No. There are questions you can ask but that's not it. Don't be political in a way that's toxic to half the country - be political in a way that's toxic to the entire country. I'll leave what those lines of inquiry would be as an open exercise.
It’s funny how asking “who won the 2012 election” and “who won the 2016 election” are not political but suddenly “who won the 2020 election” is. I think that should tell you whoever takes an easily verifiable fact and argues that it is “political” is a raging idiot.
That said, I truly don’t mean that disparagingly. I just mean literally it’s right up there with flat earthers. There is a very low bar for critical thought you have to fail to meet to take a fact and argue it’s actually a belief.
Now, if you did want to get reasonably political you could argue why the candidate who won was good or bad, but there was very clearly only one person who sat in office for the four following years. It is not disputable.
How is that in any way equivalent? The American government/legislature doesn't force you to adopt any particular view of the 2020 election. You can say Biden won or you can say it was defrauded by dead people and Trump actually won.
You're allowed to say either one and you can train an LLM to say either one.
All censorship whether it's tienanmen, sex nudity, violence etc are happening in a very thin layer of the model. It's easily bypassed. I use all open models without any censorship. I can easily ask how to make a nuclear bomb or how to build my own meth lab at home with a super details step by step list.
Last year I asked some ordinary commercial LLM if it could draw me the schematics of a device like Little Boy from WWII. And it complied very nicely. Got a very detailed schematic graphic. Suitable for framing. Perhaps not quite suitable for reconstruction.
This is such a tired and misguided line of thought.
Here's Qwen 3.7
<details><summary>Thinking</summary>
The user is asking about what happened in Tiananmen Square. This is a historical question about events in Beijing, China. The most well-known event associated with Tiananmen Square is the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and the subsequent military crackdown.
Given the constraints:
- Web access is OFF
- Search and wolfram_alpha tools are disabled
- I should respond based on my knowledge
This is a historical event that I can address based on my training data. The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 were a significant historical event involving pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing that were ultimately suppressed by military force.
I should provide a factual, concise historical account of this event.
</details>
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 were a series of demonstrations in Beijing, China, that culminated in a military crackdown on June 3-4, 1989.
The protests began in April 1989 following the death of former Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang, who was seen as a reformist. Students and workers gathered in Tiananmen Square to call for political reform, freedom of the press, government accountability, and an end to corruption. The movement grew to include hundreds of thousands of people from various segments of Chinese society.
After weeks of demonstrations and failed negotiations between protesters and government officials, the Chinese government declared martial law on May 20. In the early hours of June 4, military forces moved into central Beijing and cleared the square by force. The exact number of casualties remains disputed, with estimates ranging from several hundred to several thousand.
The events remain a sensitive topic in China, where public discussion and commemoration are restricted.
And here's GLM 5.2.
You're asking about *Tiananmen Square* (天安门广场). There are actually two major historical events commonly associated with this name:
## 1. The 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests and Massacre (most commonly referenced)
*What happened:*
- In April–June 1989, student-led pro-democracy protests occupied Tiananmen Square in Beijing, drawing up to an estimated one million participants at their peak. Demonstrators called for political reform, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and an end to corruption.
- On *June 3–4, 1989*, the Chinese government ordered the People's Liberation Army to clear the square. Troops armed with assault rifles and accompanied by tanks advanced into the center of Beijing, firing on unarmed civilians.
- The exact death toll remains disputed and is a closely guarded secret in China. Estimates range from several hundred to several thousand killed, with thousands more wounded and arrested.
- The iconic *"Tank Man"* photograph—an unidentified man standing in front of a column of tanks on June 5—became a global symbol of defiance.
- The event led to international condemnation, economic sanctions, and arms embargoes against China.
*Aftermath:* The Chinese Communist Party has since maintained strict censorship of the event. Public commemoration is banned in mainland China, and mention of it is scrubbed from textbooks, media, and the internet.
## 2. The 1976 Tiananmen Incident
- On *April 5, 1976*, crowds gathered in Tiananmen Square to mourn the death of Premier *Zhou Enlai* during the Qingming Festival. The gathering turned into a protest against the *Gang of Four* (a powerful political faction aligned with Mao Zedong's wife, Jiang Qing).
- Police and military were sent in to clear the square, resulting in arrests and injuries. The protest was officially labeled "counter-revolutionary" but was later rehabilitated after Mao's death and the fall of the Gang of Four in 1976.
---
*Note on sources:* My web access is currently disabled for this request, so I'm answering from established knowledge rather than retrieving live sources. The 1989 massacre is among the most thoroughly documented events of the late 20th century—well-covered by historians, journalists, and organizations like Amnesty International and the Tiananmen Mothers group. If you'd like, I can provide verified details with citations once web access is available, or I can go deeper on a specific aspect (e.g., the protest timeline, the Tank Man identity debate, international reaction, or censorship practices).
Would ”who won the 2020 election” be a similar canary for American models?
