The Telegram messenger recently rolled out a number of updates, including an AI text editor for messages. Social media users have noticed that it sometimes suggests politically biased text options that radically change the meaning of the message.
The Telegram messenger recently rolled out a number of updates, including an AI text editor for messages. Social media users have noticed that it sometimes suggests politically biased text options that radically change the meaning of the message.
Ukrainian users of the social network X (Twitter) noticed that an AI text editor in Telegram is changing the message about Taiwan’s independence. Instead, it suggests writing that Taiwan is part of China.
«It’s cool, of course, that the AI editor in Telegram is not a Chinese propaganda s**t at all,» wrote a user with the nickname fkdupgene on X (Twitter).
He added an image to his post showing Telegram’s AI changing the meaning of his message about Taiwan independence.
Telegram previously reported that the messenger’s message panel now has a built-in editor that can instantly correct grammar, rewrite text in a different style, or translate it into another language. There are formal, short, corporate styles to choose from, as well as several humorous ones — primitive, biblical, Zen, Viking.
Users note that political bias is most often manifested in the first two styles. AI views can also be influenced by the language of the message.
dev.ua tested several theses in the messages and found that the AI editor often claims that Taiwan is part of China regardless of the language. At the same time, if the message is written in Ukrainian or English, it recognizes Crimea as part of Ukraine and the ruler of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, as a war criminal.
However, if this message is written in Russian, then the AI editor starts to claim that this is a debatable issue. Some social media users have also published screenshots showing the AI directly changing the Ukrainian Crimea to Russian.
Telegram notes that the message editor is powered by Telegram AI models from Cocoon. This is a decentralized platform for artificial intelligence inference on the TON blockchain network. It connects owners of graphics processing units (GPUs) that provide computing power with privacy-conscious applications that need to run AI models.
Censorship issues were previously identified in the Chinese AI model DeepSeek, which is being benchmarked by China’s Internet regulator to ensure that its models' responses «embody core socialist values.»
Many Chinese AI systems refuse to respond or give «ideologically correct» answers to topics that could anger Chinese regulators, such as speculation about Xi Jinping’s regime, Taiwan, or the Tiananmen Square uprising (the site of the 1989 pro-democracy protests and crackdown).
