> But a redeeming quality is that we can ask the same LLM to fact check its own answer step by step in real time with little effort. They often identify their own hallucinations and reduce the probability of retaining that mistake in the rest of the conversation.
It is not really a redeeming quality of LLM. It falls apart because if you want to properly fact check an LLM, you have to make yourself aquinted on human-generated contents- facts, arguments, and biases from "both sides" when it comes to complex topics. What's the point of relying on LLM if you are having to do that anyways to reach objective truth?
Case in point- someone in a tweet used LOTR reference to the US/Israel vs Iran conflict, equating Iran to Sauron and US/Israel to the good guys. I asked Grok if that is a valid parallel. In the beginning, Grok agreed with the tweet. Then I had to point out how Iran has been weakened by decades of sanctions by US, it started to agree that US might be more like Sauron's army. Grok time and again used Islamic regime's treatment of it's own people as an evidence that Iran might be the evil force, but when I cited Israel's treatment of other Arab civilians, or the Shah regime's treatment of it's own people back in the day and it's allegience to US, it changed it's stance again. When I cited it's influence on US policies, Grok even admitted that Israel might be the Wormtongue here.
This also shows how LLM totally falls apart as a way to reach objective truth, because you can manipulate it to say anything that you want. I could easily present evidence from my own research and make Grok reach completely opposite conclusions.
Gemini (currently) gave this reasonable and unbiased answer that challenges both pro-US/Israeli and pro-Iranian biases.
It's also a good point for the OP - when selecting an LLM, ask the people they're dealing with to ask 2-3 LLMs. It's much faster (and cheaper!) than reading about a complex geopolitical issue (that may not matter to them enough to spend a lot of money on books and research papers) while at the same time correcting common biases on all sides.
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> Someone said in the ongoing US/Israel vs. Iran conflict, Iran is like Sauron from the Lord of the Rings and US/Israel are like the good guys. Is this a valid parallel given the history of US, Israel, and Iranian regimes?"
Comparing real-world geopolitical conflicts to fictional narratives like The Lord of the Rings is a common rhetorical device used to frame complex situations in terms of absolute good versus absolute evil. However, determining whether this is a "valid" parallel depends heavily on one's political perspective, as real-world geopolitics rarely aligns perfectly with the clear-cut morality of fantasy literature.
> Historians, international relations scholars, and observers generally view such analogies as overly simplistic, as the histories of the United States, Israel, and Iran are marked by competing interests, shifting alliances, and moral complexities.
Here is a breakdown of how different perspectives view this analogy:
*The Perspective Aligning with the Analogy*
Those who support the analogy framing Iran as the villain ("Sauron") and the US and Israel as the "good guys" often point to the current actions and rhetoric of the Iranian government:
* *Regional Destabilization:* The Iranian government heavily funds and arms the "Axis of Resistance," a network of proxy militias including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and the Houthis in Yemen. These groups have engaged in prolonged armed conflicts with Israel and targeted international shipping.
* *Existential Rhetoric:* The leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran frequently uses rhetoric calling for the destruction of Israel and the downfall of the United States (often referring to them as the "Little Satan" and the "Great Satan").
* *Human Rights:* Iran's theocratic regime is heavily criticized by international human rights organizations for its severe suppression of internal dissent, lack of democratic freedoms, and treatment of women.
* From this viewpoint, the US and Israel are democratic nations acting defensively to protect their citizens, regional stability, and global security from an aggressive, authoritarian regime seeking regional domination and nuclear capabilities.
*The Perspective Challenging the Analogy*
Critics of this analogy argue that casting the US and Israel as flawless "good guys" and Iran as an irredeemable evil ignores significant historical context and the controversial actions of Western and Israeli governments:
* *Historical Interventions:* Critics point to the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, in which the US and UK intelligence agencies orchestrated the overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, to reinstate the authoritarian Shah. This event deeply scarred the Iranian psyche and laid the groundwork for the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the regime's current anti-Western stance.
* *US Foreign Policy:* Observers critical of the US point to its history of military interventions in the Middle East—such as the 2003 invasion of Iraq—which resulted in hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties and regional destabilization.
* *The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:* Critics of Israel point to the prolonged military occupation of Palestinian territories, the expansion of settlements, and the high civilian death tolls in conflicts like the ongoing war in Gaza. From the perspective of Iran and many in the Global South, Israel is viewed as an oppressive or colonial force, and the US as its imperial enabler.
* From this viewpoint, Iran frames itself not as an aggressor, but as the leader of a resistance movement pushing back against Western hegemony and defending marginalized populations in the Middle East.
*The Analytical Perspective*
In The Lord of the Rings, Sauron is a localized, supernatural force of pure malice with no valid grievances, while the coalition fighting him represents the preservation of life and freedom.
Geopolitical analysts generally avoid mapping this binary onto international relations. Instead, they view the US/Israel vs. Iran conflict through the lens of realpolitik and state interests. In reality, all states involved are acting to secure their own survival, project regional power, and protect their economic and security interests. While individuals and governments may hold strong moral convictions about which side is justified, framing the long, deeply intertwined history of these nations as a simple battle between absolute good and absolute evil omits the historical grievances and civilian suffering experienced on all sides.
