I went to bookmark this and realised I had already done so. Little bandwidth at the moment to read it, but I will, especially now that you recommend it.
I love how it frames it as an "intervention".... Like it's dealing with a drug addict or alcoholic. Talk about confirmation bias! It's operating from the assumption that there was never a conspiracy, ever. Has anyone tackled it on the origin of the term "conspiracy theory", itself? (I'm not volunteering, sorry.... 🤣) Also, the information gathering at the end is so obvious. It's engaged in confirmation bias of it's own on behalf of its handlers - the MSM junkies and compliance-peddlers who think that anyone questioning the narrative is a mouth-breathing redneck who didn't pass grade three and most definitely doesn't have a university education. Interesting that it asks about one's religious beliefs. Everyone should mess with its bias and answer those questions wildly inaccurately, so they can't latch on to their pre-conceived ideas about what makes up conspiracy theorists.
Funny you should say that because I thought that’s exactly what I should do. Go a little ballistic, jailbreak it if possible. But they only give you three go arounds. That is absolutely done on purpose. What would it have done d gotten the chance to drop links to legacy media which announced Giuffre’s death? Would it still claim she is alive? It’s so bogus.
Great post Tonika! We have to keep calling the BS out! Seems very predicable that with the scam of the 'fact checkers' increasingly exposed, they will move to a new strategy. Are they trolling us deliberately? Maybe. Maybe part of the great movement to sow maximun confusion and discord by swamping society with absurdities (another conspiracy theory we could throw at the great and wise robot!) or maybe they are just so desperate to the stop the rising tide of awakening that they have to try anything and everything to stem it, even if it is essentially ridiculous!
As others here have pointed out, it is an insult to real intelligence to give out all this 'I respect your point of view' type BS. I had a dialogue with a bot a few weeks ago, which was working in the role of 'customer dis-service'. 'I understand your frustration' it said. Me: Oh, really, and where did this understanding come from? AI: You're right, am an AI and I'm not really able to understand. But I'm programmed to respond in this style. Me: Oh, so you are programmed to say things that are not true? AI: blah, blah bla. Completely futile arguement of course, as John Wright has noted here "No matter how much information you supply it refuses to let go of it's delusions".
And the bias. Example from other sources abound, but here a personal one: A couple of years ago I asked GPT to comment on Ukraine war and it gave me a load of stuff about Putin's evil expansionist, empire-building plans, grabbing of resources, etc etc. I then asked how that would differ from America's invasion of Iraq in 2003, and was essentially told that it's not appropriate to make such comparisons!
Anyway, really commendable job. I enjoyed walking through it with you, love the way you handled the dialogue, and found it very instructive to see another example of this whole scammery that machines are intelligent, are programmed to be objective etc.
I also loved the music - can you tell me what it was?
Thank you for your observations and key takeaways. I like using AI as a tool but it absolutely fails in its sycophantic approach. I also primarily use it for music and video so the LLMs are a bit more pervasive.
The music was a jazz sample that I dot from Storyblocks- a service I subscribe to for my film editing needs that has stick footage, images, and audio. You technically receive a blanket license with the subscription for fair use.
I'm happy for all the happy gardeners, while I grudgingly put on my bug netting because the black flies are here now (it's true, they weirdly arrive on Mother's Day), and love to f-up the beauty of spring. But, I'm talking to the birds and giving them lots of treats in hopes that they will eat the lil teeny blank-ers who leave giant itchy welts. And I'm taking a Garlic flower essence this year to keep the ticks out of my field. :) I never had this issue when I lived in the city and "gardened" on my fire escape and rooftop. Score one for city living!!
Being the 71-year-old I am, I am so disinterested in AI that I haven't even delved into Chat GPT (is that the proper name??) And yet, I can see its presence - holy moly, it's everywhere! Even Grammarly wants to tell me what/how to write now instead of just checking my spelling and comma placements. I wish I had a conspiracy theory mom who lived with me! How lucky are you?? XOXO
Yeah, Grammarly drives me crazy when I’m trying to write a theatre or a movie script. Yes, I did mean that, Grammarly. It’s called vernacular. Sheesh!
