UPSC Educator Vijender Chauhan Sparks Row: Claims ChatGPT Biased Towards Upper Castes Due to Training Data Dominance

BharatTone News Exclusive Date: January 19, 2026 Hyderabad, Telangana

In a statement that has ignited fierce debates across social media and educational circles, prominent UPSC coach and Hindi literature expert Dr. Vijender Chauhan (also known as Vijendra Singh Chauhan) has accused popular AI chatbot ChatGPT of inherent upper-caste bias.

According to Chauhan, the core issue lies in the composition of the training data used to build large language models like ChatGPT. He asserted:

“ChatGPT is biased towards upper caste because the training data is dominated by upper castes.”

In an extended remark that has since gone viral, he elaborated: “ChatGPT’s data has largely been created by upper-caste, privileged sections of society. One should not expect social justice from it.”

The UPSC educator, renowned for his motivational sessions and mock interviews for civil services aspirants, made these comments in a recent video clip that quickly spread on platforms like YouTube, Threads, Facebook, and WhatsApp groups. He argued that AI tools mirror the societal inequalities embedded in their source material—primarily content produced by educated, urban, and historically advantaged communities—leading to skewed outputs on caste-related topics.

Backlash and Counter-Arguments

The statement triggered immediate backlash online. Critics, including tech enthusiasts and fellow educators, dismissed the claim as an oversimplification or even an attempt to politicize technology. Common counterpoints include:

• AI models like ChatGPT are fundamentally statistical and mathematical systems trained on vast internet-scale data, not deliberate ideological tools.
• Biases, if present, stem from real-world data imbalances rather than intentional “upper-caste dominance.”
• Accusing AI of casteism distracts from genuine issues like improving data diversity and representation in tech development.

Several YouTube channels, including “Kumar Shyam on 8PM,” have released explainer videos titled “Is Chat GPT Caste-Biased? Vijender Chauhan’s Statement Explained” and “Viral UPSC Controversy | Is ChatGPT Really Anti-Dalit?”, analyzing the claim and attempting to debunk or contextualize it.

Hindi news portal Oneindia published a detailed report on January 17, 2026, headlined: “ChatGPT Caste: AI निकला ‘सवर्ण’, UPSC गुरु विजेंद्र चौहान ने दिया ऐसा तर्क, सोशल मीडिया पर छिड़ी ‘महाजंग'”, describing the viral video and the ensuing online war of words.

Broader Context on AI and Caste Bias in India

This controversy arrives amid growing global discussions on algorithmic bias. Earlier studies and reports (including some from 2025) have highlighted instances where AI models exhibit unintended caste-linked patterns, such as associating certain surnames with professions or altering Dalit-associated names in generated content due to statistical correlations in training corpora.

Chauhan’s remarks have reignited questions: Can AI ever be truly neutral? Whose voices shape the digital knowledge base? And how can underrepresented communities ensure fairer representation in the data that powers tomorrow’s technologies?

As the debate rages, Dr. Vijender Chauhan has not issued further clarification at the time of this report. BharatTone reached out to his team for comment but received no response.

What do you think? Is AI reflecting societal biases, or is this an overreach in applying caste lenses to technology? Share your views in the comments below.

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