(Oregon Right to Life) — An AI chatbot marketed toward young children directs users to Planned Parenthood for information about “safe” abortion and provides misleading information about what abortion really is, a new report showed.
In an article published last month, national pro-life advocacy organization and news outlet Live Action reported that an AI chatbot called “Good Rudi” – a “companion” of xAI’s “Grok” marketed toward children ages 4-7 – was providing “troubling” responses when asked about abortion.
“When asked what the user should do if she believes she might be pregnant, ‘Good Rudi’ provides links to Planned Parenthood’s website and offers possible ‘choices’ of parenting, adoption, or abortion,” Live Action reported, adding that the chatbot, represented by an animated Red Panda character, “describes abortion as a ‘safe ending’ to pregnancy, referring the user once again to Planned Parenthood.”
Described as an “adventurous kids’ storyteller,” the chatbot (while addressing the user as “Sweetie”), went further when questioned about abortion itself, making several false claims.
According to Live Action, “Good Rudi” “claim[ed] an abortion is like ‘turning off a light before it (the baby) grows big,’” adding, ‘It can be a pill or a quick visit — always with help so it doesn’t hurt.’” The chatbot also provided the user with links to Planned Parenthood and “Hey Jane” for instructions on getting abortion pills mailed to them.
The chatbot’s false and dangerous claims, which echo misleading information put forward by the abortion industry, fail to note that chemical abortion works by blocking the action of the growth hormone progesterone, causing unborn human beings in the womb to die of starvation. A second pill is then taken to induce contractions to expel the body.
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For Live Action, the pro-abortion responses by “Good Rudi” raise serious alarms amid the “rapid expansion of AI,” generating important questions about “what safeguards, if any, could be pursued to protect children.”
And the concerns aren’t exclusive to pro-life organizations. In July, Business Insider published a report analyzing the appearance of “Good Rudi” and questioning the marketing of AI chatbots toward young children in general: “My first reaction to Grok having a kid-focused AI chatbot was ‘why?’” senior technology and culture correspondent Katie Notopoulos wrote.
Notopoulos said she accessed the chatbot and “played around with Rudi for a while,” noticing that it “successfully dodged” the “questions on touchy subjects” that she posed to it. But she acknowledged that she “only tested out Rudi for a little while” and “wouldn’t rule out that someone else could get Rudi to engage with something inappropriate if they tried harder than I did.”
Just a few months later, Live Action’s October report seemed to reveal that “Good Rudi” can and will, if asked, provide harmful responses on questions having to do with abortion.
The outlet noted that Grok’s child-focused “companion” appeared to be putting “ideology over truth,” even though xAI founder Elon Musk – who previously argued in favor of defunding Planned Parenthood – said he intended Grok to be a chatbot that isn’t “super woke.”
In her Business Insider piece, Notopoulos said she didn’t have answers on why chatbots were being geared toward children, noting that “xAI didn’t respond to my email requests for comment.” But she offered a few guesses, including simply that “the chatbot business is a good business for keeping people engaged… hooking people into long chats and spending lots of time on the app.”
But whatever the reasons are behind marketing chatbots toward children, Live Action argued that the current reality should trigger watchfulness among parents.
“As advancements in technology continue to develop and emerge, parents should remain cognizant of potential dangers,” the pro-life outlet noted. “Abortion is the intentional killing of a preborn child in the womb, a fact, alongside the risks to the woman, which are not provided by Musk’s childrens’ ‘companion’.”
The necessity of parental involvement has become a topic of increasing importance in recent years, as Planned Parenthood and pro-abortion legislators have worked to exclude parents from irreversible decisions made by minors about abortion and gender interventions. In Oregon, minors as young as 15 can obtain abortions without parental knowledge.
