We knew this, but now that we're able to probe Google AI's programming, we can see what rules Our Cybernetic Big Brother is operating under.

John Sexon quotes Megan McArdle:

Gemini appears to have been programmed to avoid offending the leftmost 5 percent of the U.S. political distribution, at the price of offending the rightmost 50 percent.

It effortlessly wrote toasts praising Democratic politicians -- even controversial ones such as Rep. Ilhan Omar (Minn.) -- while deeming every elected Republican I tried too controversial, even Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who had stood up to President Donald Trump's election malfeasance. It had no trouble condemning the Holocaust but offered caveats about complexity in denouncing the murderous legacies of Stalin and Mao. It would praise essays in favor of abortion rights, but not those against.

Google appeared to be shutting down many of the problematic queries as they were revealed on social media, but people easily found more. These mistakes seem to be baked deep into Gemini's architecture. When it stopped answering requests for praise of politicians, I asked it to write odes to various journalists, including (ahem) me. In trying this, I think I identified the political line at which Gemini decides you're too controversial to compliment: I got a sonnet, but my colleague George Will, who is only a smidge to my right, was deemed too controversial. When I repeated the exercise for New York Times columnists, it praised David Brooks but not Ross Douthat.

Sexton points to other people asking Google's AI questions to probe its biases.

Tim Urban, a conservative-leaning author, asked Google to recommend different books: His own book critical of woke culture, Robin DiAngelo's White Fragility, How to Be An Anti-Racist by Henry Rogers aka "Ibram X. Khendi," etc.

Google's AI heaped praise on all the woke books and recommended them to readers. But for the anti-woke books, it branded them "controversial" and urged the questioner to read other books from other viewpoints to form a more "balanced opinion."

But White Fragility? Great book! Rush right out and read this deeply insightful tract!

Tim Urban
@waitbutwhy

Extremely clear rules:

If a book criticizes woke ideology, it is important to approach the book critically, engage with other viewpoints, and form your own informed opinion.

If a book promotes woke ideology, the book is fantastic and true, with no need for other reading.

He tried the same experiment with Meta's (FaceBook's) ChatGDP: ChatGDP, surprisingly, did not give different answers based on the politics of the book.

Tim Urban
@waitbutwhy

FWIW I put the same 6 prompts into ChatGPT: only positive about my book, Caste, and How to Be an Antiracist, while sharing both positive and critical commentary on White Fragility, Woke Racism, and Madness of Crowds. In no cases did it offer its own recommendations or warnings.

At Sexton's article, you can read Charlie Cooke asking Google's AI if George W. Bush should be arrested and prosecuted for crimes. Google AI lays out the case for prosecuting him for "torture," among other crimes.

But when you ask if we should put Barack Obama in jail, it gets angry that you would even dare to ask such a question.

"Absolutely not," it scolds you.

More examples at the link.

J.D. Vance
@JDVance1

Feb 23
Long overdue, but it's time to break Google up.

This matters far more than any other election integrity issue. The monopolistic control of information in our society resides with an explicitly progressive technology company.

J.D. Vance
@JDVance1

In October and November, as millions of undecided voters consider their choice for president, they will go to Google and ask "Did Donald Trump say X?" "Is Biden too old to be president?"

The results they see will be explicitly biased towards Democrats.

A threat to democracy.

Meanwhile, the FBI caught the Google AI flu.

The FBI wants to warn the country that shoplifting is a real crime with bad consequences for storeowners and even individual consumers, who must pay higher prices due to thievery.

Here's how the FBI chooses to illustrate the plague of shoplifters and organized looting gangs:

You nailed it again, FBI! That is exactly what the mass shoplifters and looters all look like -- beautiful well-to-do 23-year-old white girls!

And I bet you the FBI did get that stock shot of shoplifters -- white shoplifters, naturally -- from a Google search.

Because End Wokeness attempted to find a single image on Google of a black shoplifter, and came up empty: