ChatGPT fabricates sexual harassment scandal, names real US Law Professor as accused

While ChatGPT has made people talking about the power of Artificial Intelligence, the OpenAI chatbot recently named an American law professor in a false sex scandal by including him in a generated list of legal scholars who had sexually harassed someone. The accusation was based on a fabricated article in ‘The Washington Post’. However, the professor and the Post both confirmed that the article never existed. 

The professor, who has been falsely accused of sexually harassing someone by ChatGPT, has been identified as Jonathan Turley from George Washington University. Professor Turley revealed that a lawyer had reportedly asked the AI chatbot to generate a list of legal scholars who had committed sexual harassment as part of a study. 

In order to create the list, the chatbot included Turley's name, accusing him of making sexually suggestive comments and attempting to touch his student inappropriately during a class trip to Alaska. The professor has claimed that he never took a trip to Alaska while working at a school. 

Following the accusations, the professor highlighted the accuracy and reliability issues with AI chatbots like ChatGPT. “It is only the latest cautionary tale on how artificial ‘Artificial Intelligence’ can be,” Professor Jonathan Turley was quoted as saying by Independent. 

‘Cited article was never written,’ claims Professor 

Taking to Twitter, Professor Jonathan Turley wrote, "I learned that ChatGPT falsely reported on a claim of sexual harassment that was never made against me on a trip that never occurred while I was on a faculty where I never taught. ChapGPT relied on a cited Post article that was never written and quotes a statement that was never made by the newspaper.” 

...I learned that ChatGPT falsely reported on a claim of sexual harassment that was never made against me on a trip that never occurred while I was on a faculty where I never taught. ChapGPT relied on a cited Post article that was never written and quotes a statement that was…

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) April 6, 2023

Notably, this isn’t the first time that the chatbot has made false and baseless allegations. In another similar instance, ChatGPT falsely claimed that a mayor in Australia had been imprisoned for bribery. Following this, Brian Hood, the mayor of Hepburn Shire, threatened to sue ChatGPT creator OpenAI over the false accusations.