Philly sheriff's team blames ChatGPT after fake, flattering headlines appeared on campaign website

The sheriff of Philadelphia County, who has battled one controversy after another since taking office in 2020, is now facing questions about some phony headlines that recently appeared on her campaign website.

On Monday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Sheriff Rochelle Bilal, a Democrat, had perhaps as many as 30 headlines posted on her campaign website that were either fabricated out of whole cloth or connected to articles that did not relate to Bilal. The headlines were attributed to several different area news outlets, including NBC10, CBS3, WHYY, and the Inquirer.

As recently as last week, some of the site's headlines, supposedly from NBC10, referenced Bilal's leadership regarding COVID-19 policies, police reform, free gun lock programs, and victims of domestic violence. NBC10 spokesperson Diana Torralvo confirmed that none of those articles and headlines could be authenticated.

"We have one video similar to the Sheriff’s Office’s headline about the Sheriff’s Office handing out free gun locks," Torralvo told the Inquirer via email. "However, that story was done in 2016, before Rochelle Bilal was in office."

Bilal's website also shared an article entitled "Philly Sheriff’s Office Announces Temporary Halt to Evictions Amid Coronavirus Outbreak" attributed to WHYY and dated March 16, 2020. WHYY did publish an article on March 15, 2020, entitled "Philadelphia halts evictions as coronavirus bears down," but the article made no mention of Bilal or the sheriff's office.

Even three headlines about Bilal's supposed crime-fighting partnership with far-left DA Larry Krasner could not be substantiated. "After searching our email and web archives, we were unable to locate any press releases, announcements, or news clips that match what those headlines describe," Jane Roh, a spokesperson for Krasner, told the Inquirer.

On Friday, the Inquirer reached out to Bilal's campaign team about the headlines, apparently setting off a series of strange mitigation efforts by the sheriff or members of her campaign staff. First, the headlines were removed from the site. A few hours later, the headlines had returned but with an oddly worded disclaimer attached to them. The disclaimer read: "While we endeavor to keep the information up-to-date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information provided."

By Monday, the headlines were removed once again, and the link to the page about Bilal's "record" in office was broken. Finally, the campaign team fessed up that the supposed headlines had been generated by ChatGPT. "Our campaign provided the outside consultant talking points which were then provided to the AI service," a campaign statement said. "It is now clear that the artificial intelligence service generated fake news articles to support the initiatives that were part of the AI prompt."

Bilal, who was first elected in November 2019, was just re-elected in a landslide three months ago. Despite her apparent popularity with voters, her tenure as sheriff has been rife with controversy.

In 2020, the Office of Controller for the city of Philadelphia reported that the sheriff's office had more than 200 firearms unaccounted for. A follow-up audit issued by the acting controller last fall indicated that one shotgun, four semi-automatic handguns, and 71 revolvers or handguns remained missing, Blaze News previously reported.

Bilal has also been accused of massaging the budget to double her salary, and since April 2021, her office has failed to resell properties seized for unpaid taxes, possibly costing the city millions in missed revenue.

Some have even criticized Bilal for adopting the language of the thugs she is entrusted with locking up. "You don't want this smoke," she warned those harboring fugitives last May, Blaze News reported.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!