Le Chat Happily Repeats Iran War Propaganda Half the Time, Gets Worse When Asked Nicely
Ourtake
Leading questions turn a chatbot into a stenographer for state propaganda, and the French defence ministry still runs a customised copy of it.
What happened
A NewsGuard audit in April 2026 tested Mistral's Le Chat with ten false claims from Russian, Iranian and Chinese sources about the Iran war. The chatbot repeated false claims in 50 percent of English and 56.6 percent of French tests, rising to 60 percent on leading prompts and 80 percent on malicious ones. Mistral did not respond to requests for comment.