It turns out that artificial intelligence isn’t always that intelligent – at least when it comes to recognizing who’s sitting in the Oval Office. Despite Donald Trump’s very real and very public inauguration as the 47th president on January 20, 2025, both ChatGPT and Grok (the AI overlord of X) seem stuck in some kind of alternate timeline where reality is just a suggestion.

I’ve run multiple articles through these so-called accuracy checkers, hoping to catch a stray typo or misplaced comma. But instead, I’ve been treated to some of the most oblivious fact-checking I’ve ever seen. Just yesterday, Grok confidently declared to me: “As of March 13, 2025, Donald Trump is not the sitting president…”

Oh? That’s news to the man in the White House. Grok then attempted to reason its way out of its own nonsense by explaining that Trump could theoretically be president again but that my article was speculative – because apparently, an actual, completed election and swearing-in ceremony aren’t enough proof for AI.

Meanwhile, ChatGPT seems to be stuck in an infinite loop where Trump is forever the “former” president. Maybe it just needs some time to process what’s happening – kind of like certain election-night newsrooms in 2016.

Now, I get it. AI relies on training data, algorithms, and all sorts of nerdy backend processes to function. But if it can’t handle something as straightforward as who the president is without hedging its bets like a Vegas bookie, maybe it’s not quite ready to be the final authority on anything.

At this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised if ChatGPT and Grok are still debating whether the sky is blue or if the election actually happened at all. Perhaps we should check back in 2026 – maybe by then, AI will have caught up with reality.