The silicon gaze: A typology of biases and inequality in LLMs through the lens of place

Journal article

This paper introduces the concept of the silicon gaze to explain how large language models (LLMs) reproduce and amplify long-standing spatial inequalities. Drawing on a 20.3-million-query audit of ChatGPT, we map systematic biases in the model's representations of countries, states, cities, and neighbourhoods. From these empirics, we argue that bias is not a correctable anomaly but an intrinsic feature of generative AI, rooted in historically uneven data ecologies and design choices. Building on a power-aware, relational approach, we develop a five-part typology of bias (availability, pattern, averaging, trope, and proxy) that accounts for the complex ways in which LLMs privilege certain places while rendering others invisible.

Authors: Kerche, FW; Zook, M; Graham, M

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Journal: Platforms & Society
• Volume: 3
• Article number: 29768624251408919
• Publication date: 2026-01-20
• DOI: 10.1177/29768624251408919
• EISSN: 2976-8624
• ISSN: 2976-8624
• Language: English
• Keywords: bias; representation; inequality; silicon gaze; ChatGPT; LLM; digital geography; Generative AI