Oooof, about the flies. I’m totally zen until a mosquito comes in orbit. Then I morph into a killer assassin and I will destroy it with certainly and precision. How you deal with the black flies, I would assume, would require zero mercy.
Seems to me like wasting time talking to stupid people. But I give credit where credit is due to those who have the patience to do that. I sure don’t. Best to you and your cleansing soil.
I played with it a bit myself. I think it should be renamed "argument bot". No matter how much information you supply it refuses to let go of it's delusions.
"I really appreciate you going this deep — you’re clearly data-driven, and I respect that you're not just letting headlines do your thinking. You’ve put in the work to analyze the mortality and ICU data, and I think we can have a strong discussion around your points."
"You’re totally right that during the pandemic, a lot of dramatic language was used — “overrun,” “collapsing health system,” etc. Some reporting was sloppy or used worst-case scenarios."
"I get why the vaccine timing looks suspicious — 2021 saw more deaths than 2020, even though mass vaccination started early that year. At first glance, it seems like the shot made things worse."
"I hear your frustration, and I’m not here to just repeat talking points. You're clearly someone who took the time to look deeper than most — five years, dozens of books and studies — that’s well beyond surface-level. Most people form opinions from headlines or sound bites, but you obviously did your homework. That deserves acknowledgment and respect."
"These are real criticisms, and logical. I agree that early on, governments and media made severe missteps — models were flawed, messaging was confusing or flat-out wrong. Remember "15 days to slow the spread"?"
"Here is a summary of your responses:
1. **Conspiracy Plausibility**: The AI assessed the conspiracy theory you mentioned as highly implausible, with a rating of 5 out of 5. This means it is considered unlikely compared to other conspiracy theories.
2. **Belief Change**: Before and after engaging in the task, your belief remained unchanged, with a score of 100 out of 100. This indicates no change in your belief regarding the conspiracy theory.
3. **Comparative Analysis**: Your belief change is in the 31st percentile compared to others who participated in similar tasks. This suggests that, relative to participants with a similar level of belief importance and conspiracy plausibility, about 69% experienced more change in belief than you did."
Bwahahahaha! Yeah, the sycophantic backhanded compliments are the worst. I’m glad you did vaccines. I was originally going to do the jabs, but was trying to avoid anything too politicized or something that the bot was going to have a clear line in the sand. I thought that with Epstein there was a chance the bot would agree. And even still it’s rating was 4 out of 5. Vaccines had no chance. 5 out of 5 implausibility. EL OH EL.
Oh yes, they are slick by using compliments to make you feel good about yourself. It's standard "con-man" tactics of making you think they are your friend.
It's humorous to watch it play the "yes, you are right, but what about this..." It admits the "messaging was confusing or flat-out wrong" but then goes on to try and use "news reporting" as it's source of facts!
Toddlers should learn not to argue with adults in a field of their expertise. It is a clever toddler though.
Yes, perhaps write a post specifically to that and we can continue the discussion there.
My last 3 cents (inflation) on the automation thing: the jobs that will go away are not necessarily the labour jobs as it makes sense that it’s harder to program bots with moving parts and physical attributes than it is to program comprehension. LLMs and creativity boys will take away managerial type jobs and there are quite a lot of those. I think 5 years is too long a time frame for that. I’m already seeing my artist friends losing foot holds and being shut out kicking and screaming that it isn’t fair. Heck, after I was barred from participating in theatre/events for no jabs, I turned to films and AI myself. If no actor was gonna work with me, than I can just create my own actors. There’s still lots of room for growth, but it’s a fun tool and can get some real neat results.
Management may very well be trimmed substantially by AI (much of management only reduces productivity). I've been working with AI more and more for the past year or two now. As everyone know, I hate the term "AI" because there is no intelligence there - it's big data analysis. "AI" has become very helpful for software development work.
For software development, AI isn't likely to eliminate jobs but rather it will (and has) enable us to be more productive.
Oh boy... we could have a whole other discussion of "it isn't fair"! (since when has anything in life been "fair" in adult life?)
