Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and a coalition of Democratic lawmakers and San Francisco political groups accused state Sen. Scott Wiener's congressional campaign Thursday of using artificial intelligence to demean his opponent, San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan.
"Women have spent generations fighting to have our own voices heard in the halls of power," Pelosi and the other signatories wrote in a joint statement. "We should not have to now fight against artificial intelligence putting words in our mouths."
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The criticism centers on ConnieChan.ai, a parody chatbot powered by Anthropic's Claude model. The site describes the tool as an AI "trained to say no to anything you ask."
The site features a photo of Chan above a heading that reads, "Let's do nothing together," along with suggested topics such as "blocking housing" and "failing education."
The chatbot says: "Bring me an idea and I'll explain why it can't, shouldn't, and won't happen."
Chan's campaign has accused the chatbot of producing racist and sexist responses and described it as a caricature of her.
Wiener's team defended the project as political satire intended to highlight differences between the candidates as they compete this November for a congressional seat that Pelosi has held since 1987. Pelosi has endorsed Chan in the November election.
The statement was signed by Pelosi, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, several other Democratic members of Congress, San Francisco Supervisors Jackie Fielder and Chyanne Chen, and several local Democratic clubs.
It described the chatbot as a "gross misuse of technology" and said AI-generated attacks on a woman of color can reinforce stereotypes.
In a statement provided to The Chronicle, Chan spokesperson Ian Krager said Wiener was "attacking those who raised legitimate concerns about (the chatbot's) racist and sexist responses."
"Instead of apologizing or taking responsibility for his bigotry, Senator Wiener is blaming everyone else," Krager said. "That's easier than explaining why someone who claims to be a leader on AI safety chose to use this technology as a political weapon of deception and misinformation."
Wiener said the chatbot was designed as satire and to focus on Chan's positions on affordable housing, public transportation, education and San Francisco's economic recovery.
He accused Chan's campaign of repeatedly submitting questions about her accent, race and citizenship to provoke offensive responses and bypass the chatbot's safeguards.
"The chatbot refused them every time," Wiener wrote.
Wiener called Pelosi's criticism "baseless" and said Chan and her supporters were trying to distract voters from what he described as her "record of obstruction and inaction."
Wiener also criticized Pelosi's opposition to his earlier AI legislation. In a statement, he called it "particularly ironic" that Pelosi was criticizing his campaign's use of artificial intelligence after opposing Senate Bill 1047, his 2024 proposal to regulate certain powerful AI models.
Chan's campaign this week criticized the chatbot's responses to prompts about her accent, background and citizenship.
California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis reposted Pelosi's statement and wrote that "AI-generated impersonation has no place in our politics." She called for the chatbot to be removed.
Wiener said the chatbot's parody label made clear that it was not affiliated with Chan and that "no reasonable person" would mistake the website for an official Chan campaign platform.
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This article originally published at Nancy Pelosi accuses Scott Wiener campaign of 'sexist' AI attack on Connie Chan.