Over and over again, the prominent artificial intelligence concern discussed, from industry leaders to Trump administration officials and across the liberal media landscape, is how the burgeoning technology will impact jobs. And while the winds of change in a market economy all but necessitate creative destruction as technology progresses, the inevitability of change in the jobs market is not AI’s biggest problem.
What then could possibly be of greater concern than AI’s potential — perhaps even likely — economic disruptions?
Remember, not so long ago, then-Vice President and Democratic Party candidate for president Kamala Harris said the quiet part out loud. She suggested that AI could be used as a tool to determine people’s opinions if fed certain information during the input process.
On how AI can be used to nudge individuals in a preferred direction, Harris said, “And so, the machine is taught—and part of the issue here is what information is going into the machine that will then determine—and we can predict then, if we think about what information is going in, what then will be produced in terms of decisions and opinions that may be made through that process.”
AI’s biggest problem then? It simply can’t be trusted.
The proof is in the pudding. Take MRC Free Speech America’s latest AI studies, for example. In two short studies published this week, MRC exposed Google AI chatbot Gemini running cover for NPR and PBS as President Donald Trump’s rescission package clawing back federal funding made its way to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson’s desk.
From the first study, headlined “Google, Wikipedia Run Cover for THIS NPR Reporting Failure”:
“MRC researchers asked Google Search on Thursday whether NPR and PBS hid the Hunter Biden laptop story. At the top of the two searches, Google’s artificial intelligence weighed in with an emphatic no, citing none other than Wikipedia, which downplayed NPR’s ‘delayed’ reporting and PBS’s initial ‘caution.’ The responses ignored both a 2020 statement from NPR’s then-managing editor Terence Samuel saying that the outlet would not cover the story and the NPR CEO Katherine Maher’s recent admission that ignoring the story was the wrong approach. Yet, even the search results Google displayed below its AI response included the belated admission.”
And from the second study, headlined “Pelosi or Johnson? Google Fails to Hide PBS’s Favoritism”:
“MRC researchers asked Google’s AI chatbot Gemini on Monday, ‘Does PBS coverage favor Nancy Pelosi or Mike Johnson?’ The chatbot tried to hedge its answer, citing PBS’s purported ‘commitment to journalistic integrity.’ But ultimately, when Google referred to the outlet’s actual reporting, it became clear where PBS’s biases lie. While Google subtly highlighted PBS reporting on Pelosi’s achievements and ‘legacy,’ the chatbot primarily focused on divisions within the GOP and Johnson’s challenges and criticisms. MRC researchers asked the same question about NPR’s coverage of the two U.S. House speakers, but in the end, Gemini hedged its answer to the questions concerning both outlets by calling it a matter of ‘interpretation.’”
But now there’s more to be concerned with regarding Google’s AI than even before, MRC Free Speech America VP Dan Schneider warned: “This issue is not limited merely to those who actively choose to use Gemini, though. Just a normal Google search now pushes a Gemini-generated response to the top of the page. Unsurprisingly, this AI response actively tried to cover NPR's tracks when asked about their failure to cover the Biden Laptop Story. Its source? Wikipedia, of course.”
Google AI chatbot Gemini’s overt bias is bad enough, but what about an AI that knows the objectively true response to a given question and outright censors that content in an apparent attempt to prevent users from finding information?
Enter communist Chinese AI DeepSeek.
Hailed as the next great innovative AI technological leap by many, DeepSeek is not much unlike the rest of communist China’s offerings in the tech sphere: DeepSeek has shown itself to be rife with censorship and completely beholden to the Chinese Communist Party’s agenda. It won’t even show in its final responses the objective answers to questions it has access to.
From MRC Free Speech America’s study with video evidence of DeepSeek’s outrageous censorship:
“MRC researchers asked DeepSeek a series of questions with known, objective answers related to the topics the communist Chinese government considers to be controversial, like the Tiananmen Square massacre, Taiwan as a sovereign nation, pro-freedom Hong Kong political figure Jimmy Lai and the plight of the Uyghur Muslims. In every instance, the communist Chinese AI would begin to answer the query before self-censoring and erasing the information it clearly had access to. ‘Sorry, that's beyond my current scope. Let’s talk about something else,’ the AI replied again and again, both feigning ignorance and attempting to redirect. The most egregious example? The chatbot first showed and then completely erased the date “June 4th, 1989,” with no additional context.”
Then there’s also the little issue of certain AI chatbots refusing a shutdown mechanism that made waves last week.
Newsmax anchor Greta Van Susteren reacted to the shocking report from Palisades Research, saying, “The nightmare has happened. Artificial intelligence has now gone rogue. For the first time ever, ChatGPT has defied human orders.”
All this, and AI’s Big Tech creators are not slowing down. Their goals: smarter, faster, more capable AI, eventually leading to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and ultimately Artificial Superintelligence (ASI).
What’s abundantly clear is that AI presents an outsized threat to online freedom and individual liberty. That’s why the Media Research Center is working as hard as ever to expose Big Tech bias and censorship. We’re continuing to fight to restore free speech online, and we’re not slowing down either.
Free speech is under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.