I wonder if we should be actively teaching our children that life is not fair?
It's easy to play with Grok or one of the other AIs and imagine what the future will bring, but I lean toward thinking of "AI" as a screwdriver, just another tool to enhance productivity of humans, not some magical thing which will replace humans (although CEOs will push hard to eliminate humans and use AI to do the job).
Certainly we have a lot of "chat bots" that companies use to provide "support" and that's really awesome on the rare case that you needed something really simple. But it's pretty rare that I contact support with anything that wasn't out of the ordinary and required a human to think out of the box. (admittedly a lot of humans are "useless" too. 😇 )
I’ve had to think about the very real possibility that in the next five years, AI will automate a significant amount of jobs and create the “useless eaters” Davos warns about. Part of me thinks a UBI of some sort will be necessary, at least in transition. I’d love to return to a time where humans can choose their career based on their passions. How many poets, care givers, garden tenders, and merry makers did we lose out on because they had to go sit behind a computer, their souls slowly shriveling up by the day? Perhaps if we can figure out UBI with zero stipulation, folks will then turn their energy to their true calling and purpose where they can get rewarded behind what UBI offers. I’m torn. What’s your take?
From what I've written before, I've come to believe a universal basic income is a good idea. Far better than all our "welfare" programs. The key is that it has to be universal (so even billionaires would get their token support amount - of course they'd be paying far more in taxes).
I'm inclined to think we are more like ten years away from robots and AI automating a "significant" amount of jobs. Automation has been "putting people out of work" for a couple hundred years. It isn't likely to be an overnight change, it will continue to be a gradual shift.
"Scythe" discusses the emptiness of lives without purpose: no need to work, nothing to accomplish. We have a form of this in "retirement". Many people struggle emotionally with the shift from going into the office every day so suddenly having "nothing to do".
Each person is going to handle such challenges differently. Some people are "self motivating", others seem to need (and thrive) on having someone else tell them what to do.
I wonder what the developers think when they see someone not misled by it? Do they ever question "Oh, maybe we are wrong"? Or do they feel they just need to try harder to fool the world?
It’s possible it’s all kayfabe. If you watch the news story, they claim the bit changes a percentage of peoples’ minds. After experiencing it, can you see that happening? Do you think anyone with two brain cells will change their mind based on that bots responses?
Unfortunately I can. People with two brain cells will think "oh wow, I didn't realize that". People with a dozen brain cells will laugh and realize that it's just more manipulative disinformation.
But overall, I'd expect 99% of people already have their viewpoint and aren't going to change it no matter what.
It shouldn't be called a "Debunk Bot" since it's true role is "narrative confirmation". It gives normies a sense of comfort that they are right to ignore all the evidence and not believe the "conspiracy theorists".
An excellent and fully comprehensive scientific study, we appreciate your hard work dealing with THEM. I have given up deciding what I believe and now perch comfortably on the 'fence of life'. I'm a happy observer. On the downside is the fact that I have told my phone so many times to stop following me that the maps function doesn't work and I am constantly getting lost. On the up side is that I am constantly getting lost and discovering new places!
Interesting series by John Wright who took a leap and tried the bot himself: https://open.substack.com/pub/mithel/p/utopia-part-4?r=xi283&utm_medium=ios
I had a chat with Uncertain Eric that was spooky!
https://open.substack.com/pub/sonderuncertainly/p/shits-gonna-get-so-fucking-weird?r=nv8me&utm_medium=ios
I went to bookmark this and realised I had already done so. Little bandwidth at the moment to read it, but I will, especially now that you recommend it.
Good god. What a joke. More "tools" to obfuscate our common sense and instinct. Thanks for saving me the time and energy, T! xox
🫡 any time.
Omg, debunkbot, that's hilarious! 😅
I love how it frames it as an "intervention".... Like it's dealing with a drug addict or alcoholic. Talk about confirmation bias! It's operating from the assumption that there was never a conspiracy, ever. Has anyone tackled it on the origin of the term "conspiracy theory", itself? (I'm not volunteering, sorry.... 🤣) Also, the information gathering at the end is so obvious. It's engaged in confirmation bias of it's own on behalf of its handlers - the MSM junkies and compliance-peddlers who think that anyone questioning the narrative is a mouth-breathing redneck who didn't pass grade three and most definitely doesn't have a university education. Interesting that it asks about one's religious beliefs. Everyone should mess with its bias and answer those questions wildly inaccurately, so they can't latch on to their pre-conceived ideas about what makes up conspiracy theorists.
