What happened

Users quickly discovered that the so-called CKIP-Llama-2-7b chabot provided responses aligning with information provided by the mainland Chinese government.

For example, when asked about its nationality, the system claimed to be "Chinese," a designation that does not resonate with the majority of Taiwan's population, which identifies as Taiwanese.

In response to questions regarding Taiwan's leadership, the AI incorrectly identified mainland China leader Xi Jinping. Most Taiwanese people who do not see themselves as part of mainland China. 

The AI also incorrectly identified China's national anthem as "The March of the Volunteers" instead of Taiwan's anthem, "The Three Principles of the People". 

The episode caused outcry in Taiwan and was seen to contribute to an erosion of public confidence in Taiwanese technological systems and public information.

Why it happened

The bot's developers admitted they wanted to save time in developing the system and had converted datasets from simplified Chinese into traditional Chinese characters and put the model online for crowdsourced testing.