The House Judiciary Committee report revealed that the National Science Foundation (NSF) is funding university and non-profit projects through multi-million dollar grants to develop AI censorship tools.
These tools are intended to restrict certain viewpoints on social media platforms regarding political issues and the COVID/2020 election.
Projects like WiseDex, Course Correct and SearchLit are designed to assess content veracity and help platforms remove content, purportedly to combat misinformation.
However, the programs’ own documents and statements suggest they are ideologically biased to target conservatives, minorities and veterans.
The House Judiciary Committee said, “This interim report details the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) funding of AI powered censorship and propaganda tools, and its repeated efforts to hide its actions and avoid political and media scrutiny.”
“In the name of combatting alleged misinformation regarding COVID-19 and the 2020 election, NSF has been issuing multi-million-dollar grants to university and non-profit research teams. The purpose of these taxpayer-funded projects is to develop artificial intelligence (AI)- powered censorship and propaganda tools that can be used by governments and Big Tech to shape public opinion by restricting certain viewpoints or promoting others,” the report continued.
While NSF denies censorship, the funding raises concerns about taxpayer dollars developing mass online censorship and shaping public opinion through restricting political dissent.
An NSF spokesman said, “NSF does not engage in censorship and has no role in content policies or regulations. Per statute and guidance from Congress, we have made investments in research to help understand communications technologies that allow for things like deep fakes and how people interact with them.”
“We know our adversaries are already using these technologies against us in multiple ways. We know that scammers are using these techniques on unsuspecting victims. It is in this nation’s national and economic security interest to understand how these tools are being used and how people are responding so we can provide options for ways we can improve safety for all,” said the spokesman.
The NSF claimed, “NSF is encouraged to consider additional research efforts that will help counter influence from foreign adversaries on the Internet and social media platforms designed to influence U.S. perspectives, sow discord during times of pandemic and other emergencies, and undermine confidence in U.S. elections and institutions.”
They continued, “To the extent practicable, NSF should foster collaboration among scientists from disparate scientific fields and engage other Federal agencies and NAS to help identify areas of research that will provide insight that can mitigate adversarial online influence, including by helping the public become more resilient to undue influence.”
NSF added, “The overarching goal of this work is to equip the general public with the knowledge and skills needed to find trustworthy information online.”
The report criticized this “fact checking” endeavor as pseudo-scientific censorship of disfavored views.
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