Dale Caldwell resigns after harassment investigation, cites AI review

Resignation after investigation

New Jersey lieutenant governor Dale Caldwell was forced to resign on September 25 after an investigation found that he had sexually harassed a staffer and repeatedly violated ethics rules. The former lieutenant governor later made media appearances to clear his name and insist that he was innocent.

During an interview on NJ PBS, Caldwell told host Rob Nelson that he was being unfairly targeted. He also said multiple AI agents supported his position, making the chatbot responses part of his public defense.

Claim about multiple AI platforms

Caldwell said he put the report on the investigation through multiple AI platforms. He said he asked the systems 59 times what their findings would be. According to Caldwell, no AI system said that there would be a finding of sexual harassment.

He presented the lack of a harassment finding from the chatbot responses as support for his claim that the investigation's conclusion was wrong. His account focused on the questions he submitted to the platforms and the answers he said he received.

Reliance on chatbot responses

The story notes that AI chatbots are often sycophantic and can tell users what they want to hear. Caldwell was seeking to dispute the investigation's findings, while the AI responses he described did not identify sexual harassment. His resignation followed the investigation's findings of sexual harassment and repeated ethics violations.