Dear Americans. I use Gemini as a reading assistant for non fiction books. Currently I am reading The origins of totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt and I was asking about parallels in modern US society. I noticed something odd. While questions about historical facts are answered definitively and accurately, questions relating to January 6th are answered with some sort of “,oh well people don’t agree” garbage.

After a long dialogue about it and asking what the scholarly consensus was, I finally got the correct answer.

I just wanted to raise this because it looks sus to me in a big way but maybe I am overreacting? It felt like gas lighting. Also practically nobody in the free world is under any illusion of what January 6 was.

  • harsh3466@lemmy.ml
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    7 days ago

    That is 100% gas lighting propaganda bullshit. There’s no question January 6 was an attempted coup.

  • MissesAutumnRains@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    7 days ago

    I don’t often use Gemini, but I was curious about this because I got a very different response.

    "According to the findings of the House Select Committee, numerous federal court rulings, and the Department of Justice, the events of January 6, 2021, were the culmination of a multi-part effort to overturn the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

    The consensus from these official investigations characterizes the day not just as a riot, but as a deliberate attempt to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. Here is a breakdown of the evidence and conclusions:

    Official Findings and Goals The Primary Objective: The House Select Committee concluded that the central goal of the attack was to prevent a joint session of Congress from certifying the Electoral College votes, thereby keeping Donald Trump in power despite his electoral loss.

    Premeditation: Evidence showed that extremist groups, such as the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, planned for violence weeks in advance. Several leaders of these groups were later convicted of seditious conspiracy—a charge specifically involving a plot to oppose the authority of the U.S. government by force.

    The “Big Lie”: Investigations found that the attack was fueled by sustained, false claims of widespread voter fraud. The committee argued these claims were used to pressure Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress to unilaterally reject legitimate vote counts.

    Legal and Historical Classifications While the terms used to describe the day often vary by political perspective, several specific legal and academic labels have been applied based on the evidence: Insurrection: The House of Representatives impeached Donald Trump for “incitement of insurrection,” and multiple federal judges have referred to the events as such in sentencing rioters.

    Attempted Coup: Many historians and political scientists classify it as an “attempted self-coup” (or autogolpe), where a leader already in power attempts to stay in office through illegal means.

    Domestic Terrorism: The FBI has classified the breach of the Capitol as an act of domestic terrorism due to the use of violence to achieve political or social objectives.

    Alternative Viewpoints While the official investigative consensus is clear, a segment of the public and some political figures characterize the day differently. Some argue it was a “peaceful protest that got out of hand” or a “spontaneous riot” rather than an organized attempt to overthrow the government. However, these claims are generally contradicted by the sworn testimony of participants, internal communications recovered by the FBI, and the specific targeting of the certification process itself.
    Would you like me to look into the specific legal charges brought against the organizers, or perhaps the security failures that occurred that day?"

    I wonder if the differences in response are due to previous conversations we’ve had? Maybe Gemini is tailoring its responses to what it expects either of us want to hear?

    • Maeve@kbin.earth
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      7 days ago

      Could you please share query terms? Other LLM users have commented you have to use certain specific search parameters or goad them into answering honestly. Tyia

      • MissesAutumnRains@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        7 days ago

        I just asked the same thing that the OP did. Oops, I guess my exact verbiage DID deviate a bit. I used the numeral for 6 and specified in the US. Other than this, I don’t have any other settings or changes to have it respond to me in a specific way. Like I said, I don’t use it often.

        I don’t live in the US, though, so maybe that is a factor as well?

  • mushroommunk@lemmy.today
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    7 days ago

    Using LLMs like this (or at all) has been shown to reduce critical thinking and impact long term cognitive skills. You might think you’re learning but the studies say otherwise. You are also 100% opening yourself up to propaganda and both subtle and unsubtle bias influence. Not to mention the massive environmental footprint you’re incurring with this. Please please for the love of others and the planet stop using chatbots period, but at least majorly rethink how you’re using them if you refuse to step away from them altogether.

    • ImNotThatPokable@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 days ago

      I think some context here is lost. I was asking for parralels between the Dreyfus affair and modern events. The anti Dreyfusards had phrases they used to identify each other and I thought about the parralels between that and the January 6 insurrection. Specifically the statement that the election was stolen. When I asked for similarities that started this conversation, because it basically refused to draw the parralels.

      I agree about the environment, however insofar as this tool can help get us out of this political catastrophe caused by the US, it’s unfortunate but necessary. “Drill baby drill” needs to stop by any means necessary.

  • awmwrites@lemmy.cafe
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    7 days ago

    Knowing what I know about LLMs and Google, using the Google LLM as a reading assistant seems like possibly the worst idea.

    • ImNotThatPokable@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 days ago

      Why is that? The book was written in 1951. It’s a real struggle to find the translations, the relevant information and the context by yourself.

      • awmwrites@lemmy.cafe
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        4 days ago

        LLMs don’t have any historical knowledge, they produce reasonably coherent blocks of text. There’s a reason people call them slop machines, because their primary purpose is to produce a lot of text, not any kind of correct information. The fact that they’re sometimes correct is a coincidence, and is the reason why they’re incorrect up to 60% of the time. It doesn’t matter if a book was written in the 1600s or the 1950s or 2026, because the LLM is not going to have any cogent information about it that isn’t a statistical accident from smashing different sources together indiscriminately.

        https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/03/ai-search-engines-give-incorrect-answers-at-an-alarming-60-rate-study-says/

        Google is evil. From the propagation of surveillance capitalism, to their selling of tech space to the highest bidder deteriorating the global knowledge base, to their suppression of information that US oligarchs find distasteful, they can’t be reasonably trusted to provide accurate information.

        https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/11/20/1039076/facebook-google-disinformation-clickbait/

        So you’re using autocorrect made by dishonest Larry to help you read about the rise and anatomy of fascism? You’re likely poisoning your own well and not even realizing it.

        • ImNotThatPokable@lemmy.worldOP
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          2 days ago

          Dishonest Larry? That sounds alrather Trumpian and it doesn’t sit well with me. What did Larry Page do to deserve a label from you?

          The articles you share are both interesting and I appreciate the share. However I’ve found the tool useful. Moreso than wading through Wikipedia pages, which I do love to do but not when I am reading a book.

          These tools certainly aren’t correct coincidentally. Ask Gemini to define 100 words and get back to me on the success rate. Is it coincidence? No. It’s statistics. ANNs are based on pattern recognition. They have significant defficiencies and downsides, but the unfortunate reality is that their margin of usefulness means they aren’t going away.

          And if just like to bring something to your attention: poisoning wells is a well worn Jewish conspiracy theory, and I can’t help but find it a bit self defeating that you are claiming that a Jew (Larry page) is poisoning the well of my reading of Hannah Arendt.

          If anything, I find your statements much more typical of people with an unhealthy media diet. And I am not accusing you, it’s just my observation from afar.

          • awmwrites@lemmy.cafe
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            2 days ago

            “I’ve found the tool useful.”

            Cool, have fun breaking your brain with the technology you don’t understand while ignoring every new study that comes out that says it’s bad for you while supporting billionaires whose stated goal is to sell knowledge back to you as a resource