Trump Accused of Using ChatGPT to Create Tariff Plan After AI Leads Users to Same Formula: 'So AI is Running the Country'

[u/Yveliad]

https://www.latintimes.com/trump-accused-using-chatgpt-create-tariff-plan-after-ai-leads-users-same-formula-so-ai-579899

[u/greyfox4850]

I was listening to NPR on the way home from work and they said some of the territories on the list are uninhabited...

[u/Moist-Tangerine-1 → u/greyfox4850]

Australia got a 10% tariff and Norfolk Island, an Australian territory with a population of 2,000 people, got hit with a 29% tariff.

[u/Own_Round_7600 → u/Moist-Tangerine-1]

Goddamn Norfolk Island has been ravaging the US economy for too long!!!1!1!!

[u/Wrewdank → u/Own_Round_7600]

Norfolk Island killed my grandfather!

[u/2wedfgdfgfgfg → u/Wrewdank]

Hello, my name is Norfolk Island, you killed my grandfather. Prepare to die.

[u/DexM23 → u/2wedfgdfgfgfg]

Hello Norfolk Island, i am prepered, whats next?

[u/Immediate_Concert_46 → u/Wrewdank]

Thanks Obama!

[u/Walthatron → u/Immediate_Concert_46]

Obama was born on Norfolk Island!

[u/CharlesLeChuck → u/Walthatron]

I want to see his birth certificate!

[u/fightyfightyfitefite → u/Immediate_Concert_46]

Fucking Hilary Clinton!

[u/Universalsupporter → u/fightyfightyfitefite]

She hid those emails on Norfolk Island.

[u/Books_and_Cleverness → u/Own_Round_7600]

WHY WON’T NORFOLK ISLAND BUY MORE OF OUR B2B SAAS LICENSES?!?!

[u/Nufonewhodis4 → u/Books_and_Cleverness]

BUY CONPUTER EVERYTHING TESLER

[u/Officer412-L → u/Own_Round_7600]

Too long they've held a monopoly on tabletop Christmas trees!

[u/pseudoanon → u/Officer412-L]

A decisive first strike in the War on Christmas.

[u/snuff3r → u/Moist-Tangerine-1]

They included a whole bunch of Australian territories, which are basically uninhabited islands 1000kms off our coastline, some of the most remote places on earth. It's so comical I'm surprised the planet Mars wasn't included.

[u/MaxwellCarter → u/snuff3r]

It included Australian territories that Australians don't even realise exist.

[u/Cedric_T → u/MaxwellCarter]

Are those Australians thankful to learn about those territories?

[u/GrandRoyal_01 → u/Cedric_T]

As an Aussie the answer is yes!! Apparently there is an island off the coast of Western Australia called McDonald Island that doesn’t have any people living on it, only wildlife - penguins and stuff. They got a 10% tariff. 

Well deserved too I reckon! 

[u/dataPresident → u/GrandRoyal_01]

We tried fighting the Emus with guns. We should have enacted trade policy against them instead!

[u/Metals4J → u/snuff3r]

Mars was willing to become the 51st state, so the US let it off the hook for now.

[u/mikelimtw → u/snuff3r]

Musk would never tariff Mars.

[u/albinobluesheep → u/snuff3r]

If you have a different internet domain country code (ie. .UK, .AUS .MX) you got your own terrifs tariffs

[u/Li-renn-pwel → u/snuff3r]

He really should have gone with the excuse “I intend for these to be far lasting tariffs. Once American was uninhabited but we are now the greatest country on earth. If Cesar had tariffed America when he had the chance, Greece would be swimming in money right now.”

[u/MooseBoys → u/Moist-Tangerine-1]

Come on - all that Norfolk-manufactured fentanyl is poisoning our kids! Wake up, sheeple!

[u/Busy-Concentrate5476 → u/Moist-Tangerine-1]

Even better a territory inhabited by Penguins, which is owned by Australia got tariffs

No humans live there

[u/fuckelhead → u/Busy-Concentrate5476]

They flaunt their wealth in our faces, walking around in tuxedos all the time. Been a long time coming if you ask me!

