{"id":259327,"date":"2026-01-30T12:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T12:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/259327\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T12:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T12:47:11","slug":"fears-of-chatgpt-bias-as-ai-bots-top-source-is-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/259327\/","title":{"rendered":"Fears of ChatGPT bias as AI bot\u2019s top source is revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

ChatGPT mainly relies on The Guardian for news, a study has found. <\/p>\n

The popular artificial intelligence tool cites the left-leaning newspaper more than any other source and neglects the BBC entirely, according to analysis by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). <\/p>\n

The think tank found that ChatGPT referenced The Guardian in 58 per cent of responses while its other top sources included Reuters, the Independent and the Financial Times. <\/p>\n

The Daily Telegraph was cited in 4 per cent of answers, GB News in 3 per cent and The Sun in 1 per cent. The Daily Mail was not used at all. <\/p>\n

\"Young<\/p>\n

The IPPR has said that chatbots used by millions of people risk \u201cdrawing on a narrow and inconsistent range of sources\u201d.<\/p>\n

ChatGPT\u2019s rivals showed similar signs of bias. Google\u2019s Gemini also linked to The Guardian in 53 per cent of its responses and never cited the BBC, despite surveys showing the corporation remained the country\u2019s most trusted news source. <\/p>\n

However, Google\u2019s AI Overviews, a separate tool built into its search engine, used the BBC as a source in 52.5 per cent of its answers, while Perplexity, another AI<\/a> chatbot, cited the public broadcaster in 36 per cent.<\/p>\n

The think tank said that The Guardian was frequently referenced by ChatGPT<\/a> as it had signed a strategic partnership with the chatbot\u2019s owner, OpenAI, that licenses its stories to the AI company. <\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

VUK VALCIC\/LIGHTTROCKET\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

The institute ranked The Times as ChatGPT\u2019s sixth most cited source, behind Sky News. In May 2024, News Corporation, which owns The Times and The Sunday Times, signed a multi-year licensing agreement with OpenAI, allowing ChatGPT to display its news content in response to user questions.<\/p>\n

The BBC threatened legal action in June against Perplexity<\/a> for using its content without permission. As a result, ChatGPT has avoided using the broadcaster but the IPPR said that this had come at a cost to the public as \u201cthe UK\u2019s most popular and trusted news outlet is absent from the country\u2019s most widely used AI tool\u201d.<\/p>\n

The think tank recommended that AI tools introduce \u201cnutrition labels\u201d for news so that users could see where answers came from and how they were shaped.<\/p>\n

\u2022 AI for beginners \u2014 what you really need to know to keep up<\/a><\/p>\n

Roa Powell, a senior research fellow at IPPR, said: \u201cAI tools are rapidly becoming the front door to news, but right now that door is being controlled by a handful of tech companies with little transparency or accountability. When the UK\u2019s most trusted news source can disappear entirely from AI answers, it\u2019s a warning sign. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf AI companies are going to profit from journalism and shape what the public sees, they must be required to pay fairly for the news they use and operate under clear rules that protect plurality, trust and the long-term future of independent journalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Owen Meredith, chief executive of News Media Association, argued that \u201cweakening UK copyright law<\/a> would deprive publishers of reward and payment for the trusted journalism that enables AI to be accurate and up to date\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meredith added that the Competition and Markets Authority \u201cmust also intervene swiftly to stop Google using its dominant position to force publishers to fuel its AI chatbots for free. Fair payment from the market leader is critical to a functioning licensing market and to preventing big tech incumbents from monopolising AI.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ChatGPT mainly relies on The Guardian for news, a study has found. The popular artificial intelligence tool cites…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,111,139,69,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-259327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}