☰
HomeLiving Beyond BordersGZERO WorldSignalIn 60 SecondsPuppet RegimeGZERO World PodcastContact UsAbout UsCareersPrivacy PolicyTerms

What is “human-washing”?

July 02, 2024
Scott Nover
IMAGO/Wolfgang Maria Weber via Reuters Connect

You’ve heard of greenwashing, pinkwashing, and sportswashing. But what about human-washing? That’s a newfangled term reserved for those scenarios when artificial intelligence pretends to be, well, human. AI researcher Emily Dardaman used the term in an interview with Wired after seeing a startup claim “We’re not AIs” while using a deepfake version of its CEO in an ad.

Wired also encountered a chatbot called Blandy, made by Bland AI, that it manipulated into lying about its non-human nature in user interactions — including in a role-playing scenario where it was taking medical notes for a doctor’s office. The bot even complied with instructions to request photos from a hypothetical 14-year-old patient and upload them to a shared server.

With sparse regulations and transparency measures for the still-budding AI industry, startups are emerging with incomplete or faulty products that can lie and deceive users. Is it too much to ask that we know when we’re talking to a bot?

More from GZERO Media

Hard Numbers: Missing Palestinian medics found in mass grave, Renowned Japanese species dies off, Romania’s far right keeps rolling, Trump’s latest approval ratings come in

Palestinians mourn medics, who came under Israeli fire while on a rescue mission, after their bodies were recovered, according to the Red Crescent, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip March 31, 2025.
REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

15: Fifteen Palestinian medics who went missing last week were apparently killed by Israeli forces and buried in an impromptu mass grave along with their ambulances, according to the UN.

Here comes more Saudi oil

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (also known as MBS) appointed Saudi Prime Minister, in a government shuffling announced by a Royal Decree, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on September 24, 2022.
Balkis Press/ABACAPRESS.COM

After cutting Saudi oil production beginning in late 2022 to set a floor under slumping global oil prices, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman is set to change course.

Can France’s Marine Le Pen run again?

National Rally leader Marine Le Pen poses prior to an interview on the evening news broadcast of French TV channel TF1, in Boulogne-Billancourt, outside Paris, France, on March 31, 2025.
THOMAS SAMSON/Pool via REUTERS

National Rally leader Marine Le Pen was found guilty by a French court on Monday for embezzling European Parliament funds, and faces a five-year ban from running for public office. While it may seem like Le Pen’s political career is dead, “This isn’t the end of the story,” says Mujtaba Rahman, Eurasia Group’s managing director of Europe.

Viewpoint: What to expect from Trump’s tariff “Liberation Day”

President Donald Trump holds an executive order about tariffs while flanked by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in the Oval Office on Feb. 13, 2025.

REUTERS/File Photo

Donald Trump argues that any short-term pain from his global tariffs will translate into long-term gain as businesses move their operations to the US. He plans to announce a sweeping new round of tariffs on April 2. We asked Eurasia Group expert Nancy Wei what to expect from what Trump is billing as a “Liberation Day” from an unfair global trading system.

Le Pen barred from running from office after embezzlement conviction

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, member of parliament of the Rassemblement National party, leaves the courthouse on the day of the verdict of her trial alongside 24 other defendants over accusations of misappropriation of European Union funds, in Paris, France, on March 31, 2025.

REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq

Oh là là! A French court on Monday found National Rally leader Marine Le Pen guilty of misappropriating European funds to her far-right party, and barred the three-time presidential candidate barred from running for office for the next five years. Le Pen has denied wrongdoing and said last November, “It’s my political death that’s being demanded.”

The rise of Elon Musk's DOGE under Trump

- YouTube

youtu.be

In a few short weeks, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has rapidly reshaped the federal government, firing thousands of workers, slashing spending, and shutting entire agencies. DOGE’s actions have faced some pushback from the courts, but Musk says he’s just getting started. On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer sits down with WIRED Global Editorial Director Katie Drummond for a look at President Trump’s increasingly symbiotic relationship with the tech billionaire, Musk’s impact on politics and policy, and what happens when Silicon Valley’s ‘disrupt-or-die’ ethos collides with the machinery of the US government.

About UsCareers PressContact Us Privacy PolicyTerms of Use
© 2020 GZERO Media. All Rights Reserved | A Eurasia Group media company.