<\/p>\n
Congressional candidates Connie Chan and Scott Wiener debate at the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco on March 31. The winner will replace retiring Rep.\u00a0Nancy Pelosi, and the district will get its first new representative since 1987.<\/p>\n
Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Artificial intelligence is easy. Comedy is hard. Just ask state Sen. Scott Wiener.<\/p>\n
Wiener is locked in a tightening race with Supervisor Connie Chan to succeed San Francisco Rep. Nancy\u00a0Pelosi, and the contest is shaping up to be the no-room-for-error, marquee U.S. House race in California.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s something of a head-scratcher that the Wiener campaign decided to set up a website called ConnieChan.ai that featured a chatbot Chan imitator.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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If you asked the chatbot about Chan\u2019s positions on issues, it spat back answers that seemed designed to get a laugh.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m Connie, the world\u2019s first AI trained to say \u2018no\u2019 to anything you ask \u2026 Bring me an idea and I\u2019ll explain why it can\u2019t, shouldn\u2019t, and won\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like I said, comedy is hard. Take it from a political cartoonist.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Predictably, the Chan campaign exploded, decrying the chatbot as \u201cracist\u201d and \u201csexist.\u201d Critics included Pelosi, who has endorsed Chan and whose daughter Christine happens to be running to succeed Wiener in the state Senate.<\/p>\n
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In an open letter posted on X (now that\u2019s funny, using Elon Musk\u2019s social media platform to complain about AI), Pelosi and eight other Democratic female lawmakers, including Rep. Zoe Lofgren of San Jose, blasted the use of the chatbot.<\/p>\n
\u201cWomen have spent generations fighting to have our own voices heard in the halls of power,\u201d the statement read, adding, \u201cWe should not have to fight against artificial intelligence putting words in our mouths.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another irony here is that Wiener is the author of\u00a0Senate Bill 1047, AI regulation legislation that\u00a0Gov. Gavin Newsom finally signed last year\u00a0\u2014 after sending it back to the Senate for tightening\u00a0\u2014 so his potential Big Tech 2028 presidential campaign\u00a0funders weren\u2019t singled out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To be sure, politics is not without its share of free cartoon ideas.<\/p>\n
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In his initial defense, Wiener correctly pointed out that some Chan supporters with time on their hands peppered ConnieChan.ai with leading questions, and the chatbot refused to play along, indicating some modicum of intelligence.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is particularly ironic that Speaker Emerita Pelosi is expressing concern about AI, when Speaker Emerita Pelosi played a key role, aligned with Big Tech, in killing my landmark AI safety bill, Senate Bill 1047, a bill that was broadly supported by pro-AI regulation advocates, labor unions, national security experts, biosecurity experts, and many progressive leaders,\u201d Wiener said in his own statement.<\/p>\n
So much for the eerie quiet that had typified the relationship between Wiener and Pelosi and left so many political observers speculating about bad blood.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
But still, why did Wiener, who has taken the lead in trying to rein in AI companies, resort to using the technology to attack Chan? Wiener spox Joe Arellano said the ChanBot was an attempt to tap into the \u201cAI craze overtaking the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
How\u2019s that for a punchline?<\/p>\n
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One wonders what that writer\u2019s room sounded like when someone brought up the ChanBot idea. Was there no one in attendance who deigned to push back? To point out that Wiener\u2019s brand as a champion of AI regulation might take a hit from this silliness? And how could no one on his team have seen that this would come back to bite the senator?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Instead, mistakes were made, accusations were thrown, the campaign quickly pulled the site<\/a> and the San Francisco billboards advertising it, and Wiener apologized.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMy campaign created ConnieChan.ai as a parody to draw attention to my opponent\u2019s record of delay and obstruction around housing, public transit, and other critical needs,\u201d Wiener said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wiener, of course, isn\u2019t the only one using AI in politics. President Donald Trump is famous for posting all sorts of crazy AI slop featuring him in heroic poses, mostly involving him having impressive pectoral and abdominal muscles \u2014 now that\u2019s comedy gold.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the California governor race, GOP nominee Steve Hilton posted an AI animation ad<\/a> featuring a likeness of his Democratic opponent, Xavier Becerra, as Nero and a would-be Gavin Newsom as, um, another Nero, mocking poor Californians who can\u2019t afford gasoline. Hilton is portrayed as a heroic, rugged, much-taller-than-he-is gladiator fighting the dictators while sweating. His British accent is pretty faint; he almost sounds like he\u2019s from Fresno.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Hilton neglects to mention his favorite dictator at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and the role his misguided war in Iran has had on gas prices.<\/p>\n Wiener\u2019s foray into the use of AI should tell him that SB1047 might find the addition of a ban on AI technology in political ads not only good for him, but good for California voters sincerely trying to inform themselves in this increasingly atomized information environment.<\/p>\n We\u2019re all petrified of AI, and we should be. Wiener\u2019s bill was a good first step in mitigating the more pernicious effects.\u00a0<\/p>\n But ConnieChan.ai ain\u2019t funny, and neither is AI slop-infused political advertising.\u00a0<\/p>\n Guest opinions in Open Forum and Insight are produced by writers with expertise, personal experience or original insights on a subject of interest to our readers. Their views do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Chronicle editorial board, which is committed to providing a diversity of ideas to our readership.<\/p>\n