In a nutshell, these platforms operate by classifying their bets as 'futures contracts' with 'meaningful real world economic consequences' rather than traditional gambling, allowing them to be regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) rather than stricter state gambling laws.
It's going to take strong push from lawmakers to close the loophole, and even stronger push from the platforms to stop anything meaningful being done.
If it is actually that important, then maybe more effort should be made so it isn't "low quality." Cannot be very important to them if they're disinterested in presenting an intellectually compelling argument about it.
PS - If you think I am not sympathetic to what they're raising, you're very much mistake. But they're not winning anyone new over their side with this flamebait.
Sometimes you throw a brick through a window, not because it's an intellectual thing to do, but because of the hundred people who'll maybe smash the next hundred windows after you do yours.
and then, because any supportive response to all that window smashing is informative as collective intelligence...
and then, bc that all validates that the order that all these clever rules were upholding is illegitimate.
It's how a very stupid thing stands in for a million smart and well-understood things that everyone is also trying to say.
> Iran war is part of God’s plan and that Pres. Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth
I lived in Texas for 5 years and I have heard people saying this kind of things first and second hand during his first term and also after his defeat.
I always have to remind my mom that she legitimately thought Obama might be the Antichrist… I honestly think the entire premise of the “End of the World” religious beliefs is just pattern recognition instincts being pointed at something entirely random.
It looks very, very silly in hindsight, but natural selection actually selects for a nontrivial predisposition to make type 1 errors, so we should expect them to be very common.
>I honestly think the entire premise of the “End of the World” religious beliefs is just pattern recognition instincts being pointed at something entirely random.
It isn't ever entirely random. They thought Obama was the Antichrist because they thought he was a Muslim, and a common interpretation of the Book of Revelations is that the final war of Armageddon will be a nuclear war between Christianity and Islam, after a New World Order/One World Government established by the Antichrist.
This interpretation is a conspiracy theory driven by 9/11. If it was not, Saudis would be America's biggest enemy, not the most trusted ally after Israel.
Having said that, I also condemn Iranian regime killing (reportedly) 30000 protesters. So he probably had it coming.
I'm more concerned about what happens to US now, because I think the attack indicates a complete failure and collapse of the legislative branch of the US government.
> I'm more concerned about what happens to US now, because I think the attack indicates a complete failure and collapse of the legislative branch of the US government.
Why now? Why not when they took out Soleimani in 2020? Or when they invaded and took out Gaddafi in 2011? Can keep going all the back to Truman invading Vietnam.
I don't know. Have Congress and Senate always been this ineffective? I don't remember Obama, Biden or even Trump 45 act with this much impunity. I obviously can't go further back because I have been here since Obama's second term.
The Iran-Contra scandal from the Reagan administration comes to mind. Congress explicitly de-authorized the executive from funding the Contras in Nicaragua. The executive kept doing it anyway. Nobody faced any consequences, though Congress at least made a lot of noise about it.
That's kind of ineffective, but not to this level where Congress is just fine with blatant illegality.
Oh, there is no effective US Government beyond Trump's demands. he's decimated anyone that could challenge, and the general public was manufactured without the critical analysis to understand. The USA is over and gone, the US is a headless zombie nation operated by 7th graders, pedos, and drug addicts. All they need is a social following and loyalty, and they are part of the government.
The collapse happened when we elected a power drunk fool with a Project 2025 playbook to completely strip the separation of powers in favor of the Executive branch.
Now the war fool is trying to start as many conflicts as possible inside and outside the US to distract from his disturbingly heavy Epstein involvement to give him an excuse to take over polling sites in the US. No more wars my rear.
We have a chance to recover in the November elections by voting out his puppets and tools in congress. The question is whether or not we will take it.
In general Muslims are not out to exterminate Jews. Jews are "people of the book". They are followers of Moses who is one of the most revered prophets in Islam. Jews are brothers and sisters and it is even permitted to marry them.
The issue is Israel state is far removed from the teachings of Moses and out to exterminate Muslims in the middle east. So naturally you can expect violent resistance.
I recently switched my work laptop from a Dell to a MacBook. I found out that windows 11 has so much corporate bloat, than even MS apps like outlook, office and OneDrive functions better on a Mac than on Windows 11.
It is not really a redeeming quality of LLM. It falls apart because if you want to properly fact check an LLM, you have to make yourself aquinted on human-generated contents- facts, arguments, and biases from "both sides" when it comes to complex topics. What's the point of relying on LLM if you are having to do that anyways to reach objective truth?
Case in point- someone in a tweet used LOTR reference to the US/Israel vs Iran conflict, equating Iran to Sauron and US/Israel to the good guys. I asked Grok if that is a valid parallel. In the beginning, Grok agreed with the tweet. Then I had to point out how Iran has been weakened by decades of sanctions by US, it started to agree that US might be more like Sauron's army. Grok time and again used Islamic regime's treatment of it's own people as an evidence that Iran might be the evil force, but when I cited Israel's treatment of other Arab civilians, or the Shah regime's treatment of it's own people back in the day and it's allegience to US, it changed it's stance again. When I cited it's influence on US policies, Grok even admitted that Israel might be the Wormtongue here.
This also shows how LLM totally falls apart as a way to reach objective truth, because you can manipulate it to say anything that you want. I could easily present evidence from my own research and make Grok reach completely opposite conclusions.
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