The dangers of AI exposed: The LA Times takes down their new AI tool after it created pro-KKK arguments
AI is a tool for the future, but there are still some flaws to iron out.
We woke up, and it was there.
AI for you, for your business, for your life. Don’t do anything without AI, don’t even think about if you need it or not, just ask AI.
Of course, Artificial Intelligence didn’t spring up overnight, but what’s certainly true is that it seems we can’t walk down the street without an advert popping up on a billboard or on our screens without being reminded that it exists.
While the popularity is there, AI tools are still in their infancy, and plenty of things need ironing out as we progress with the technology.
Scrapped LA Times AI makes KKK error
A report emerged recently that said the Los Angeles Times had scrambled to remove its AI after just one day of use following an incident in which the system downplayed the negative impact of the white supremacist group, the Ku Klux Klan.
Called Insights, the feature was, according to Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire owner of the outlet, “the next evolution of the LA Times”. The idea behind it was set to add information about articles as well as help readers understand where the “views expressed may fall on the political spectrum”, providing them with “summaries of the ideas expressed in the piece along with different views on the topic from a variety of sources.”
Just 24 hours after its release, New York Times reporter Ryan Mac posted on social media, providing a screenshot of the comment from the AI tool on an LA Times article about the 100th anniversary of the city of Anaheim removing KKK members from its city council.
The comment in question, created by the AI, referred to the KKK’s racist history as the following: “Local historical accounts occasionally frame the 1920s Klan as a product of ‘white Protestant culture’ responding to societal changes rather than an explicitly hate-driven movement, minimizing its ideological threat.”
The writer responded on Twitter, saying “Um, AI actually got that right. [Orange County people] have minimized the 1920s Klan as basically anti-racists since it happened. But hey, what do I know? I’m just a guy who’s been covering this for a quarter century.”
The union that represents the LA Times’ journalists published a statement in the aftermath of the comment, which was swiftly removed, calling unvetted AI comments “something deeply troubling on the horizon” for journalism that “risks further eroding confidence in the news.”
This is just the latest hiccup in the recent timeline for Times president Soon-Shiong. He is said to have recently requested that the editorial board “take a break” from writing about Donald Trump, right after he blocked the board from endorsing Kamala Harris for president during her campaign.
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