Overview
- Scott Wiener said he has taken down ConnieChan.ai and will remove the billboards that promoted it and apologized for causing offense.
- Connie Chan’s campaign and a Pelosi-led coalition accused the chatbot of putting words in a woman of color’s mouth and called the stunt sexist and racist.
- Reporters and Chan’s team said the bot produced evasive and offensive responses, including mockery of an accent, and earlier coverage identified the tool as running on an Anthropic model.
- Commentators and critics pointed out that Wiener supported California’s AB 2839, a law aimed at banning deepfake videos, which some opponents used to call the tactic hypocritical.
- The incident has become a campaign liability ahead of the November runoff and raises the prospect of party rebukes or new rules for generative-AI use in elections.