ChatGPT Restricts Full Bible Quotes, Users Report Sudden Change

By Investigative Tech Desk | January 15, 2024

OpenAI's widely used conversational AI, ChatGPT, has quietly implemented a new restriction that prevents it from delivering full quotations from the Bible, according to user reports. The change, which appears to have been enacted without public announcement, marks a significant shift in how the AI handles requests for religious texts and raises questions about evolving content moderation policies.

User Reports Sudden Shift in AI Behavior

According to a report from a user on the platform Reddit, the alteration in ChatGPT's functionality was abrupt. The user, who goes by the handle SirStocksAlott, stated they had previously used the AI model extensively to "quickly look up Bible verses for related topics" without issue. However, as of a recent interaction, the AI now only provides truncated or partial text when asked for specific scripture passages.

"I’ve never had an issue up until today," the user wrote in a post on the r/ChatGPT subreddit. "Now, it appears that I can only get truncated text. Have tried many times, seems like a problem with internal safeguards." The user's post, which includes an image presumably showing the truncated response, suggests the AI may be intentionally cutting off verses after a certain point or providing only a summary.

Speculation Points to "Internal Safeguards"

The user's hypothesis that the behavior stems from "internal safeguards" points to a deliberate policy change by OpenAI. Large language models like ChatGPT operate under complex sets of rules and filters designed to prevent the generation of harmful, biased, or copyrighted content. The inclusion of religious scripture in this filtered category represents a new and potentially controversial frontier for AI content moderation.

Industry analysts suggest several potential motivations for such a restriction. These could include an effort to avoid misquoting or taking sacred texts out of context, a preemptive move to prevent users from generating hateful or inflammatory rhetoric based on selective scripture, or a legal caution regarding the reproduction of copyrighted translations of the Bible. However, without an official statement from OpenAI, the precise rationale remains speculative.

Broader Implications for AI and Information Access

This incident highlights the opaque and often unpredictable nature of content governance in leading AI systems. While platforms frequently update their models to block explicit violence, hate speech, or misinformation, filtering a foundational text like the Bible touches on issues of religious expression, academic study, and general knowledge access.

The change could disproportionately affect users who rely on ChatGPT for quick reference, theological study, or sermon preparation. It also sets a precedent for how other religious, philosophical, or historical texts might be handled in the future. If the Bible is being truncated, will the same apply to the Quran, the Torah, or significant secular works?

Context of Evolving AI Content Policies

OpenAI has a history of adjusting ChatGPT's outputs in response to societal concerns and misuse. The company has previously tightened restrictions on generating political content, medical advice, and violent narratives. Each adjustment sparks debate about the balance between safety and utility, and between censorship and responsible design.

The restriction on Bible quotes may be part of a broader, less visible update to the model's reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) or its underlying content policy filters. Such updates are rarely detailed in real-time, leaving users to discover changes through interaction and community discussion, as seen on platforms like Reddit.

Community Reaction and Next Steps

The Reddit post has garnered attention from other users in the ChatGPT community, with commenters likely sharing their own experiences and testing the model's new limits. This crowdsourced investigation is a common method for tracking the evolving behavior of "black box" AI systems whose inner workings are not fully transparent.

For now, users seeking full religious texts may need to turn to dedicated websites, digital libraries, or other AI models that have not implemented similar restrictions. The incident serves as a reminder that general-purpose AIs are not static repositories of information but are dynamically controlled platforms subject to the changing policies and risk assessments of their creators.

Requests for comment from OpenAI regarding this specific change had not been returned at the time of publication. This story will be updated with any official response.