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.
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.
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.