GIGO Remains GIGO

I used to tell my students that simply relying on keyword searches was not research, because without the manual labor of research, you didn’t understand the results you were getting:

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s February memo ordering all diversity, equity and inclusion-related content to be removed from Pentagon websites was so vague that military units were instructed to simply use keyword searches like “racism,” “ethnicity,” “history” and “first” when searching for articles and photos to remove, and to interpret the directive “broadly,” multiple defense officials told CNN.

The implications of Hegseth’s memo were overwhelming, since the Defense Department manages over 1,000 public-facing websites and a huge visual media database known as DVIDS – with officials expected to purge everything relevant within two weeks. As a result, the manual work of individual units was supplemented with an algorithm that also used keywords to automate much of the purge, officials explained.

Other keywords officials were instructed to search for included “firsts” in history, including content about the first female ranger and first Black commanding general, as well as the words “LGBTQ,” “historic,” “accessibility,” “opportunity,” “belonging,” “justice,” “privilege,” respect” and “values,” according to a list reviewed by CNN.

The Pentagon explained:

“Every now and then, because of the realities of AI tools and other software, some important content was incorrectly pulled offline to be reviewed,” Parnell said. “We want to be very, very clear: History is not DEI. When content is either mistakenly removed – or if it is maliciously removed – we continue to work quickly to restore it.”

And yet, as ew points out:

4) The shitty AI that led them to take down Jackie Robinson is the same shitty AI that Elon is using to look for what he falsely claims is fraud.

Fraud is a concept. It’s not a thing, like a desk or a car. And in our system of government it is a legal concept, one determined by a court, where all parties to the allegations and the conflicts allegations raise, can present their evidence and arguments, usually to a jury. And their decision can be reviewed by other people. But never just one person. Certainly not some rando college dropout who happens to have a lot of money, but whose every business decision is a disaster.

That’s not the rule of law at all.

And AI is not a magic thinking box from a science fiction movie, because thinking involves understanding. And AI doesn’t understand anything; like some people. Which is why our system of government doesn’t depend on one person.