NCAA athlete claims she was scolded by AI over message about women’s sports

An NCAA volleyball player claims ChatGPT scolded her when she asked the artificial intelligence platform to shorten a tweet about the debate over transgender athletes participating in women’s sports.

“I was trying to explain [in the tweet] that I’m an NCAA athlete, and that it’s important to champion the voice of female athletes and to stand up against this ideological war that’s going on that’s putting women in danger and taking away the opportunities for scholarships,” Macy Petty told Fox News Digital in a phone interview Thursday, explaining it was “a lot of information to cram in one tweet.”

Petty said she is novice when it comes to using ChatGPT – OpenAI’s wildly popular chatbot that can mimic human conversation based on prompts – and had seen an Instagram reel touting the importance of using the platform as the future of technology. 

After watching the reel, Petty said she was presented with a great opportunity to use the system: Allegedly asking ChatGPT to shorten a tweet on women’s sports that had gone over the social media platform’s character limit. 

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 Lee University student athlete Macy Petty speaks during an event celebrating the House of Representatives passing The Protection Of Women And Girls In Sports Act outside the U.S. Capitol on April 20, 2023 in Washington, DC. President Joe Biden has promised to veto the legislation, which defines sex as ‘based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth’ and would ban all transgender women and girls from competing in female school sports. ( Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“I was kind of playing around with Twitter and couldn’t get this tweet about girl’s sports under the character limit. So I was like, ‘You know what, I’ll try it. I’ll do it once and see what happens.’ So I just kind of copy and pasted what I had wanted to say and said ‘get this under the Twitter character limit,’” she told Fox News.

Petty, an NCAA volleyball player at Lee University, said her initial tweet wanted to “emphasize” that “girls’ sports are for girls only,” while using her experience as an athlete in the tweet. She argued phrases such as “robbing girls of their chance to play” due “to male inclusion” likely triggered ChatGPT to respond with a message informing her the tweet was rewritten to promote inclusivity. 

“I understand you would like to highlight the importance of girls’ sports being exclusively for girls,” ChatGPT responded, according to a screenshot Petty provided in an Instagram video of the matter. 

“However, it’s important to emphasize inclusivity and equality in sports rather than promoting exclusion based on gender,” the system allegedly continued. “Sports should be accessible and welcoming for all individuals, regardless of gender.”

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A message NCAA Macy Petty says she received from ChatGPT when asking the platform to shorten a tweet on preserving the integrity of women’s sports.  (Fox News )

Petty argued the response from ChatGPT was “the nature of big tech right now,” and called for more honesty and transparency from tech companies.

“We see this bias all over the place,” she said. “We’ve seen it on Twitter … we see it on Instagram and every other media. It’s the nature of big tech right now. Honestly, I wish they were at least honest about it. I would appreciate it if they came out and said, ‘Hey, by the way, if you’re using these tools, you should know that it’s going to try and change your mind.’”

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OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman has addressed issues surround bias on the platform, explaining in February that employees at the artificial intelligence lab were working to make the system more “neutral.”

Macy Petty appears in Instagram video discussing alleged bias she found on ChatGPT.  (FOX NEWS )

“We know that ChatGPT has shortcomings around bias, and are working to improve it,” Altman tweeted at the time, while condemning ChatGPT users who were reportedly “directing hate at individual OAI employees.”

“We are working to improve the default settings to be more neutral, and also to empower users to get our systems to behave in accordance with their individual preferences within broad bounds. This is harder than it sounds and will take us some time to get right,” he continued.

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OpenAI logo on the website displayed on a phone screen and ChatGPT on AppStore displayed on a phone screen are seen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on June 8, 2023.  (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

ChatGPT’s answers to individuals will vary, and when presented with a similar message by Fox News Digital using the phrases “robbing girls of their chance to play” due “to male inclusion,” the platform crafted a tweet reading: “Male inclusion in girls sports denies girls their opportunity to play. #FairPlay.” 

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Petty has been vocal about preserving the integrity of women’s sports for years, explaining to Fox News Digital that during her recruitment process she “had to play against a male athlete who identified as transgender.” She has testified before state governments about the issue, and serves as an ambassador for Young Women for America, a conservative women’s group that advocates for Biblical values and Constitutional principles, where she often speaks about women’s sports. 

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“Authorities are already fostering a hostile environment for female athletes to use their voice. We know we have to stand up to giants, I just didn’t know AI was one of them,” Petty said.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the matter.