Kevin Cloonan

[Kevin Cloonan @cloonaka]

@jencloo The ending: "I have no idea."

[Kevin Cloonan @cloonaka]

@TasDavid42865 @WilliamWolfe Yes, only the thief "prospers" from theft. https://t.co/NfXvIYTOPv

[Kevin Cloonan @cloonaka]

@megbasham Promoting "White privilege" is promoting the "positive good" of slavery. De Tocqueville observed that lie at the time. The U.S. has prospered by securing the rights of free labor, not by slavery. https://t.co/2uXQPlgz4F

[Protestia @Protestia]

Willy Rice just preached one of the most prophetic and prescient sermons ever delivered at an SBC Pastor's Conference, based on Saul's compromise in 1 Samuel 14-15.

Here is a brief clip, with the full version below.

[Kevin Cloonan @cloonaka]

"Colorado closed his research center & put his office in a closet." Yes, "higher" ed is classy.

[John Stossel @JohnStossel]

Obama's White House smeared U Colorado prof @RogerPielkeJr after he questioned the climate apocalypse.

His speeches were canceled. Colorado closed his research center & put his office in a closet. But he didn’t give up.

How activists tried and FAILED to cancel a good scientist:

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

This censorship law is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The real goal is to enable the UK government to track everyone.

[Camus @newstart_2024]

Jordan Peterson made a profound point on Chris Williamson’s podcast.

When God dies, a lot of unexpected things die with Him, including science.

Science isn’t some purely neutral, secular tool. It rests on deeply religious assumptions: that truth exists, that it’s knowable, that pursuing it is good, and that the universe makes sense.

These aren’t scientific claims, they’re metaphysical, rooted in a religious worldview. The universities themselves grew out of monasteries.

Without that deeper foundation, science eventually stops being about truth and becomes just another tool for power, ideology, or convenience. You lose the reason to be honest when the data gets inconvenient.

Do you think science can survive long-term without any belief in objective truth or a higher moral order?

[John Solomon @jsolomonReports]

Democrat Senator has been funding left-wing group behind anti-ICE protests, mass unrest strategy https://t.co/EKE8TJ2Ghy

[Milton Friedman Quotes @MiltonFriedmanW]

Milton Friedman: “Keep your eye on one thing and one thing only: how much government is spending, because that’s the true tax.”

“If you’re not paying for it in the form of explicit taxes, you’re paying for it indirectly in the form of inflation or borrowing.”

[Senator Rand Paul @SenRandPaul]

It’s Friday. Another week gone, and another 40 million of your hard earned tax dollars were sent to the Taliban.

In fact government does this every week.

Pass the no Tax Dollars for Terrorist Act, and end this humiliation ritual.

[Kevin Cloonan @cloonaka]

DEIng: "20-30% of UC Berkeley first-semester calculus students ... displayed severe preparation deficits...making it harder to teach at the level required...This serves no one well."
https://t.co/yvQQqWyn8k

[Acting AG Todd Blanche @DAGToddBlanche]

DOJ SUPREME COURT WIN: The Supreme Court yet again reversed the Fourth Circuit, this time with a unanimous 9-0 decision. As the Department of Justice argued, the Fourth Circuit was wrong to try to rewrite a statute about the process for resolving government employee complaints. This unanimous result reflects a key principle we fight for: judges should be judges resolving the case before them, and should never try to seize Congress’s role. This opinion sends a clear message: lower courts must accept that the law is the law, no matter the “political controversies of the day,” as the Supreme Court rightly emphasized.

[American Petroleum Institute @APIenergy]

Delays and red tape have made it nearly impossible to build large projects in this country but that stops now. Pass permitting reform to secure our energy future.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Thank Heaven for the First Amendment in America!

[M.A. Rothman @MichaelARothman]

𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐆𝐋𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐍𝐈𝐓 𝐆𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐔 𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐀 𝐏𝐀𝐏𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐀𝐈 𝐅𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐖𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄

In December 2020, Google fired 𝐃𝐫. 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐧𝐢𝐭 𝐆𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐮, the co-lead of its Ethical AI team, because she refused to retract a 14-page paper called 𝘖𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘴. The paper had not even been published yet. 𝟐,𝟔𝟗𝟓 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 saying the company's version of the story — that she had resigned — was a lie.

Five years later, every prediction inside that paper has come true.

Hallucinations. The paper argued that large language models trained on internet-scale scrapes would produce systems that sounded fluent but had no actual understanding — statistical parrots that would fool both users and developers into trusting outputs that were structurally incapable of being reliable. The hallucination problem now defines the industry.

Bias amplification. The paper predicted hiring tools that would discriminate against women, healthcare triage that would underperform on Black patients, and lending algorithms that would entrench inequality while presenting their decisions as neutral. Every one has now been documented. Amazon's hiring algorithm penalized resumes that mentioned the word “𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯”. Apple Card's credit algorithm gave wives credit lines 10x lower than their husbands at the same financial profile.

