Most active commenters

    ←back to thread

    Grok: Searching X for "From:Elonmusk (Israel or Palestine or Hamas or Gaza)"

    (simonwillison.net)
    724 points simonw | 19 comments | 11 Jul 25 00:22 UTC | HN request time: 2.189s | source | bottom
    Show context
    marcusb ◴[11 Jul 25 01:22 UTC] No.44527530[source]▶
    This reminds me in a way of the old Noam Chomsky/Tucker Carlson exchange where Chomsky says to Carlson:

      "I’m sure you believe everything you’re saying. But what I’m saying is that if you believed something different, you wouldn’t be sitting where you’re sitting."
    Simon may well be right - xAI might not have directly instructed Grok to check what the boss thinks before responding - but that's not to say xAI wouldn't be more likely to release a model that does agree with the boss a lot and privileges what he has said when reasoning.
    replies(5): >>44528694 #>>44528695 #>>44528706 #>>44528766 #>>44529331 #
    breppp ◴[11 Jul 25 05:51 UTC] No.44528766[source]▶
    and neither would Chomsky be interviewed by the BBC for his linguistic theory, if he hadn't held these edgy opinions
    replies(2): >>44528838 #>>44529261 #
    1. cess11 ◴[11 Jul 25 07:22 UTC] No.44529261[source]▶
    What do you mean by "edgy opinions"? His takedown of Skinner, or perhaps that he for a while refused to pay taxes as a protest against war?

    I'm not sure of the timeline but I'd guess he got to start the linguistics department at MIT because he was already The Linguist in english and computational/mathematical linguistics methodology. That position alone makes it reasonable to bring him to the BBC to talk about language.

    replies(3): >>44529610 #>>44530761 #>>44548473 #
    2. bsaul ◴[11 Jul 25 08:23 UTC] No.44529610[source]▶
    chomsky is invented not just for linguistic. Simply because linguistic doesn't interest the wider audience that much. That seems pretty trivial.
    replies(1): >>44529739 #
    3. jonathanstrange ◴[11 Jul 25 08:41 UTC] No.44529739[source]▶
    Chomsky published his political analyses in parallel with and as early as his career as the most influential and important general linguist of the 20th Century, but they caught on much later than his work in linguistics. He was already a famous syntactician when he got on people's radar for his political views, and he was frequently interviewed as a linguist for his views on how general language facilities are built into our brain long before he was interviewed on politics.
    replies(1): >>44530739 #
    4. bsaul ◴[11 Jul 25 10:59 UTC] No.44530739{3}[source]▶
    Yes, i don't think that's a contradiction to what i said. i'm well aware chomsky's initial fame is due to its academic achievements.
    replies(1): >>44531835 #
    5. xdennis ◴[11 Jul 25 11:02 UTC] No.44530761[source]▶
    Chomsky has always taken the anti-American side on any conflict America has been involved in. That is why he's "edgy". He's an American living in America always blaming America for everything.
    replies(2): >>44530855 #>>44531712 #
    6. bbarnett ◴[11 Jul 25 11:17 UTC] No.44530855[source]▶
    Isn't that a popular, trendy way to think/act now in the US?
    replies(2): >>44531858 #>>44533367 #
    7. code_for_monkey ◴[11 Jul 25 13:07 UTC] No.44531712[source]▶
    I mean, its because for the last 80 years America has been the belligerent aggressive party in every conflict. Are you going to bat for Iraq? Vietnam? Korea?
    replies(3): >>44532337 #>>44538186 #>>44538861 #
    8. ◴[11 Jul 25 13:21 UTC] No.44531835{4}[source]▶
    9. saagarjha ◴[11 Jul 25 13:23 UTC] No.44531858{3}[source]▶
    No.
    10. gadders ◴[11 Jul 25 14:08 UTC] No.44532337{3}[source]▶
    >>last 80 years

    Good job in picking your sample size.

    replies(3): >>44532431 #>>44532856 #>>44533447 #
    11. contagiousflow ◴[11 Jul 25 14:17 UTC] No.44532431{4}[source]▶
    Think about this for a second, when was Noam Chomsky born, and and what age can you start having substantiated opinions?
    12. Epa095 ◴[11 Jul 25 14:56 UTC] No.44532856{4}[source]▶
    Noam Chomsky is 96 years old, so 80 years ago he was 16. I don't think choosing a time span which is his adult life is unreasonable.
    13. serf ◴[11 Jul 25 15:35 UTC] No.44533367{3}[source]▶
    if you think that Chomsky's opinions are the popular/trendy opinions of the US as a whole then might I suggest you do a bit more research.

    US pessimism might be on the rise -- but almost never about foreign policy. Almost always about tax-rates/individual liberties/opportunities/children . things that affect people here and now, not the people from distant lands with ways unlike our own.

    replies(1): >>44534312 #
    14. code_for_monkey ◴[11 Jul 25 15:42 UTC] No.44533447{4}[source]▶
    yeah I purposely picked a sample size to include the modern order established after ww2 because its largely so different than what came before it and includes basically all of chomsky's lifespan.
    replies(1): >>44534684 #
    15. bbarnett ◴[11 Jul 25 16:47 UTC] No.44534312{4}[source]▶
    Maybe we're discussing different things, but endless Americans talk about failed foreign policy, how this and that was a mistake, how even if the US gets attacked in some way, it's somehow always the US's fault.
    16. gadders ◴[11 Jul 25 17:13 UTC] No.44534684{5}[source]▶
    I'm not sure you can put 9/11 in that category, even if you do choose that time period.
    17. laughingcurve ◴[12 Jul 25 00:28 UTC] No.44538186{3}[source]▶
    In every conflict ? Or just in a lot of them
    18. twoodfin ◴[12 Jul 25 02:42 UTC] No.44538861{3}[source]▶
    Korea?!
    19. int_19h ◴[13 Jul 25 08:11 UTC] No.44548473[source]▶
    > What do you mean by "edgy opinions"?

    His take on the Khmer Rouge back in the day was rather edgy (and ultimately spectacularly wrong).