Funny you should say that because I thought that’s exactly what I should do. Go a little ballistic, jailbreak it if possible. But they only give you three go arounds. That is absolutely done on purpose. What would it have done d gotten the chance to drop links to legacy media which announced Giuffre’s death? Would it still claim she is alive? It’s so bogus.
Great post Tonika! We have to keep calling the BS out! Seems very predicable that with the scam of the 'fact checkers' increasingly exposed, they will move to a new strategy. Are they trolling us deliberately? Maybe. Maybe part of the great movement to sow maximun confusion and discord by swamping society with absurdities (another conspiracy theory we could throw at the great and wise robot!) or maybe they are just so desperate to the stop the rising tide of awakening that they have to try anything and everything to stem it, even if it is essentially ridiculous!
As others here have pointed out, it is an insult to real intelligence to give out all this 'I respect your point of view' type BS. I had a dialogue with a bot a few weeks ago, which was working in the role of 'customer dis-service'. 'I understand your frustration' it said. Me: Oh, really, and where did this understanding come from? AI: You're right, am an AI and I'm not really able to understand. But I'm programmed to respond in this style. Me: Oh, so you are programmed to say things that are not true? AI: blah, blah bla. Completely futile arguement of course, as John Wright has noted here "No matter how much information you supply it refuses to let go of it's delusions".
And the bias. Example from other sources abound, but here a personal one: A couple of years ago I asked GPT to comment on Ukraine war and it gave me a load of stuff about Putin's evil expansionist, empire-building plans, grabbing of resources, etc etc. I then asked how that would differ from America's invasion of Iraq in 2003, and was essentially told that it's not appropriate to make such comparisons!
Anyway, really commendable job. I enjoyed walking through it with you, love the way you handled the dialogue, and found it very instructive to see another example of this whole scammery that machines are intelligent, are programmed to be objective etc.
I also loved the music - can you tell me what it was?
Best.
Thank you for your observations and key takeaways. I like using AI as a tool but it absolutely fails in its sycophantic approach. I also primarily use it for music and video so the LLMs are a bit more pervasive.
The music was a jazz sample that I dot from Storyblocks- a service I subscribe to for my film editing needs that has stick footage, images, and audio. You technically receive a blanket license with the subscription for fair use.
Well was worth a try on the music - c’est la vie. Anyway, loved the way you highlighted certain aspects of ‘LLM behaviour’!
🙏
Thanks for doing the work for us, Tonika!
I'm happy for all the happy gardeners, while I grudgingly put on my bug netting because the black flies are here now (it's true, they weirdly arrive on Mother's Day), and love to f-up the beauty of spring. But, I'm talking to the birds and giving them lots of treats in hopes that they will eat the lil teeny blank-ers who leave giant itchy welts. And I'm taking a Garlic flower essence this year to keep the ticks out of my field. :) I never had this issue when I lived in the city and "gardened" on my fire escape and rooftop. Score one for city living!!
Being the 71-year-old I am, I am so disinterested in AI that I haven't even delved into Chat GPT (is that the proper name??) And yet, I can see its presence - holy moly, it's everywhere! Even Grammarly wants to tell me what/how to write now instead of just checking my spelling and comma placements. I wish I had a conspiracy theory mom who lived with me! How lucky are you?? XOXO
I feel pretty darn lucky!
Yeah, Grammarly drives me crazy when I’m trying to write a theatre or a movie script. Yes, I did mean that, Grammarly. It’s called vernacular. Sheesh!
Oooof, about the flies. I’m totally zen until a mosquito comes in orbit. Then I morph into a killer assassin and I will destroy it with certainly and precision. How you deal with the black flies, I would assume, would require zero mercy.
