AI models are absorbing antisemitism from humans, study says
AI models are absorbing antisemitism from humans, study says
https://www.timesofisrael.com/ai-models-are-absorbing-antisemitism-from-humans-study-says/
Publish Date: 2026-06-11 16:38:00
Source Domain: www.timesofisrael.com
Artificial intelligence models have absorbed historical antisemitic tropes from the human texts the models are trained on, according to a recent psychology study.
The authors, from Israeli universities, said the analysis showed how “an ancient prejudice persists in modern technological systems through complex patterns of trait association and cultural coding.”
The research paper, published in the peer-reviewed American Psychologist academic journal, investigated how Jews are represented in large language models (LLMs) and whether the models replicate biases related to Jews.
LLMs are advanced AI systems, trained on vast troves of existing text, that process and generate human language. They are a key technology powering chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Bias in LLMs presents risk because, as the models become increasingly integrated and influential in professional spheres, prejudices could be borne out in areas like hiring, education and loan approvals, the authors said.
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The study focused on OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 Turbo, the most advanced and commonly used model at the time of the research, with users in the hundreds of millions. The findings were replicated on other AI models, such as DeepSeek and Mistral.
The ChatGPT model was trained on texts including books, websites and academic articles, giving it a nuanced framework for replicating human patterns in language and culture.
Investigating AI bias was challenging because LLMs are trained to suppress inappropriate and offensive responses, said the study, authored by Gal Gutman of Ben-Gurion University and Michael Gilead of Tel Aviv University.
The study, therefore, had to find ways to bypass those AI controls and suss out latent biases.
The researchers instructed…