Environmental cost. In 2024, Google's emissions were up 48% from 2019; Microsoft's up 29%. Both companies blamed AI infrastructure and quietly walked away from climate commitments they were celebrating the year Gebru was fired.

Undocumentable datasets. The paper said the training data was already too large for anyone to audit. In 2023, researchers found that LAION-5B — used to train Stable Diffusion — contained thousands of images of child sexual abuse material. The companies training on it had no way of knowing.

Model collapse. The paper predicted that AI-generated content fed back into training would degrade languages and centralize cultural power in the small number of firms that could afford to train. A 2024 study found that 57% of new English-language web content is now AI-generated or AI-assisted.

The deeper point of her work is the one the industry refuses to quote. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐛𝐲 𝐚 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭. Anyone who raised safety or ethics concerns inside the system was ignored, sidelined, or removed. Gebru was making that argument from inside Google. Then Google proved her right by removing her.

Margaret Mitchell, the other co-lead of Ethical AI, was fired two months later for searching her own email for evidence of how Gebru had been treated. The Ethical AI team was dismantled in 90 days.

Gebru founded 𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐑 (𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐈 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐞) in 2021 to do AI research outside the control of the companies that have a financial interest in not hearing the answers. The number of researchers willing to speak publicly about safety inside the major labs collapsed after her firing and has not recovered.

𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐨.

[Kevin Cloonan @cloonaka]

"the risk of substantial harms, including stereotyping, denigration, increases in extremist ideology, and wrongful arrest, should humans ... take it for the words of some person or org. who has accountability for what is said." https://t.co/IcXgaU4xYo

[M.A. Rothman @MichaelARothman]

𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐆𝐋𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐍𝐈𝐓 𝐆𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐔 𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐀 𝐏𝐀𝐏𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐀𝐈 𝐅𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐖𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄

In December 2020, Google fired 𝐃𝐫. 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐧𝐢𝐭 𝐆𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐮, the co-lead of its Ethical AI team, because she refused to retract a 14-page paper called 𝘖𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘴. The paper had not even been published yet. 𝟐,𝟔𝟗𝟓 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 saying the company's version of the story — that she had resigned — was a lie.

Five years later, every prediction inside that paper has come true.

Hallucinations. The paper argued that large language models trained on internet-scale scrapes would produce systems that sounded fluent but had no actual understanding — statistical parrots that would fool both users and developers into trusting outputs that were structurally incapable of being reliable. The hallucination problem now defines the industry.

Bias amplification. The paper predicted hiring tools that would discriminate against women, healthcare triage that would underperform on Black patients, and lending algorithms that would entrench inequality while presenting their decisions as neutral. Every one has now been documented. Amazon's hiring algorithm penalized resumes that mentioned the word “𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯”. Apple Card's credit algorithm gave wives credit lines 10x lower than their husbands at the same financial profile.

Environmental cost. In 2024, Google's emissions were up 48% from 2019; Microsoft's up 29%. Both companies blamed AI infrastructure and quietly walked away from climate commitments they were celebrating the year Gebru was fired.

Undocumentable datasets. The paper said the training data was already too large for anyone to audit. In 2023, researchers found that LAION-5B — used to train Stable Diffusion — contained thousands of images of child sexual abuse material. The companies training on it had no way of knowing.

Model collapse. The paper predicted that AI-generated content fed back into training would degrade languages and centralize cultural power in the small number of firms that could afford to train. A 2024 study found that 57% of new English-language web content is now AI-generated or AI-assisted.

The deeper point of her work is the one the industry refuses to quote. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐛𝐲 𝐚 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭. Anyone who raised safety or ethics concerns inside the system was ignored, sidelined, or removed. Gebru was making that argument from inside Google. Then Google proved her right by removing her.

Margaret Mitchell, the other co-lead of Ethical AI, was fired two months later for searching her own email for evidence of how Gebru had been treated. The Ethical AI team was dismantled in 90 days.

Gebru founded 𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐑 (𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐈 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐞) in 2021 to do AI research outside the control of the companies that have a financial interest in not hearing the answers. The number of researchers willing to speak publicly about safety inside the major labs collapsed after her firing and has not recovered.

𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐨.

[Kevin Cloonan @cloonaka]

@JamesOKeefeIII @Nationals @jencloo

[ChurchLeaders.com @ChurchLead]

Can a court examine whether a church broke its own rules? According to a Virginia appellate ruling this week, the answer is yes and that means the lawsuit against David Platt's McLean Bible Church is back on. https://t.co/NIOUteCNZY

[Kevin Cloonan @cloonaka]

@erasmuse @reachjulieroys https://t.co/XLIdo5VTv5