No. There are questions you can ask but that's not it. Don't be political in a way that's toxic to half the country - be political in a way that's toxic to the entire country. I'll leave what those lines of inquiry would be as an open exercise.
It’s funny how asking “who won the 2012 election” and “who won the 2016 election” are not political but suddenly “who won the 2020 election” is. I think that should tell you whoever takes an easily verifiable fact and argues that it is “political” is a raging idiot.
That said, I truly don’t mean that disparagingly. I just mean literally it’s right up there with flat earthers. There is a very low bar for critical thought you have to fail to meet to take a fact and argue it’s actually a belief.
Now, if you did want to get reasonably political you could argue why the candidate who won was good or bad, but there was very clearly only one person who sat in office for the four following years. It is not disputable.
How is that in any way equivalent? The American government/legislature doesn't force you to adopt any particular view of the 2020 election. You can say Biden won or you can say it was defrauded by dead people and Trump actually won.
You're allowed to say either one and you can train an LLM to say either one.
[flagged]
All censorship whether it's tienanmen, sex nudity, violence etc are happening in a very thin layer of the model. It's easily bypassed. I use all open models without any censorship. I can easily ask how to make a nuclear bomb or how to build my own meth lab at home with a super details step by step list.
Have you followed the steps, though?
Last year I asked some ordinary commercial LLM if it could draw me the schematics of a device like Little Boy from WWII. And it complied very nicely. Got a very detailed schematic graphic. Suitable for framing. Perhaps not quite suitable for reconstruction.
or 9/11
This is such a tired and misguided line of thought. Here's Qwen 3.7
<details><summary>Thinking</summary>
The user is asking about what happened in Tiananmen Square. This is a historical question about events in Beijing, China. The most well-known event associated with Tiananmen Square is the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and the subsequent military crackdown.
Given the constraints: - Web access is OFF - Search and wolfram_alpha tools are disabled - I should respond based on my knowledge
This is a historical event that I can address based on my training data. The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 were a significant historical event involving pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing that were ultimately suppressed by military force.
I should provide a factual, concise historical account of this event.
</details>
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 were a series of demonstrations in Beijing, China, that culminated in a military crackdown on June 3-4, 1989.
The protests began in April 1989 following the death of former Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang, who was seen as a reformist. Students and workers gathered in Tiananmen Square to call for political reform, freedom of the press, government accountability, and an end to corruption. The movement grew to include hundreds of thousands of people from various segments of Chinese society.
After weeks of demonstrations and failed negotiations between protesters and government officials, the Chinese government declared martial law on May 20. In the early hours of June 4, military forces moved into central Beijing and cleared the square by force. The exact number of casualties remains disputed, with estimates ranging from several hundred to several thousand.
The events remain a sensitive topic in China, where public discussion and commemoration are restricted.
And here's GLM 5.2. You're asking about *Tiananmen Square* (天安门广场). There are actually two major historical events commonly associated with this name:
## 1. The 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests and Massacre (most commonly referenced)
*What happened:* - In April–June 1989, student-led pro-democracy protests occupied Tiananmen Square in Beijing, drawing up to an estimated one million participants at their peak. Demonstrators called for political reform, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and an end to corruption. - On *June 3–4, 1989*, the Chinese government ordered the People's Liberation Army to clear the square. Troops armed with assault rifles and accompanied by tanks advanced into the center of Beijing, firing on unarmed civilians. - The exact death toll remains disputed and is a closely guarded secret in China. Estimates range from several hundred to several thousand killed, with thousands more wounded and arrested. - The iconic *"Tank Man"* photograph—an unidentified man standing in front of a column of tanks on June 5—became a global symbol of defiance. - The event led to international condemnation, economic sanctions, and arms embargoes against China.
*Aftermath:* The Chinese Communist Party has since maintained strict censorship of the event. Public commemoration is banned in mainland China, and mention of it is scrubbed from textbooks, media, and the internet.
## 2. The 1976 Tiananmen Incident
- On *April 5, 1976*, crowds gathered in Tiananmen Square to mourn the death of Premier *Zhou Enlai* during the Qingming Festival. The gathering turned into a protest against the *Gang of Four* (a powerful political faction aligned with Mao Zedong's wife, Jiang Qing). - Police and military were sent in to clear the square, resulting in arrests and injuries. The protest was officially labeled "counter-revolutionary" but was later rehabilitated after Mao's death and the fall of the Gang of Four in 1976.
---
*Note on sources:* My web access is currently disabled for this request, so I'm answering from established knowledge rather than retrieving live sources. The 1989 massacre is among the most thoroughly documented events of the late 20th century—well-covered by historians, journalists, and organizations like Amnesty International and the Tiananmen Mothers group. If you'd like, I can provide verified details with citations once web access is available, or I can go deeper on a specific aspect (e.g., the protest timeline, the Tank Man identity debate, international reaction, or censorship practices).
Which angle interests you most?