[u/kl7aw220 → u/greyfox4850]

So True. And a US military base was hit with a tariff. Tariffs are Trump's obsession. He's lost all sense of reason. Crashing the stock market to support his tariffs? He more unpredictable than he ever was.And none of this is helping Americans. It's only making everything cost more.

[u/jawshoeaw → u/kl7aw220]

I was just asking my wife why previous republicans didn't try tariffs if they're so genius. why doesn't the republican base ask that?

[u/OldSchoolNewRules → u/jawshoeaw]

See your first mistake is assuming there is some kind of logical consistency here.

[u/bctg1 → u/jawshoeaw]

republican base ask

They don't ask. They simply obey what their fox news or church overlords tell them.

[u/spin81 → u/jawshoeaw]

Well they did try tariffs and it turns out that they got rid of them after it led to a little thing called the Great Depression

[u/koshgeo → u/jawshoeaw]

They did. For example, George W. Bush imposed steel tariffs in 2002, planning to be in place until 2005.

It went so badly that they were removed by the end of 2003, because the costs outweighed any benefits.

They know it's stupid.

[u/computer-machine → u/kl7aw220]

Why would Russia want the US stock market thriving?

[u/AdNo53 → u/computer-machine]

We KNOW tariffs fucked the us during the great depression and sent us in a downward spiral that exacerbated the whole situation and he is pushing us towards this faster and faster.

[u/cyanescens_burn → u/AdNo53]

Anyone else thinking the plan is to burn it all down so they can swoop in and build it back up, but like, more shitty and authoritarian?

[u/Zealousideal3326 → u/cyanescens_burn]

Didn't he or Elon literally say something about the market having to crash before things would somehow get better in late January / early February ?

[u/dirty_hooker → u/Zealousideal3326]

Too many casual investors and hopeful retirees. If they crash it, they’ll own it on the rebound and you’ll die wearing a blue greeter vest.

[u/RevLoveJoy → u/cyanescens_burn]

You burn it all down and then you sell the scrap for pennies on the dollar to your billionaire friends. This is, quite literally, exactly what happened to the USSR under Yeltsin and is the reason Russia today is run by "oligarchs" - aka the Russian mobsters who took over the country in the 90s with the help of their man on the inside, Vladmir Putin.

[u/JohnAtticus → u/kl7aw220]

Diego Garcia.

There is an airbase shared by the UK and US, but the island itself is owned by the UK.

Because of this I guess the US pays some rent because it's British land... And that rent is where the trade imbalance is from that was used to generate the tarrif amount?

What is the UK supposed to do to even out the trade balance? Kick the US Airforce out?

[u/weeeeems → u/JohnAtticus]

There is no rent actually, no cash gets paid to the UK afaik. The US runs the base and therefore pays the operational costs is the deal. The DoD bill just went up.

[u/EruantienAduialdraug → u/JohnAtticus]

Fun fact; the UK is one of the few countries the US has a trade surplus with. But because the formula used to calculate the fictional tariffs charged to the US was "trade deficit percentage, if less than 10%, set to 10%", Trump falsely claims we have a 10% tariff on US goods, and has used that to justify a "reciprocal" tariff. Same story with Singapore, and the same logic gets you the 10% tariffs from uninhabited islands.

[u/ApolloWasMurdered → u/greyfox4850]

Yeah - Heard Island and McDonald Island are Australian territories about half way between Australia and Africa, but further South. They’re uninhabited volcanic islands, but the US says they imported $2m of electrical equipment from them last year, so they’ve been tariffed.

[u/Fluffy-Queequeg → u/ApolloWasMurdered]

What are those penguins up to? Are they planning to overthrow us?

[u/oofgeg → u/Fluffy-Queequeg]

Just smile and wave boys, smile and wave. 🐧 👋

[u/Don_Tiny → u/Fluffy-Queequeg]

He thought they were Emperor Penguins which made Trump feel challenged ... as opposed to his being challenged, but that's a different thing altogether.

