The Biden admin is set to drop more than $550,000 in grants to develop artificial intelligence that protects users from ‘discriminatory speech’ on social media.
QUICK FACTS:
- Through President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, researchers at the University of Washington will be funded more than half a million dollars to develop an artificial intelligence model that will detect and suppress ‘microaggressions’ on social media.
- The researchers have already reportedly received $132,000 and are expected to reach $550,436 over the span of the next five years.
- According to the researchers, machine-learning models are being created to analyze social media posts and detect bias and potential discriminatory speech that may cause offense to certain groups.
- While it is unclear what comments would qualify as ‘microaggressions,’ the researchers did note that users can get flagged even if the speech is unconscious and unintentional.
- The project is led by computer science professor Yulia Tsvetkov, who has previously claimed artificial intelligence may suppress language that many would consider to be inoffensive.
- Tsvetkov coauthored an article in July 2022 that analyzed the “prominence of positivity in #BlackLivesMatter tweets” during the riots of 2020.
VICE PRESIDENT OF THE MEDIA RESEARCH CENTER’S FREE SPEECH DIVISION DAN SCHNEIDER ON BIDEN’S CENSORING SPEECH ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
“It’s not the role of government to police speech that some might find either offensive or emotionally draining,” Schneider said. “Government is supposed to be protecting our rights, not suppressing our rights.”
BACKGROUND:
- The funding comes as the Biden administration faces accusations that it seeks to suppress freedom of speech on the internet.
- Last month, President Biden suggested Twitter CEO Elon Musk should be investigated after the billionaire declared the social media app would allow “free speech” on the platform.
- “I think that Elon Musk’s cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at,” Biden said to a reporter at the time. “Whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate, I’m not suggesting that. I’m suggesting that it wor — worth being looked at. And — and — but that’s all I’ll say.”
- Earlier this week, Musk’s “Twitter Files” revealed that the United States government “paid Twitter millions of dollars to censor info from the public.”
- Musk was referring to reporting from author Michael Shellenberger revealing that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was “paying Twitter millions of dollars” as part of an “organized effort by representatives of the intelligence community (IC)” aimed at senior executives at Twitter and at other news and media companies to “discredit leaked information” about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings.
