SAN FRANCISCO — California state Sen. Scott Wiener said he would take down an AI chatbot mimicking his opponent in the race for Rep. Nancy Pelosi‘s San Francisco seat, a day after the former House speaker slammed it as “sexist.”
“My campaign created ConnieChan.ai as a parody to draw attention to my opponent’s record of delay and obstruction around housing, public transit, and other critical needs,” Wiener said in a statement Friday. “Today, we are taking down the chatbot, and the billboards that promoted it will come down soon.”
The San Francisco Democrat said he had heard from many people who “loved” the idea, but “many others were offended, and I apologize for causing that offense. Innovation means trying new things, and it also means being honest when something doesn’t land the way you intended.”
Pelosi, who has endorsed San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan as her successor to represent San Francisco in Congress, condemned the chatbot on Thursday, with the backing of fellow California Rep. Zoe Lofgren and eight other female Democrats from California, New York, Washington and Hawaii.
Wiener’s campaign previously said the bot was aimed at highlighting Chan’s record as a supervisor. “I’m Connie, the world’s first AI trained to say ‘no’ to anything you ask,” the chatbot site said. “Bring me an idea and I’ll explain why it can’t, shouldn’t, and won’t happen.”
But Chan, Pelosi and their allies argued that the way the bot responded to questions, including about her accent and citizenship status, sometimes included racist and sexist connotations.
Chan campaign spokesperson Ian Krager said in a statement Friday that Wiener can “rightly take down his bigotry bot, but he can’t erase the concerns it raised among San Franciscans about his character and judgment.” He accused Wiener’s campaign of mocking an immigrant woman of color before doubling down only to “reverse course and shrug it off as simply ‘missing the mark.'”
Wiener had initially responded Thursday in a statement saying Chan was trying to deflect from her “awful record of obstruction and inaction,” claiming her camp “bombarded the chatbot with repeated malicious questions,” which he said it refused to answer.
He also took a shot at Pelosi, calling it “ironic” that she would express concern about AI, when she contributed to the failure of his first major piece of AI legislation by lobbying against it. Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed it in 2024 before approving Wiener’s second try last year.