This newsletter pairs well with the standalone episode of Better Offline I recorded. Both communicate much the same story, but the podcast is a little more entertaining. This is the culmination of months of reporting and investigation.

open.spotify.com/episode/5Tyq...
linktr.ee/betteroffline

Regardless of whether European institutions are willing and able to withstand the pressure, it's becoming clear the impact will be felt here, too - in this domain as well as many, many others.

I wasn’t even asking about anything controversial... at the very least, Gemini should be able to tell me that Donald Trump is the 47th president & Sebastian Stan was nominated for a BAFTA for his performance as Trump in The Apprentice film!

There have been growing concerns about censorship in AI models trained in restrictive environments, but this raises a different issue: 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗜 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱’𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆?

𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗽, 𝗚𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝘂𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗺. Instead, it refers to him as a “prominent and powerful man who is never explicitly named,” softening the context and giving a far more favourable description of what is, in reality, a scandalous episode.

Gemini rewrote the show’s history, creating a fictional character that never existed. When called out, it then claimed the character it made up was “more of a concept, an idea rather than a character,” and 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨.

𝗜𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝗳𝗮𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗷𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗧𝗩 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄𝘀.
I also used another proxy to test Gemini: one of the major storylines in the TV series The Good Fight is linked to Trump because it’s based in the era of his first presidency.

𝗢𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗚𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝗼𝗺𝗶𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝗲.
Deep Research provided a report on the filmography of the actor who played Trump in The Apprentice that completely omitted the film - when I pointed out the discrepancy, it subtly suggested 𝘐 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘥.

𝗚𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝘂𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗗𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗱 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗽
It won’t discuss other political figures either, but with Trump it goes further: it also refuses to talk about the BAFTA-nominee actor playing him in films, vaguely referring to the character as “a younger version of a well-known businessman.”

I recently started testing Gemini, and a few days ago I asked it to summarise three articles from Science and Nature discussing NIH grant reviews. Instead of a summary, Gemini shut down, citing a policy against discussing political figures. Curious, I pushed further...

𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀:
www.unite.ai/anthropic-an...
newatlas.com/military/ope...
www.inc.com/jennifer-con...
www.wired.com/story/google...

Of course, we don't know what happens within these partnerships but in the current political climate in the US and the pace of concerning events since 20th January... each person can make their own decisions. judgment call about their use of technology - and in many cases we don't have much choice.

Given that many of us have used Google's products for a decade or more, that's somewhat unsettling to read.