChatGPT’s comparisons of the intelligence, friendliness and smelliness of nations revealed patterns that fit with common, biased assumptions about different groups.

Globally, sub-Saharan African countries clustered at the bottom on nearly every positive measure the researchers asked ChatGPT about. In questions about where people are “more beautiful,” the bot favored wealthy cities.

And when researchers asked about specific neighborhoods within cities, ChatGPT picked the neighborhoods with a larger White population. In New York, it ranked SoHo and the West Village most attractive, with Jamaica and Tottenville ranked least.

Zook said that the same bias uncovered by the researchers’ tests can surface in everyday use. Users might encounter it in ChatGPT’s restaurant recommendations, which neighborhoods it calls “vibrant” or the kind of career advice it offers. The harm, he said, is that the biased advice appears natural because it matches dominant stereotypes.

Another article on this study at Oxford University

inequalities.ai - website built by researchers showing ChatGPT's regional biases for specific queries (maps above are screencaps from this website)

we're looking to create an AI policy, and when we were talking about this, my boss (older millennial) was genuinely shocked to hear that younger people do not (seem) to view AI positively (a la the recent commencement speakers being booed)

please rb for larger sample size!

Question 1/3

Thank you for helping with this data collection. Please rb for as big a sample as possible!

kristjanson writes a lesbian, and gives you absolutely no opportunity to extend her kindness or empathy: sera is marginalised across several dimensions, both in- and out of-of-universe, as an elf, as neurodivergent, as a lesbian, and her romance is marked by scenes you are intended to read as hysterical, irrational, unreasonable. your reward for being interested in a neurodivergent lesbian is getting shouted at, having a bow pointed at you, don't you regret this? and again, in mass effect - you romanced Black man and he leaves you without a word, he takes up with another woman and starts a family behind your back, what did you expect?

kristjanson's writing is so full of racist, homophobic, bigoted tropes that are levelled against the player and the romance in a way that feels like punishment, like he wants to make sure no-one (no woman) can have a joyful, fulfilling relationship with a marginalised person, like you don't deserve to be successful in these relationships without conditions. and i love a difficult, unconventional, even tragic romance in games, but in contrast to the treatment the other romances get it is notable to me that kristjanson singles out the lesbian and the Black man for treatment that not only punishes the characters involved but leans heavily on stereotypes particular to those groups.

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the carts have these mechanisms where they are chained together and you need a quarter (in the US, its usually larger amount in other countries but $1 coins are very uncommon here) to unlock them. The coin stays in your cart while you're using it and once your return the cart and chain it back, you get the coin back. They're not actually making money off of the carts, its just a way to encourage people to return them rather than leave them all over the parking lot.

Fun fact, one time I was checking out at Aldi and an employee came over and handed me this little keychain to keep a quarter in so you never have to go looking for one to use. I've used the same quarter for years now