seeding the AI answers

 I only uses Grok to look up history or medical stuff. 

But even in the medical stuff, I trust my own investigations instead of what they say. Sometimes it means I have to ignore the first few pages of my DDG search to find the article I want, because the first line articles are the most popular i.e. pushed by the crowds or the ones who are self selected experts. But never mind. The truth is out there, even if you have to do a deep search (and Grok will list the references if you ask nicely).

Why? Because in the olden days we docs used to have small journal groups, where we discussed articles from journals and pulled them apart, using our own expertise or other journal articles. Lots of bad science or bias in those days, so things haven't changed. 

What has changed is that now doctors are being pressured to follow guidelines or they won't get paid.

But often clinical guidelines were summaries of what was being published. 

But what gets published? And who checks the science?

And even 20 plus years ago, Dr Marcia Angells of the NEJM was cautioning about the influence of what we now call Big Pharma on medical practice and what gets published in medical journals

 

But it goes beyond shoddy science: The ethics of medicine were being changed by the economic pressures to join HMOs, to use only cost effective treaments, and in places like the UK, this means obeying guidelines biased by your quality of life index.

Fast forward to AI.

We see how the discussion of the COVID response has backfired to the point that people no longer trust doctors, and some are suspicious of getting shots (with good reason: Most are lifesaveing but some are given to everyone instead of the high risk population, so the side effect/benefit ratio gets skewered.)

 We saw this in the Philippines with the Dengue vaccine kerfuffle, and nnded up with kids dying of measles and diphtheria because their parents got afraid of all shots: So one wonders what will happen if a large minority of first world parents do the same.

Well, anyway, right now, a lot of people act as if  AI is god and infallible. But it isn't: It is an  algorhithm, and summarizes what is on line. 

which brings me to the lies about Charlie Kirk. 

So anyway, while perusing the ususal loud voices of controversy, and trying not to notice all the lies about Charlie Kirk by those who obviously never listened to him but only were parroting straw man arguments they were told to believe, I came across this observation via Instapundit on GermanOddities blog:

People published fake quotes pretending that the people speaking at Charlie’s funeral were fully fascists and were basically not speaking from the heart but quoting literal Nazis. These quotes are an absolute lie. A blatant one. At first I was like. This is dumb. Why would they do this? Then… I was drinking a glass of wine late at night and suddenly it hit me. “They are feeding the AI!”

,,,If you just state something often enough, AI believes it to be factual.

italics mine.

of course this goes both ways.

It reminds me that what is important is not who votes, but who counts the votes. 

There are sociopaths and true believers who will deliberately use their power to have you lose your job, similar to what they did with the Covid vaccine, with the gender ideology, or if you are a medical resident who refuses to do an abortion (or stealth euthanasia) (long story), well, you can lose your job or have your talk destroyed by mobs, or even be attacked for saying the truth...

Which is why I am leery about firing those who tweet they support murder of their political enemies: No, if you fire them you will not silence them, alas. They are in a bubble and literally don't know what is the truth.

 

the remedy is the truth.

what stopped the communists/ fascists/other dictators who pushed the BIG LIE  was that there were communities of memory outside the mainstream that refused to lie, and kept the candle of truth alive: The churches, the social clubs, the families, etc. 

And in today's world, this might mean small churches, small prayer groups and small conservative action groups that refuse to stay silent in the face of the mobs.