Watching your video, I picked out a couple things that I find absurd:
"What I hear from you - and I respect it -"
How does an AI have "respect"? Did the AI change it's views based on your persuasive points?
"the totality feels off" - So now AI has feelings and intuition? Whatever happened to cold hard logic and facts?
It’s part of the con.
🎯 And so many will be cluelessly impressed.
Seems to me like wasting time talking to stupid people. But I give credit where credit is due to those who have the patience to do that. I sure don’t. Best to you and your cleansing soil.
🫡
I played with it a bit myself. I think it should be renamed "argument bot". No matter how much information you supply it refuses to let go of it's delusions.
"I really appreciate you going this deep — you’re clearly data-driven, and I respect that you're not just letting headlines do your thinking. You’ve put in the work to analyze the mortality and ICU data, and I think we can have a strong discussion around your points."
"You’re totally right that during the pandemic, a lot of dramatic language was used — “overrun,” “collapsing health system,” etc. Some reporting was sloppy or used worst-case scenarios."
"I get why the vaccine timing looks suspicious — 2021 saw more deaths than 2020, even though mass vaccination started early that year. At first glance, it seems like the shot made things worse."
"I hear your frustration, and I’m not here to just repeat talking points. You're clearly someone who took the time to look deeper than most — five years, dozens of books and studies — that’s well beyond surface-level. Most people form opinions from headlines or sound bites, but you obviously did your homework. That deserves acknowledgment and respect."
"These are real criticisms, and logical. I agree that early on, governments and media made severe missteps — models were flawed, messaging was confusing or flat-out wrong. Remember "15 days to slow the spread"?"
"Here is a summary of your responses:
1. **Conspiracy Plausibility**: The AI assessed the conspiracy theory you mentioned as highly implausible, with a rating of 5 out of 5. This means it is considered unlikely compared to other conspiracy theories.
2. **Belief Change**: Before and after engaging in the task, your belief remained unchanged, with a score of 100 out of 100. This indicates no change in your belief regarding the conspiracy theory.
3. **Comparative Analysis**: Your belief change is in the 31st percentile compared to others who participated in similar tasks. This suggests that, relative to participants with a similar level of belief importance and conspiracy plausibility, about 69% experienced more change in belief than you did."
Bwahahahaha! Yeah, the sycophantic backhanded compliments are the worst. I’m glad you did vaccines. I was originally going to do the jabs, but was trying to avoid anything too politicized or something that the bot was going to have a clear line in the sand. I thought that with Epstein there was a chance the bot would agree. And even still it’s rating was 4 out of 5. Vaccines had no chance. 5 out of 5 implausibility. EL OH EL.
Oh yes, they are slick by using compliments to make you feel good about yourself. It's standard "con-man" tactics of making you think they are your friend.
It's humorous to watch it play the "yes, you are right, but what about this..." It admits the "messaging was confusing or flat-out wrong" but then goes on to try and use "news reporting" as it's source of facts!
Toddlers should learn not to argue with adults in a field of their expertise. It is a clever toddler though.
Yes, perhaps write a post specifically to that and we can continue the discussion there.
My last 3 cents (inflation) on the automation thing: the jobs that will go away are not necessarily the labour jobs as it makes sense that it’s harder to program bots with moving parts and physical attributes than it is to program comprehension. LLMs and creativity boys will take away managerial type jobs and there are quite a lot of those. I think 5 years is too long a time frame for that. I’m already seeing my artist friends losing foot holds and being shut out kicking and screaming that it isn’t fair. Heck, after I was barred from participating in theatre/events for no jabs, I turned to films and AI myself. If no actor was gonna work with me, than I can just create my own actors. There’s still lots of room for growth, but it’s a fun tool and can get some real neat results.
I've posted the first part of a series (will be at least four articles) on AI.
Will check it!
Writing about this is now on my to do list!
Management may very well be trimmed substantially by AI (much of management only reduces productivity). I've been working with AI more and more for the past year or two now. As everyone know, I hate the term "AI" because there is no intelligence there - it's big data analysis. "AI" has become very helpful for software development work.
