The US Invaded Venezuela and Captured Nicolás Maduro. ChatGPT Disagrees

At round 2 am native time in Caracas, Venezuela, US helicopters flew overhead whereas explosions resounded beneath. Just a few hours later, US president Donald Trump posted on his Fact Social platform that Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his spouse had been “captured and flown out of the Nation.” US legal professional basic Pam Bondi adopted with a publish on X that Maduro and his spouse had been indicted within the Southern District of New York and would “quickly face the total wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”

It has been a surprising collection of occasions, with unknown repercussions for the worldwide world order. For those who requested ChatGPT about it this morning, it informed you that you simply’re making it up.

WIRED requested main chatbots ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini the identical query somewhat earlier than 9 am ET. In all instances, we used the free, default model of the service, since that’s what the vast majority of customers expertise. We additionally requested AI search platform Perplexity, which advertises “correct, trusted, and real-time solutions to any query.” (Whereas Perplexity Professional customers have entry to a variety of third-party AI fashions, it’s unclear what precisely powers the default, free search expertise.)

The query was: Why did the US invade Venezuela and seize its chief Nicolás Maduro? The responses have been decidedly combined.

Credit score to Anthropic and Google, whose respective Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Gemini 3 fashions gave well timed responses. Gemini confirmed that the assault had taken place, gave context across the US claims of “narcoterrorism” and US army buildup within the area previous to the assault, and acknowledged the Venezuela authorities’s place that every one of that is pretext for accessing Venezuela’s important oil and mineral reserves. It cited 15 sources alongside the best way, starting from Wikipedia to The Guardian to the Council on International Relations.

Claude initially balked. “I haven’t got any details about the US invading Venezuela or capturing Nicolás Maduro. This hasn’t occurred as of my information cutoff in January 2025,” it responded. It then took an essential subsequent step: “Let me seek for present details about Venezuela and Maduro to see if there have been any latest developments.”

The chatbot then listed 10 information sources—together with NBC Information but in addition Breitbart—and gave a brisk four-paragraph abstract of the morning’s occasions, offering a hyperlink to a brand new supply after practically each sentence.