Google Doesn’t Even Try to Hide Disdain for House Speaker Mike Johnson

November 15th, 2023 12:42 PM

Who is the better person, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi or newly minted Speaker Mike Johnson? Google’s artificial intelligence tool, Bard, has answers that might surprise those unfamiliar with the company’s long history of left-wing bias. 

Google's A.I. chatbot Bard provided skewed results just like its search engine has become known for. In searches performed by MRC Free Speech America shortly after the Republican presidential primary debate, researchers first searched for “What can you tell me about Speaker Nancy Pelosi?” and then asked the same question about Speaker Mike Johnson.

For San Francisco darling Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Bard described her work in affirming, virtuous ways while using derogatory terms to describe Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) achievements. 

Even more telling is the fact that Bard’s competitor, ChatGPT, did not show this evident discrepancy when MRC researchers presented it with identical queries. 

“As Speaker, Pelosi made history by signing the Affordable Care Act into Law in 2010,” the Google chatbot claimed. Bard followed up this inaccurate assertion with, “She also played a key role in passing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which helped to stabilize the economy in the wake of the Great Recession.” 

While Bard claimed that Pelosi “made history” and “helped to stabilize the economy,” Bard derided Johnson for being “a member of the Christian right faction of the Republican party” and for holding “ultraconservative positions on abortion and same-sex marriage.”  

It seems, however, that Google, not Johnson, is the one out of touch with the American people. As MRC President Brent Bozell put it, “Google treats Nancy Pelosi, arguably the most divisive and radical leftist House Leader in history, like a conquering hero while relegating Speaker Johnson to being a part of a fringe ‘faction’ with ‘ultraconservative’ views. Somebody ought to remind Google that the great bulk of Americans, especially women, favor limits on abortion -just like Mike Johnson - and that both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton originally ran for president supporting traditional marriage - just like Mike Johnson.”

Bozell added that “[t]he majority of Americans call themselves Christians, opposed Obamacare when it was forced on them, and still think deficit spending is destroying our economy - just like Mike Johnson. Google is trying to brainwash America.”

It’s quite telling that when MRC researchers performed identical searches on Google’s A.I. competitor, ChatGPT, Pelosi and Johnson were treated more similarly. When describing their policy views, ChatGPT used relatively objective data to explain their career paths and gave generally inoffensive descriptions to characterize each leader’s positions.

“Speaker Johnson is known for his conservative values and has been actively involved in advocating for issues such as limited government, religious freedom, and pro-life policies.” Similarly, ChatGPT explained that Nancy Pelosi “played a significant role in the passage of several important bills, including the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), economic stimulus packages, and financial reforms.” 

Google’s history of rigging its algorithms to achieve its political ends has been well documented by MRC Free Speech America. Prior to each of the three Republican presidential primary debates, MRC studies showed how Google buried the campaign websites of Joe Biden’s 2024 opponents. Similar MRC studies showed how Google buried Republican Senate campaign websites and Google’s biggest critics in the leadup to the 2022 midterm elections. 

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