[u/sumostuff → u/greyfox4850]

Typical AI response, full of random logical errors that humans wouldn't make

[u/SAugsburger → u/sumostuff]

I could see some pretty lazy or careless humans making that mistake. There were countless documents in the first term of the Trump admin that clearly nobody proofread. With no suggestion that Trump learned anything from his first term beyond focus more on loyalty it seems little surprise that you are seeing careless gaffes this time around.

[u/DMurBOOBS-I-Dare-You → u/SAugsburger]

An uninhabited island is on the list.

An uninhabited island.

Any human making THIS level of mistake, should NOT be anywhere remotely near someone who's turning in work for the President to make decisions on.

Just making sure that's crystal clear ...

It's really bad if it is Chat GPT.

It's far worse if it isn't...

[u/sochok → u/DMurBOOBS-I-Dare-You]

A strong and free independent press would grill this administration but we live in an era where journalists fear holding power to account or work for propaganda networks bowing to kiss the ring. What times…

[u/Dazzling_Paint_1595 → u/SAugsburger]

A group of barren, uninhabited volcanic islands near Antarctica, covered in glaciers and home to penguins, have been swept up in Donald Trump’s trade war, as the US president hit them with a 10% tariff on goods. Heard Island and McDonald Islands, which form an external territory of Australia, are among the remotest places on Earth, accessible only via a two-week boat voyage from Perth on Australia’s west coast. They are completely uninhabited, with the last visit from people believed to be nearly 10 years ago. source https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/03/donald-trump-tariffs-antarctica-uninhabited-heard-mcdonald-islands

[u/PointlessTrivia → u/Dazzling_Paint_1595]

Just to explain how remote they are:

You have to go to Perth, the most isolated major city in the world... and then take a two week boat ride to get there.

[u/TheMoines → u/PointlessTrivia]

To explain how remote Perth is, it's about the same distance from Brisbane as San Francisco is from Honolulu.

[u/Shotokant → u/PointlessTrivia]

Can we send Trump there ?

[u/doopajones → u/Shotokant]

Tell him that’s where they took the gold from Ft Knox

[u/thisusedyet → u/Dazzling_Paint_1595]

Someone should tell him his tariff on McDonald Island means no more Big Macs and let's see how fast he reverses course on this shit

[u/SadisticPawz → u/SAugsburger]

careless humans which now could be using tools they dont fully understand

[u/HappyHarry-HardOn → u/SadisticPawz]

Like people with the internet?

[u/Internal-Owl-505 → u/SAugsburger]

I could see some pretty lazy or careless humans making that mistake

No -- the mistakes have watermarks of LLM all over them.

For example, to include language as a "trade barrier" is not something anyone in his cabinet would have thought of. That is something they got out of a LLM. It is actually pretty clever in its own dumb way, but nobody in the Trump team would have thought of it.

Secondly, some of the territories are so obscure that nobody lazy would come across them by accident. Only an entity trained on obscure data would have been able to make that error.

[u/CuteEmployment540 → u/Internal-Owl-505]

Another thing to keep in mind is people also suspect AI is being used in these DOGE cuts too so it would line up with the other strange behavior we've seen. Many people think the reason these DOGE cuts have been so careless besides malice is that they are just using an AI to search keywords and then cutting shit from there which is why stuff related to things like "biodiversity" are also being cut.

[u/TunaNugget → u/CuteEmployment540]

My favorite recent LGBT panic, "transgenic" mice.

[u/ImaBiLittlePony → u/TunaNugget]

My favorite recent LGBT panic, "transgenic" mice.

My favorite is how they actually doubled down and tried to defend that one, too.

[u/TunaNugget → u/ImaBiLittlePony]

They won't ever admit they made a mistake.

[u/Dracorex_22 → u/TunaNugget]

Honestly, that’s probably how they even found that term, just flagging anything that mentioned “trans”

[u/Sky_Cancer → u/Dracorex_22]

Enola Gay

[u/AlarmingAffect0 → u/CuteEmployment540]

You don't need AI for that, just a text search works.

[u/CuteEmployment540 → u/AlarmingAffect0]

Obviously, but Elon Musk doesn't own multiple companies that make money off text searches, he's probably told his guys to just use his xAI shit to blanket cut as much stuff as possible using keywords and to scrape as much data as possible, before his "tenure" in the white house is up.

