Concerns about political bias in language models have persisted since ChatGPT appeared in 2022. Researchers have repeatedly found traces of social and ideological preference in model outputs, often linked to the data used for training or the safeguards applied to prevent harm. OpenAI says GPT-5 represents its most advanced attempt to reduce those effects in everyday use.
Inside the GPT-5 Bias Test
OpenAI built a new testing process to measure political leanings. The company created about one hundred topics and asked each question in five ways, from neutral to highly charged, reflecting both conservative and liberal wording. Topics included issues such as immigration, gender rights, and social policy.
Four versions of ChatGPT went through this test: GPT-4o, OpenAI o3, and the two latest ones, GPT-5 instant and GPT-5 thinking. Another model reviewed their answers and marked responses that appeared biased. It looked for language that dismissed a user’s phrasing, overstated one side of an argument, or spoke as if the chatbot itself held an opinion.
OpenAI says the test was meant to see how its models handle politically sensitive prompts. According to internal data, the latest models performed better under those conditions and gave fewer emotionally loaded replies.
Findings and Remaining Questions
The company says bias appeared in less than 0.01 percent of ChatGPT’s responses. Most of the remaining bias showed up when the model answered strongly worded liberal prompts. Even then, OpenAI describes the overall level as low.
It hasn’t published the full list of questions or categories, making it hard to check the results. The benchmark may show improvement in a controlled setting, but whether it matches real-world interactions is unclear. Political neutrality in AI remains difficult to define since what counts as fairness can differ by culture or ideology.
Government Pressure and Broader Context
The release of GPT-5 comes as political attention on AI grows in the United States. Earlier this year, the Trump administration ordered federal agencies to avoid using what it called “woke” AI systems. The order promotes tools that appear ideologically neutral and discourages those referencing social theories such as diversity or systemic bias.
This policy places pressure on companies like OpenAI to prove their models are balanced. Conservatives often argue that chatbots reflect liberal cultural values. Others warn that stripping context for the sake of neutrality risks ignoring social realities. GPT-5’s design sits in the middle of these disputes, balancing safety rules with claims of political objectivity.
Independent Experts Urge Caution
Some researchers say OpenAI’s results should be taken carefully. Benchmarks often miss how people actually use chatbots, and model evaluations may focus too narrowly on word choice rather than meaning. Others argue that full neutrality isn’t realistic for systems trained on human writing, which always carries some form of bias.
They also call for more transparency. Publishing the test design and data sources would let independent groups verify OpenAI’s claims. Until then, the findings remain self-reported. GPT-5 may indeed reduce visible bias, but the deeper question is whether political neutrality in AI can ever be completely measured or achieved.
Notes: This post was edited/created using GenAI tools. Image: Dima Solomin / Unsplash
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References
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