Can You Trust AI on Puerto Rico?

Increasingly, online searches give you answers generated by large language models — AI answers, in fact. many people also choose to go directly to ChatGPT or Perspicacity to ask their questions instead of starting at Google. It’s fast and easy to ask your question, get an answer, and move on. But can you trust AI on Puerto Rico?

Inaccuracy from AI

Here’s an example, the answer to a question about Puerto Rico and Taiwan:

“Taiwan also holds a unique international position, recognized by the United States as a free associated state, similar to Puerto Rico’s relationship with the U.S. ,” says the AI Overview. It goes on to describe Puerto Rico as “A free associated state of the United States.”

This is an error. Not a nuance or an opinion, just a mistake. Puerto Rico is a territory belonging to the United States, not a free associated state like Palau or the Marshall Islands. Free associated states are independent nations with a relationship to the U.S. which in every case is largely based on financial and defense support from the U.S. in exchange for military access and control. Puerto Rico’s official name in Spanish includes the phrase, but the Island is not a free associated state.

Neither is Taiwan, actually. Taiwan says it is independent and China says it isn’t. That’s not a compact of free association.

This is just one of hundreds or thousands of examples we could offer. We’ve seen AI Overview give the results of Puerto Rico’s status votes as information on Guam’s vote. We’ve seen claims that “commonwealth status” provides more autonomy than “a simple territory.” You can find plenty yourself. Ask your favorite generative AI tool some questions about Puerto Rico and you’ll probably see errors.

Why is AI so often wrong about Puerto Rico?

AI is often wrong about things in general. It doesn’t think about your question, do some research, and then share its thoughts with you. Instead, it generates an answer by choosing the most statistically likely next letter based on all the things it has been trained on.

That means that Ai answers can be quite accurate for well-known, widely agreed information. Ask about the geographic location of Puerto Rico and you can expect accurate answers, because that’s pretty much all that the AI tools have digested in their trainings.

Ask anything else and you meet with the fact that there is widespread ignorance and misinformation about Puerto Rico. Until recently, nearly half of Americans didn’t know that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens — and some still don’t. AI tools can read in mainstream press reports that Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor is “the daughter of immigrants.” Without human thinking capacity, Ai tools are bound to make mistakes.

What can you do about it?

First, don’t accept the AI overview’s answers. Certainly not about Puerto Rico, and probably for most other topics, too. Unless it’s a very easy question, you should check before you make any decisions based on AI answers. It’s easy to click through the links the AI tool provides and see whether they actually say what the AI tool claimed, and whether they are reliable sources.

You can also correct the AI tools. Give a thumbs down and the AI tool won’t feel bad, it’ll give you a form you can use to correct the error. Give your evidence and it will usually correct itself the next time it answers the question.

Will statehood make a difference?

Actually, yes. The United States is a big country, and people from one state may not know all there is to know about states across the nation. But the level of ignorance and confusion about Puerto Rico is way beyond the normal level of ignorance about other states. Many Americans don’t know what a territory is, who is the president of Puerto Rico, or whether they need a passport to visit the Island. This isn’t something wrong with Americans. It’s because Puerto Rico is a territory — something people on the mainland and on the Island tend to find confusing.

Statehood will solve that problem, along with the many, many other problems that come with territory status. Let your representatives know that Puerto Rico statehood matters.