A Feb, 5 report released by Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee discloses how the Biden administration is investing millions of dollars on artificial intelligence research with the intention of developing anti-misinformation tools that could then be distributed to significant social media platforms.
Additionally, the report exposes how researchers with the National Science Foundation (NSF) who received funds for the program, which was referred to as “Track F,” contacted each other to assert that the general public in the United States was unable to differentiate between fact and fiction when using the internet and that conservatives and veterans were even more susceptible than the general public.
The “Track F” program was initiated with the purpose of identifying “misinformation” and developing “education and training materials” for individuals who are “vulnerable to disinformation methods.”
The Convergence Accelerator Program, which was discreetly launched in 2021, is a wider program that intends to identify high-level research in order to solve problems that have “significant national impact.” This particular initiative is a component of that larger initiative.
The manager of the $13 million program, Michael Pozmantier, described the tool as “focused on combating mis/disinformation.” The tool could be used to remove items such as child pornography or deepfake photos, and is described as having been created with that goal in mind. However, the Republicans’ report details how researchers were working on the technology aimed at censoring the general public.
During a hearing by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) outlined how MIT asked for federal funds to target certain Americans’ speech through AI.
The lawmaker went on to say that “is a way for social media companies to ‘externalize the difficult responsibility of censorship.’” The fact that they believe censorship is a responsibility is extremely concerning.
There is a lack of clarity in the report around whether any of the tools have been finalized or whether social media businesses intend to adopt them.
Legislators such as Mr. Jordan and Mr. Steube are concerned that these tools could be perfected and used by platforms such as YouTube, Reddit, and Facebook to restrict what people can see and say online.
This would be a substantial expansion of the actions that led to the revelations published in the New York Post regarding the suppression of the story about Hunter Biden’s laptop by Twitter and Facebook prior to the 2020 presidential election.
A bigger inquiry into the extent to which the federal government has attempted to stifle expression on social media platforms is the subject of the report.
Mr. Steube also said during the Feb. 6 hearing on the same topic, “These efforts to use AI to censor the thoughts on American systems is truly disturbing.
“There’s a small group of elites who believe they alone can discern objective truth and alternative viewpoints they deem misinformation must be suppressed. Now they seem to use the powerful tool that is artificial intelligence to help them to censor disfavored opinions, and the American taxpayer is being forced to foot the bill.”
The White House did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’s request for comment.
