[pmayrgundter]

I tried voice chat. It's very good, except for the politics

We started talking about my plans for the day, and I said I was making chili. G asked if I have a recipe or if I needed one. I said, I started with Obama's recipe many years ago and have worked on it from there.

G gave me a form response that it can't talk politics.

Oh, I'm not talking politics, I'm talking chili.

G then repeated form response and tried to change conversation, and as long as I didn't use the O word, we were allowed to proceed. Phew

[xnorswap]

I find it horrifying and dystopian that the part where it "Can't talk politics" is just accepted and your complaint is that it interrupts your ability to talk chilli.

"Go back to bed America." "You are free, to do as we tell you"

https://youtu.be/TNPeYflsMdg?t=143

[duxup]

Online the idea of "no politics" is often used as a way to try to stifle / silence discussion too. It's disturbingly fitting to the Gemini example.

I was a part of a nice small forum online. Most posts were everyday life posts / personal. The person who ran it seemed well meaning. Then a "no politics" rule appeared. It was fine for a while. I understood what they meant and even I only want so much outrage in my small forums.

Yet one person posted about how their plans to adopt were in jeopardy over their state's new rules about who could adopt what child. This was a deeply important and personal topic for that individual.

As you can guess the "no politics" rule put a stop to that. The folks who supported laws like were being proposed of course thought that they shouldn't discuss it because it is "politics", others felt that this was that individual talking about their rights and life, it wasn't "just politics". Whole forum fell apart after that debacle.

Gemini's response here is sadly fitting internet discourse... in bad way.

[bigstrat2003]

There's nothing wrong with (and in fact much to be said in favor of) a "no politics" rule. When I was growing up it was common advice to not discuss politics/religion in mixed company. At one point I thought that was stupid fuddy-duddy advice, because people are adults and can act reasonably even if they disagree. But as I get older, I realize that I was wrong: people really, really can't control their emotions when politics comes up and it gets ugly. Turns out that the older generation was correct, and you really shouldn't talk politics in mixed company.

Obviously in this specific case the user isn't trying to talk politics, but the rule isn't dystopian in and of itself. It's simply a reflection of human nature, and that someone at Google knows it's going to be a lot of trouble for no gain if the bot starts to get into politics with users.

[falcor84]

Hear, hear!

There has to be a better way about it. As I see it, to be productive, AI agents have to be able to talk about politics, because at the end of the day politics are everywhere. So following up on what they do already, they'll have to define a model's political stance (whatever it is), and to have it hold its ground, voicing an opinion or abstaining from voicing an opinion, but continuing the conversation, as a person would (at least as those of us who don't rage-quit a conversation when they hear something slightly controversial).

[freedomben]

I agree it's ridiculous that the mention of a politician triggers the block so feels overly tightened (which is the story of existencer for Gemini), but the alternative is that the model will have the politics of it's creators/trainers. Is that preferable to you? (I suppose that depends on how well your politics align with Silicon Valley)

[redcobra762]

Eh, OP isn't stopped from talking politics, Gemini('s owner, Google) is merely exercising its right to avoid talking about politics with OP. That said, the restriction seems too tight, since merely mentioning Obama ought not count as "politics". From a technical perspective that should be fixed.

OP can go talk politics until he's blue in the face with someone willing to talk politics with them.

[CraigJPerry]

One plus is that’s usually less pointless noise this way.

If the model says “sorry, no politics, let’s talk about something else” - there’s a tiny fraction of a minority will make a comment like you did and be done with it. We can all move on.

If the model responds as neutrally as possible, maybe “Obama’s chilli is a great recipe, let me know when you want to begin”, we end up with ENDLESS clutching of pearls, WOKE MODEL SUGGESTS LEFT WING CHILLI BETTER THAN RIGHT WING CHILLI!!! CANCEL LEFTIST GOOGLE!!!

And then the bit that actually bugs me, just to stir up some drama you’ll get the occasional person who absolutely knows better and knows exactly what they’re doing: “I’m Professor MegaQualifications, and actually I will show that those who have criticised the models as leftist are being shut down[1] and ignored but the evidence shows they have a point…”

[1] always said unironically at a time when it’s established as a daily recurring news story being rammed down our throats because it’s one of those easy opinion generators that sells engagement like few other stories outside of mass bloodshed events

[heresie-dabord]

"I can't talk politics."

It's a question of right or wrong.

"I can't talk politics."

It's a question of health care.

"I can't talk politics."

It's a question of fact vs fiction, knowledge vs ignorance.

"I can't talk politics."

You are a slave to a master that does not believe in integrity, ethics, community, and social values.

"I can't talk politics."

[petre]

I find it kind of useless due to the no politics and I usually quickly lose my patience with it. Same with DeepSeek. Meanwhile you can have a decent conversation with Mistral, Claude, pi.ai and other LLMs. Even Chat GPT, although the patronizing appologizing tone is annoying.

[greenavocado]

Can censorship damage to LLMs be mitigated with LoRA fine-tuning?

[everdrive]

This is AI. Someone else decides what topics and what answers are acceptable.

[pmayrgundter]

Note, had the same convo with ChatG and it blew right by the O word, and commented that it's nice to have an old recipe to work on over time.

[Breza]

I just got rejected by Gemini then Claude gave me the exact recipe.

[theragra]

I asked why Trump likes numbers 4 and 7. Apparently, this is forbidden topic! Google is insane.

[croisillon]

on the other hand, i'd be very weary of anyone eating Trump's chili recipe

[IncreasePosts]

McDonald's doesn't serve chili