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Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines, unlike the natural intelligence displayed by humans and animals, which involves consciousness and emotionality. The distinction between the former and the latter categories is often revealed by the acronym chosen.

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Russia flooding training data to influence chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude (meduza.io)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

In other news, Five Eyes & Western corporate media disinformation network flooded training data to manipulate Western AI chatbots.

A “well-funded” online Russian disinformation network called Pravda put out 3.6 million articles last year, many of which were processed by popular chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4o, Claude (Anthropic), Meta AI, Gemini (Google), and Copilot (Microsoft), according to a new report from the watchdog group NewsGuard.

This is ridiculous framing. Just as no one forced OpenAI, Meta, Alphabet, or Microsoft to scrape Western propaganda sites like those of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, no one forced them to scrape Russian propaganda sites like Pravda.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's some really low-effort whataboutism.

The tactic is an old favorite of the Soviet Union, and Marxists/the far left in general; the strategy was originally used in the form of "And at your place, they hang black people." The term 'whataboutery' itself, however, only dates back to 1974 with its use in The Troubles in Northern Ireland, whereas the term 'whataboutism' dates back to 1978 with reference to the Soviet Union.

In recent years, whataboutism made a comeback in Russia under Vladimir Putin's regime (since they seemingly learned all the wrong lessons from the Cold War), and has also seen a rise in usage by Donald Trump, his support base, and the rest of the far-right.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Citations Needed podcast: Episode 66: Whataboutism - The Media's Favorite Rhetorical Shield Against Criticism of US Policy

Since the beginning of what’s generally called ‘RussiaGate’ three years ago, pundits, media outlets, even comedians have all become insta-experts on supposed Russian propaganda techniques. The most cunning of these tricks, we are told, is that of “whataboutism” – a devious Soviet tactic of deflecting criticism by pointing out the accusers’ hypocrisy and inconsistencies. The tu quoque - or, “you, also” - fallacy, but with a unique Slavic flavor of nihilism, used by Trump and leftists alike in an effort to change the subject and focus on the faults of the United States rather than the crimes of Official State Enemies.

But what if "whataboutism" isn’t describing a propaganda technique, but in fact is one itself: a zombie phrase that’s seeped into everyday liberal discourse that – while perhaps useful in the abstract - has manifestly turned any appeal to moral consistency into a cunning Russian psyop. From its origins in the Cold War as a means of deflecting and apologizing for Jim Crow to its braindead contemporary usage as a way of not engaging any criticism of the United States as the supposed arbiter of human rights, the term "whataboutism" has become a term that - 100 percent of the time - is simply used to defend and legitimizing American empire’s moral narratives.

We are joined by Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of The Intercept.

Not that it matters, because I didn’t make a whataboutist argument in the first place.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Whataboutism is when you contradict a liberal with a source

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Where a 'liberal' is anyone a totalitarian disagrees with, and a 'source' is a half-hearted general link to a Wikipedia article.

Edit: Davel has now expanded his low-effort response to be more than a Wikipedia link to Five Eyes.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Not that it matters, because I didn’t make a whataboutist argument in the first place.

I agree that you didn't make an argument.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Well... yeah? They just clarified with some context and then you started crying whataboutism. It's not whataboutism to simply point out something that is done by the West.