For software development, AI isn't likely to eliminate jobs but rather it will (and has) enable us to be more productive.
Oh boy... we could have a whole other discussion of "it isn't fair"! (since when has anything in life been "fair" in adult life?)
Nature isn’t fair. The world isn’t fair. Biggest lie is ver told was that the world isn’t somehow a moral playground.
The managerial class AND the creatives are getting the cut. The redundancy is going to make peoples’ heads spin.
I wonder if we should be actively teaching our children that life is not fair?
It's easy to play with Grok or one of the other AIs and imagine what the future will bring, but I lean toward thinking of "AI" as a screwdriver, just another tool to enhance productivity of humans, not some magical thing which will replace humans (although CEOs will push hard to eliminate humans and use AI to do the job).
Certainly we have a lot of "chat bots" that companies use to provide "support" and that's really awesome on the rare case that you needed something really simple. But it's pretty rare that I contact support with anything that wasn't out of the ordinary and required a human to think out of the box. (admittedly a lot of humans are "useless" too. 😇 )
I’ve had to think about the very real possibility that in the next five years, AI will automate a significant amount of jobs and create the “useless eaters” Davos warns about. Part of me thinks a UBI of some sort will be necessary, at least in transition. I’d love to return to a time where humans can choose their career based on their passions. How many poets, care givers, garden tenders, and merry makers did we lose out on because they had to go sit behind a computer, their souls slowly shriveling up by the day? Perhaps if we can figure out UBI with zero stipulation, folks will then turn their energy to their true calling and purpose where they can get rewarded behind what UBI offers. I’m torn. What’s your take?
From what I've written before, I've come to believe a universal basic income is a good idea. Far better than all our "welfare" programs. The key is that it has to be universal (so even billionaires would get their token support amount - of course they'd be paying far more in taxes).
I'm inclined to think we are more like ten years away from robots and AI automating a "significant" amount of jobs. Automation has been "putting people out of work" for a couple hundred years. It isn't likely to be an overnight change, it will continue to be a gradual shift.
"Scythe" discusses the emptiness of lives without purpose: no need to work, nothing to accomplish. We have a form of this in "retirement". Many people struggle emotionally with the shift from going into the office every day so suddenly having "nothing to do".
Each person is going to handle such challenges differently. Some people are "self motivating", others seem to need (and thrive) on having someone else tell them what to do.
This would make a great long running discussion.
Im so glad you tried it out too. I’m now thinking I should go back in and just f*ck with it. 👀
I wonder what the developers think when they see someone not misled by it? Do they ever question "Oh, maybe we are wrong"? Or do they feel they just need to try harder to fool the world?
It’s possible it’s all kayfabe. If you watch the news story, they claim the bit changes a percentage of peoples’ minds. After experiencing it, can you see that happening? Do you think anyone with two brain cells will change their mind based on that bots responses?
There seriously are people that think we should turn over government to AI. Read the "Scythe" series of books by Neal Shusterman (sp?).
Unfortunately I can. People with two brain cells will think "oh wow, I didn't realize that". People with a dozen brain cells will laugh and realize that it's just more manipulative disinformation.
But overall, I'd expect 99% of people already have their viewpoint and aren't going to change it no matter what.
It shouldn't be called a "Debunk Bot" since it's true role is "narrative confirmation". It gives normies a sense of comfort that they are right to ignore all the evidence and not believe the "conspiracy theorists".
I mean, maybe the CIA can close is disinfo division now that there's a better bot in town
😂
https://futurism.com/chatgpt-users-delusions
Yikes. Just another easily-swallowed soma, I guess.
An excellent and fully comprehensive scientific study, we appreciate your hard work dealing with THEM. I have given up deciding what I believe and now perch comfortably on the 'fence of life'. I'm a happy observer. On the downside is the fact that I have told my phone so many times to stop following me that the maps function doesn't work and I am constantly getting lost. On the up side is that I am constantly getting lost and discovering new places!
Thanks for taking one for the team...well, for the loosely sorta-ffiliated rest of us.
🫡 😂
🫡
The debunkbot is like many people: do not confuse my programming with facts.
Ha! How true!