Trust No Bot-ty
AI chatbots are the new Google, and no more reliable.
More and more, I’ve heard people say something along the lines of, “I asked Chat, and it said …” They cite an artificial intelligence language bot like ChatGPT, Copilot or Gemini to give their point of view indisputable authority. One in six Americans is trusting AI for health advice, as they once did with Google, according to KFF researchers.
I suspect the most important development in 2026 will be a level-setting of what AI can do, as the hype cycle enters the trough of disillusionment.
All AIs are trained on data available on the internet. What differentiates one from another is what data it ingests and the user interface. ChatGPT has recently had trouble modulating how its interface behaves. Some users found the latest version too impersonal, while other versions have encouraged people to hurt themselves.
China’s government is developing interfaces that adhere to communist orthodoxy. Saudi Arabia focuses on AI that adheres to Islamic fundamentalism. Some companies develop AI that teens can fall in love with, while others want ruthlessly efficient bots that can replace employees.
The Israeli government recently hired Texas-based Brad Parscale, President Donald Trump’s social media guru, to develop an AI that will convince young Americans to support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies in Gaza.
The world’s most innovative industries — pornography and organized crime — are also leading the way in AI. Users can create customized sex partners on dozens of sites, and I recently described how Nigerian criminals are using AI to create highly personalized scams.
Meanwhile, we are all subsidizing these AI projects through higher electric and water bills.
AI is also subject to user error. Ask the same question three different ways, and AI will give you three different answers. AI can also reproduce all the errors and prejudices found on the billions of websites it scrapes.
The tech billionaires who are spending billions on artificial intelligence want customers to believe that these bots provide fact-based, indisputable truths. But hopefully, more people will realize that text-based AI is little more than an advanced search engine, and the results cannot be trusted.
Trump's Throwback to 1902
The United States security services proved once again that a near limitless budget can accomplish amazing things. But while the capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro sent an intimidating message to Venezuela’s ruling party, the United States left it intact.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been negotiating with Maduro for months to strike a deal. President Donald Trump told the world that Rubio had also been negotiating with the new Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez, and that she was amenable to U.S. demands.
Most disturbingly, Trump rejected suggestions that Maria Corina Machado’s opposition coalition, which won the 2024 election, should take power. His intervention is about oil, not democracy.
Trump’s senility showed when he proclaimed that the United States would run Venezuela, prompting pundits to draw comparisons with the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. But Rubio quickly walked Trump’s claim back, revealing an approach going back to the Venezuelan Crisis of 1902.
Another dictator was in power back then, refusing to pay Venezuela's foreign debts. Great Britain, Germany and Italy blockaded Venezuela and destroyed its Navy until President Theodore Roosevelt invoked the Monroe Doctrine.
The U.S. Navy showed up and demanded that Cipriano Castro and the Europeans cut a deal. No messy regime change or nation-building and no boots on the ground. Only long-distance coercion and political compromise, which became the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.
In 2003, the United States had planned to do something similar for Iraq by allowing Iraqi bureaucrats to resume running their country after troops removed Saddam Hussein. But Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld changed his mind and banned Ba'ath Party members from filling government jobs and fired the armed forces. Denied a future in their home country, Iraqis with money and influence teamed with the men with guns against U.S. occupiers.
The Trump administration is making new mistakes, not old ones, but they are nevertheless mistakes. Rubio’s gunboat diplomacy cannot guarantee that Rodriguez can hold on to power, or that an armed opposition won’t rise and demand democracy or install a new dictator. Oil companies need stability to invest, and the Donroe doctrine has yet to deliver.
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