The Chatbot Disinfo Inflaming the L.A. Protests
Uncanny Valley | WIRED
WIRED
4.1 • 572 Ratings
🗓️ 13 June 2025
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In recent days, Los Angeles residents have taken to the streets to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policies and the increasingly frequent ICE raids. WIRED’s Senior Politics Editor Leah Feiger joins Zoë Schiffer, Director of Business & Industry, to discuss the related flood of information on social media, and how AI chatbots like Grok and ChatGPT are delivering incorrect and at times, inflammatory answers.
Articles mentioned in today’s episode:
- AI Chatbots Are Making LA Protest Disinformation Worse
- I Joined Every Class Action Lawsuit I Could Find, and So Can You
- Vibe Coding Is Coming for Engineering Jobs
You can follow Zoë Schiffer on Bluesky @zoeschiffer and Leah Feiger @leahfeiger.
Join WIRED’s best and brightest on Uncanny Valley as they dissect the collision of tech, politics, finance, and business, from Alexis Ohanian's newest tech venture to the effects of inaccurate information from artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots on social protests.
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| 0:00.0 | This is Zoe. |
| 0:02.1 | Before we start, I want to take a chance to remind you that we really want to hear from you. |
| 0:06.4 | If you have a question about AI, politics, or privacy that's been on your mind, or a topic that you wish we talked about on the show, you can write to us at Uncanny Valley at Wired.com. |
| 0:16.7 | And if you listen to our episodes and enjoy them, please, please rate them on your podcast app of choice. |
| 0:21.5 | It really honestly helps people find us. |
| 0:28.8 | Welcome to Wired's Uncanny Valley. |
| 0:30.9 | I'm Wired's director of business and industry, Zoe Shipper. |
| 0:34.3 | Today on the show, we're diving into how AI chatbots are fueling disinformation |
| 0:38.5 | about the ongoing protests in Los Angeles. In recent days, L.A. residents have taken to the streets |
| 0:44.9 | to protest the Trump administration's immigration policies and the increasingly frequent |
| 0:49.0 | ice raids. Social media is filled with information and footage about the protests and have people try and fact-check what's actually going on. |
| 0:57.4 | AI chat bots like GROC and chat chatt-a-tby-T are delivering incorrect and at times inflammatory answers. |
| 1:03.0 | We'll discuss how this pattern has been unfolding and the consequences it can have on this political moment. |
| 1:08.4 | I'm joined today by Leah Feiger, senior politics editor at Wired. |
| 1:12.0 | Leah, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, Zoe. |
| 1:19.1 | Since last weekend, these massive protests have broken out in Los Angeles. |
| 1:29.4 | So maybe let's just like start there with a very high level of like what has been going on. |
| 1:35.2 | So last week protests broke out in L.A. following ice raids across the city. |
| 1:42.1 | And at first it was a little, it was smaller than people were claiming |
| 1:47.4 | online, right? And they were like, there are hordes of people. They have taken over Los Angeles. |
| 1:52.8 | This is wild. The truth of the matter was that these were in very specific areas and very much |
| 1:57.8 | linked to ice raids. But over the weekend, things took a turn. Trump called in |
... |
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