Charlie Stross
I worry that we are in a brief interregnum during which web browsers can provide good online translation of news sites in other languages.
Sooner rather than later, the big tech folks backing Trump will realize they can corrupt the online translation LLMs to bias foreign news stories in favour of their own political agenda. (After all, isn't propaganda the ideal application for AI slop?)
Jacek Wesołowski
@adaliabooks @cstross When you already have a half-decent translation, you can put another algorithm on top of it that makes simple subsittutions, insertions and deletions, eg. turns "driver kills 3 in a car accident" into "Black driver kills 3".
(how do I know they're black? I don't, and they're probably not, I just blindly inserted "black" because I could)
Adam Cafolla
I think this is one area where the uselessness of LLMs is a bonus, I'm not sure they are reliable enough to be able to consistently bias stories in the way that you'd want.
Charlie Stross
@jackpearse How does that help with following the news from outside the English language filter bubble (which is dominated by right wing propaganda)?
JackPearse
@cstross There is still european legislation. Use european translators ;-)
Zeugs
@cstross in an authoritarian world of strong men all translated content will be machine translated. This will function as information border with unwanted concepts, Infos etc by any side can be blocked instantly.
This keeps the walled garden clean.
And in the long run Learning languages will be forbidden.
Charlie Stross
@jzillw @adaliabooks That's exactly what I'm afraid of.
Canary-in-a-coalmine flashpoints where this is likely to happen first will be news items about Russia/Ukraine and Israel/Palestine, but also possibly China/Taiwan—these are the obvious ones with lots of AI expertise to implement it and/or money to bankroll it, as well as a political agenda to move it along.
Jacek Wesołowski
@Zeugs @cstross As a Pole who works (remotely) in a "German" team, together with two Brits, an Austrian[1], a Bavarian, and an Italian (and that's not even my most international" employer to date), I can't help but notice how that would hurt the entertainment industries. But of course that's what fascists always do: they outlaw fun.
[1] The funny thing about Austria and Bavaria is they have a different German there, arguably a separate though related language.
Charlie Stross
@jzillw @Zeugs Shorter Fascist manifesto: NO FUN ONLY RAGE! RARRR …
Jacek Wesołowski
@Zeugs @cstross I would guess similarities stem from them having a similar agenda.
The thing about Russians not being allowed to call it a war is an idiosyncrasy of the Russian legal system (it's like setting a weight limit for cars to 20 tonnes, but making an exception for agricultural vehicles, and then insisting your new main battle tank is technically a tractor).
Zeugs
@jzillw @cstross
I always wondered how Russia and China get their News censorship synchronized. But probably they just don't have to because the Chinese Russian cultural ties are not that strong. (But I could also be wrong.)
For example: Chinese people call the Russian conflict in Ukraine a war.
What will happen?
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