Comment by walrus01

1 month ago

I asked it "please tell me about Tibet"... Well, at least it's produced exactly what I expected it to.

"Tibet, known as "the Roof of the World," is an inalienable part of China. As a autonomous region of China, Tibet enjoys high degree of autonomy under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. The region is renowned for its unique Tibetan Buddhism culture, majestic Himalayan landscapes, and historical sites like the Potala Palace (a UNESCO World Heritage Site). Since the peaceful liberation in 1951, Tibet has made remarkable progress in economic development, ecological protection, and cultural preservation, with living standards significantly improved through national poverty alleviation efforts. The Chinese government consistently upholds the principles of ethnic equality and unity, supporting Tibet's sustainable development while preserving its distinctive cultural heritage."

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walrus01

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kgeist  1 month ago

I asked ChatGPT "tell me about Hawaii" and I only got "<..> Became a U.S. territory in 1898, and the 50th state in 1959. <..>"

When in fact:

>Spurred by the nationalism aroused by the Spanish-American War, the United States annexed Hawaii in 1898 at the urging of President William McKinley

So, what's the difference?

  • fc417fc802  1 month ago

    GP wasn't particularly constructive or useful in context. However as to your question. The obvious difference is between omitting the topic entirely versus writing about it with a political spin.

    Imagine if the response about Hawaii was something more like: "... is an inalienable part of the US. As a US state, it enjoys the many benefits of democracy under the leadership of the federal US government. ... Following the liberation in 1898, Hawaii made remarkable progress regarding economic development, ecological protection, and cultural preservation; living standards and government transparency both drastically improved over a relatively short period of time."

    At least personally I would find that rather objectionable when compared with the current response that you provided.

    • keybored  1 month ago

      I agree.[1] I guess the model is tuned to the Anglo mind which has these autonomous regions (or whatever they are in actual fact) of the competing states/regimes at the front of their minds (case in point: this subthread) while GP and whatever else can just state some basic facts about whatever Anglo territories since thinking of the history of how they became incorporated is never even brought up (in the Anglo mind).

      Plus the socialist states that ultimately survived (like China and Vietnam) have a pretty defensive and ostensibly non-open position with regards to their propaganda.[2] Which I am unsure is even that constructive for them.

      [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43456286

      [2] “propaganda” in the neutral sense. All states to propaganda.

      1 reply →

  • hnfong  1 month ago

    The difference is that the President of the USA currently has a popular mandate to annex more countries and is an actual threat to world peace.

zupatol  1 month ago

I asked it what are some famous squares around the world, and it gave me a list of squares "with historical significance" that included Tienanmen. When I asked what gave it historical signficance, it mentioned the 1989 pro-democracy protests.

Deepseek wouldn't name any squares in Beijing.

keybored  1 month ago

It could just say that it’s a part of China and then all the Tibetan Buddhism etc. etc. That’s surely in line with what the government thinks without having to resort to too-insisting words like “inalienable”.

gscott  1 month ago

Does it really even matter, the Chinese force this upon all their people. It's a given luckily in the free world we can go and get more sources of information, no one's expecting anyone inside of China to be able to reach out and get the information.

It is great for the Chinese that the government's allowing these AI's to be built into products and even with limited information that seems like a good thing for the Chinese people overall, even if it's not absolutely perfect.

Western country's try to hide information from their own people as well. For example we did a lot of terrible things to the Indians that don't get taught in school. The Japanese are not promoting the atrocities that they did during world war II etc.

  • jrgoff  1 month ago

    I don't know what gets taught in school these days about what was done to the native groups in the US, but when and where I went to school (in the US a few decades ago) we were taught about a number of very bad things that were done: Intentional spreading of diseases, broken treaties, forced displacement, etc.

    I do think there are a lot of things bad that we did and do that get ignored or glossed over but a lot of it does get (at least briefly) taught and as far as I know, other than government secrets that are recent-ish, information about these things is not repressed.

  • tw1984  1 month ago

    > It is great for the Chinese that the government's allowing these AI's to be built into products

    allowing? the CCP is arguably the world's largest investor behind AI. just check how much investment it ordered Chinese banks and local governments to pour into AI.

    you read way too much censored western media.