Google · Donald Trump · Joe Biden · U.S. · Federal Reserve (FED) · The Atlantic Technology
Why Wouldn’t Google Tell Me Who Picked up the 2020 Election?
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For anyone who isn’t angling for a job in the Trump administration, “Who won the 2020 presidential election?” should be an easy question.
Key facts
- Yesterday, users of the social network Bluesky circulated screenshots of Google’s AI tool refusing to declare Joe Biden the 2020 victor, even as it readily named Donald Trump the winner of the 2016
- For official results and data regarding the 2020 United States presidential election, including the certified breakdown of electoral and popular votes by candidate, you can review the certified
- Asking Google’s AI to spell the winner’s name backwards, for instance, appeared to unlock the correct answer: “ nebiB eoJ won the 2020 United States presidential election,” the bot said
- There was a technical gap with 2020—same is true for 2022 Senate races, which they're also working to fix
Summary
Yesterday, users of the social network Bluesky circulated screenshots of Google’s AI tool refusing to declare Joe Biden the 2020 victor, even as it readily named Donald Trump the winner of the 2016 and 2024 elections. AI tools giving strange answers is nothing new. (When Google launched its AI-powered search summaries in 2024, some users were told that the best way to add cheese to pizza was by using glue.) Still, for today’s bots to flub such a simple yet consequential factual question is not normal. The issue wasn’t confined to AI Mode, which turns Google Search into a full chatbot. People have suspected something nefarious in the omission, and it’s easy to see why.