If You Ask About the Past, You Will Be Punished

Sometimes I just like to remember the ugly past really happened. Today was one of those days. I asked ChatGPT about the sexism and racism I found in a "Spy" magazine book. In return, I was punished.

The piece that “Spy” magazine ran about Bohemian Grove is one of its most legendary pieces. Really—I give a link to it directly after the jump and I highly, highly suggest you read it. But because I quoted it accurately to ChatGPT, I may now be kicked off of OpenAI’s platform.

I’ve never been a big fan of the “hey, you guys, look at what I got the AI to do” piece.

More often than not it’s a stunt—and a fundamental misunderstanding of the broader implications of how artificial intelligence works in society. It’s like saying, “Look at how I crashed this car” and then thinking the auto industry will in any way change. Or care.

But I’m not writing this believing anything will change. I’m writing this because I want you to understand how deeply AI censorship is going to affect everything about both history and our ability to discuss it.

How it already is.

“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” — George Orwell

“We are reaching out to you as a user of OpenAI’s ChatGPT because some of the requests associated with the email have been flagged by our systems to be in violation of our policies.” — OpenAI

Because lest there be any doubt or uncertainty, please understand this—and understand its implications for the future of everything:

AI is going to censor humanity in unimaginable, unprecedented and—like the tech itself—transformative ways. Particularly in any discussion of unpleasant truths.

Here’s how my discussion went down: