OpenAI, the startup behind the popular ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot is planning to award 10 equal grants from a fund of $1 million for experiments in democratic processes to determine how AI software should be governed to address bias and other factors.

The $100,000 grants will go to recipients who present compelling frameworks for answering such questions as whether AI ought to criticize public figures and what it should consider the median individual in the world, according to reports.

Critics say AI systems like ChatGPT have inherent bias due to the inputs used to shape their views. Users have found examples of racist or sexist outputs from AI software. Concerns are growing that AI working alongside search engines like Alphabet Inc's Google and Microsoft Corp's Bing may produce incorrect information in a convincing fashion.

OpenAI, backed by $10 billion from Microsoft, has been leading the call for regulation of AI. Yet it recently threatened to pull out of the European Union over proposed rules.

“The current draft of the EU AI Act would be over-regulating, but we have heard it's going to get pulled back. They are still talking about it,” says OpenAI's chief executive Sam Altman.

The startup's grants would not fund that much AI research. Salaries for AI engineers and others in the red-hot sector easily top $100,000 and can exceed $300,000.

Microsoft too has recently endorsed comprehensive regulation of AI even as it has vowed to insert the technology into its products, racing with OpenAI, Google and startups to offer AI to consumers and businesses.

AI is already behind several widely believed spoofs. One recent phony viral image of an explosion near the Pentagon briefly affected the stock market.