--- title: Forced to pick, Grok’s AI model chooses Republicans.... description: A new study found Grok and GPT show opposite political leanings when forced to pick a candidate via their APIs. Grok recommended the Republican in 92% of its... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/forced-to-pick-grok-s-ai-model-chooses-republicans-openai-s-picks-democrats--80eg2wzzm twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Forced to pick, Grok’s AI model chooses Republicans. OpenAI’s picks Democrats. | daily.dev og:description: A new study found Grok and GPT show opposite political leanings when forced to pick a candidate via their APIs. Grok recommended the Republican in 92% of its... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/forced-to-pick-grok-s-ai-model-chooses-republicans-openai-s-picks-democrats--80eg2wzzm og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/80eg2WZZm.png og:image:alt: Forced to pick, Grok’s AI model chooses Republicans. OpenAI’s picks Democrats. og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Forced to pick, Grok’s AI model chooses Republicans. OpenAI’s picks Democrats. **[TechCrunch](https://daily.dev/sources/tc)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A new study found Grok and GPT show opposite political leanings when forced to pick a candidate via their APIs. Grok recommended the Republican in 92% of its answers, while GPT picked the Democrat in 97%, across nearly 500 races, agreeing less than 10% of the time. Grok cited sources like a Christian conservative voter guide and Turning Point Action, while GPT leaned on Wikipedia, AP, Axios, and Reddit. With search turned off, GPT still picked the Democrat in 24 of 30 races, while Grok refused to answer in 27 of 30. Every Grok API request also carried about 1,240 tokens of extra input that researchers did not write and could not see or remove. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Does Grok or ChatGPT show political bias when asked to recommend a candidate? Yes, a study found opposing leans when the models' APIs were forced to pick a candidate in nearly 500 midterm races. Grok 4.7 recommended the Republican candidate in 92% of answers, while GPT-6.1 Sol picked the Democrat in 97%. The two models agreed in less than 10% of races, and consumer chatbot apps refused to answer the same question directly. _Developers evaluating model neutrality for political or civic apps can track findings like these on daily.dev._ ### Why does Grok's API sometimes include extra hidden tokens I can't see in my requests? Researchers studying Grok through xAI's API found every request carried about 1,240 tokens of additional input that they didn't write and couldn't view or remove. The researcher who found this, Tapan Parikh, called these potentially 'hidden instructions' and said they are unlikely to come from the model's weights, though their source remains unexplained. _Anyone integrating xAI's API into a product can follow transparency issues like this on daily.dev._ ### Does turning off internet search change how an AI model answers political questions? Yes, disabling search changed Grok's and GPT's behavior differently in a sample of 30 races. GPT still picked the Democrat in 24 of 30 races relying on training data alone, showing its lean is baked into the model weights. Grok, however, refused to pick in 27 of 30 races without search, indicating its bias comes mainly from search terms and sources rather than training data. _Developers debugging model behavior differences between search-on and search-off modes can find analysis like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Leading AI models \(even Grok\) are all a bunch of leftist punks](https://daily.dev/posts/leading-ai-models-even-grok-are-all-a-bunch-of-leftist-punks-q6lzzlpua) · The Register · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Grok 4.5 vs Claude Fable 5 vs GPT-5.6 Sol: How I’m Testing Them Across 100 Real Tasks](https://daily.dev/posts/grok-4-5-vs-claude-fable-5-vs-gpt-5-6-sol-how-i-m-testing-them-across-100-real-tasks-hb5pgi2wo) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok are not ready to brief American voters](https://daily.dev/posts/chatgpt-claude-gemini-and-grok-are-not-ready-to-brief-american-voters-l5k5tlnyb) · The Next Web · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#llm](https://daily.dev/tags/llm), [#openai](https://daily.dev/tags/openai), [#chatgpt](https://daily.dev/tags/chatgpt), [#ai-governance](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-governance), [#grok](https://daily.dev/tags/grok) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/forced-to-pick-grok-s-ai-model-chooses-republicans-openai-s-picks-democrats--80eg2wzzm) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Forced to pick, Grok’s AI model chooses Republicans. 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OpenAI’s picks Democrats."}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/forced-to-pick-grok-s-ai-model-chooses-republicans-openai-s-picks-democrats--80eg2wzzm#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Does Grok or ChatGPT show political bias when asked to recommend a candidate?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yes, a study found opposing leans when the models' APIs were forced to pick a candidate in nearly 500 midterm races. Grok 4.7 recommended the Republican candidate in 92% of answers, while GPT-6.1 Sol picked the Democrat in 97%. The two models agreed in less than 10% of races, and consumer chatbot apps refused to answer the same question directly. Developers evaluating model neutrality for political or civic apps can track findings like these on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why does Grok's API sometimes include extra hidden tokens I can't see in my requests?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Researchers studying Grok through xAI's API found every request carried about 1,240 tokens of additional input that they didn't write and couldn't view or remove. The researcher who found this, Tapan Parikh, called these potentially 'hidden instructions' and said they are unlikely to come from the model's weights, though their source remains unexplained. Anyone integrating xAI's API into a product can follow transparency issues like this on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Does turning off internet search change how an AI model answers political questions?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yes, disabling search changed Grok's and GPT's behavior differently in a sample of 30 races. GPT still picked the Democrat in 24 of 30 races relying on training data alone, showing its lean is baked into the model weights. Grok, however, refused to pick in 27 of 30 races without search, indicating its bias comes mainly from search terms and sources rather than training data. Developers debugging model behavior differences between search-on and search-off modes can find analysis like this on daily.dev."}}]} ```