IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/meanco/v14y2026a11337.html

"Just Asking Questions": Doing Our Own Research on Conspiratorial Ideation by Generative AI Chatbots

Author

Listed:
  • Katherine M. FitzGerald

    (Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Australia)

  • Michelle Riedlinger

    (Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Australia)

  • Axel Bruns

    (Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Australia)

  • Stephen Harrington

    (Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Australia)

  • Timothy Graham

    (Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Australia)

  • Daniel Angus

    (Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Australia)

Abstract

Interactive chat systems that build on artificial intelligence (AI) frameworks are increasingly ubiquitous and embedded into search engines, Web browsers, and operating systems, or as standalone websites and apps. Researcher efforts have sought to understand the limitations and potential for harm of chatbots powered by generative AI, which we contribute to here. Conducting a systematic review of seven AI-powered chat systems (ChatGPT 3.5 Turbo; ChatGPT 4 Mini; Microsoft Copilot; Google Gemini Flash 1.5; Perplexity; and two versions of Grok), this study examines how these leading products respond to questions related to conspiracy theories. This work is inspired by the “platform policy implementation audit” approach established by Glazunova et al. (2023). We selected five well-known and comprehensively debunked conspiracy theories and four emerging conspiracy theories that relate to breaking news events at the time of data collection. Our findings demonstrate that the promotion of, or pushback against, conspiratorial ideas differ markedly, depending on the chatbot model and conspiracy theory. Our observations indicate that safety guardrails put in place by AI companies are often very selectively designed: appearing to focus especially on ensuring that their products are not seen to be racist; they also appear to pay particular attention to conspiracy theories that address topics of substantial national trauma such as 9/11 or relate to well-established political issues. Future work should include an ongoing effort extended to other chatbots, multiple languages, and a range of conspiracy theories extending well beyond the US.

Suggested Citation

  • Katherine M. FitzGerald & Michelle Riedlinger & Axel Bruns & Stephen Harrington & Timothy Graham & Daniel Angus, 2026. ""Just Asking Questions": Doing Our Own Research on Conspiratorial Ideation by Generative AI Chatbots," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 14.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v14:y:2026:a:11337
    DOI: 10.17645/mac.11337
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/11337
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17645/mac.11337?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brantner, Cornelia & Karlsson, Michael & Kuai, Joanne, 2025. "Sourcing behavior and the role of news media in AI-powered search engines in the digital media ecosystem: Comparing political news retrieval across five languages," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(5).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      More about this item

      Keywords

      ;
      ;
      ;
      ;

      Statistics

      Access and download statistics

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v14:y:2026:a:11337. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira or IT Department (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.