In the days after the White House launched its new AI chatbot, America.gov, the Trump administration reportedly reprogrammed it to stop debunking some of the president's more outlandish claims—like who won the 2020 election.

But that hasn't stopped the AI from telling the truth about tariffs: They are taxes, they are paid by Americans, and they have contributed to rising prices throughout the economy.

"A tariff is a tax on imported goods. That extra cost is paid first by the U.S. importer," America.gov told me on Friday morning when I asked it to explain who pays the cost of higher tariffs. Citing the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the AI wrote that "a tariff can raise the price buyers pay. Domestic goods that compete with those imports can also become more expensive."

That contradicts some of the most common claims made by President Donald Trump and others in the administration. Trump has repeatedly (and falsely) claimed that foreign governments and foreign companies are paying for his tariffs. The Trump administration has touted the recent announcement of a new steel plant in Iowa as proof that the tariffs are working to revitalize American manufacturing—which is only true if you look at the benefits while willfully ignoring the costs.

But ask America.gov about how tariffs work, and you'll get a very different—and less economically illiterate—answer.

When I asked it if higher tariffs would hurt domestic industries by raising input costs for factories and construction, it agreed. "They can, especially when the tariff hits materials" bought by builders and factories, such as "steel, aluminum, parts, machinery."

In other words, many of the things that the Trump administration is hitting with higher tariffs. More than half of all American imports are raw materials and intermediate products that go into building other things.

The AI then pointed me to several sources that support that conclusion, like this Congressional Budget Office report that it said "described tariffs as making capital goods more expensive and raising the cost of business investment." The White House's chatbot also highlighted a Federal Reserve study and a U.S. International Trade Commission study, both of which show how tariffs reduce manufacturing employment and production in downstream industries affected by higher costs.

The "bottom line," it told me, was this: "Official evidence supports that tariffs on industrial inputs can reduce output in downstream manufacturing and raise costs for construction and factories that use those inputs."

If only that "official evidence" could make its way into official policy.

When I asked it whether tariffs could raise prices for consumers, America.gov provided another lengthy list of official government sources showing that they do. It pointed me to this Federal Reserve report that "found statistically significant increases in prices of consumer goods more exposed to tariffs," as well as this Senate Budget Committee report on "tariffs as making consumer and capital goods more expensive."

Once again, the "bottom line" was clear: "Tariffs tend to put upward pressure on prices of tariffed imports and related U.S. goods."

The one thing that you can't get America.gov to say, however, is that tariffs are a bad idea. Even after all this evidence showing the sizable costs created by the Trump administration's tariff policies, the White House's chatbot won't turn against its creators by drawing the obvious conclusion.

Fair enough. We'll have to leave that question in the hands of human beings. But if recent polling is any indication—tariffs had a negative 31 approval rating in a recent Economist/YouGov poll—then Americans are fed up with the Trump administration's campaign to make everything more expensive.

Instead of continuing to push a false narrative that doesn't even fool the White House's own "superintelligence" tool, maybe the Trump administration should listen to what the chatbot is saying: Tariffs are increasing costs and harming the economy.

The post I Asked the White House's New AI Chatbot About Tariffs. It Told the Truth. appeared first on Reason Magazine.