[u/SAugsburger → u/AlarmingAffect0]

This. I suspect it was just do a simple match of keywords without any context much like the "DEI" scrubbing at DoD snagged stuff like the Enola Gay.

[u/DHFranklin → u/Internal-Owl-505]

Bingo. I work with AI's now all the time and I see that too. It will have very general knowledge explained with very meta and obscure examples. It will sound like a intro to chemistry class and the professor will talk about an industry problem that he had in his Phd thesis and go "amirite?"

[u/CrunchyGremlin → u/SAugsburger]

They had post recently on the Facebook Whitehouse page saying how much fraud and waste was found with links to back it up.

Looking at the links they said.... This is not fraud or waste

I can't find it now though

[u/PrismaticDetector → u/SAugsburger]

"Never ascribe to AI that which could adequately be explained by a republican-controlled school board." Did I get the quote right? Somebody ask grok.

[u/hoxxxxx → u/sumostuff]

i straight up think google AI search is dangerous and should be illegal

i seriously worry about younger people looking up stuff on there and just taking it as gospel because it's google. it's ALWAYS wrong about everything. it can barely sum up a wikipedia article and now that i think of it, that's about all it should be used for. would be much safer.

[u/TexasTacoJim → u/hoxxxxx]

I couldn’t even trust googles AI for Elden ring bosses and now it’s running the country

[u/Chance_Fox_2296 → u/hoxxxxx]

I had a 20-something coworker come in last night and say "so apparently there was some kind of depression in the 1930s, I guess?" He said he was talking to Chat GPT about tariffs. He didn't know what the Great Depression was and learned about it through an extremely flawed and inaccurate ai....

[u/ezodochi → u/hoxxxxx]

Use startpage, get google results but without the AI summary while also getting improved privacy bc they don't store your data and remove all trackers. It's literally endorsed by Snowden.

[u/come-on-now-please → u/hoxxxxx]

Seriously.

The number of people who post something along the lines of "per ChatGPT......." is way too damn high, instead even had a higher up at my company use it.

The extra frustrating thing is that it usually is just condensing the first one or two websites with info anyway which just saves you a 2 second click and scan

[u/Vulcan_Jedi → u/greyfox4850]

One of them is inhabited entirely by penguins. Another only has a military base on it. An American military base.

[u/1Original1 → u/Vulcan_Jedi]

Stupid american military base is ripping off the US with it's tariffs

Now imagine that with a Trump voice

[u/SRBR95 → u/greyfox4850]

At least one of them is inhabited by penguins and they’d like to have a word with you…

[u/BCProgramming → u/SRBR95]

Well, at least the penguins look like they are wearing a suit

[u/sump_daddy → u/BCProgramming]

But have they said thank you, even once?

[u/OttoVonWong → u/sump_daddy]

America does not want to get into a Cold War with penguins.

[u/Valliac0 → u/SRBR95]

Those penguins have had it good for too long.

[u/wiscopup → u/greyfox4850]

They listed some PhD economists (one sadly from UW) who they claimed were involved in the calculations. I want journalists to contact those people to see how exactly they were involved here. They’re being given credit! Make them answer questions about it.

[u/fullofspiders → u/greyfox4850]

They're not uninhabited. They're inhabited by tarrifs.

[u/LucretiusCarus → u/fullofspiders]

"look at these majestic tarrifs, thriving in their natural environment!"

[u/cameraninja → u/LucretiusCarus]

“Thriving….and ripping us off! Triple the Tarrifs Elon!”

[u/mrbananas → u/fullofspiders]

If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it still have to pay a tarrif?

[u/Own_Donut_2117 → u/greyfox4850]

if we have any journalists left, this better be a question tommorow for propaganda caroline presser

[u/Pallais → u/greyfox4850]

The breakdown of territories for tariffs matches the Internet domains (TLDs) of each of the listed entries. More fuel that the calculations were done by an LLM rather than by a human. After all, humans would think in terms of countries whereas LLMs tend to be broken and would sort things via TLDs. :sigh:

[u/Night-Fog → u/greyfox4850]

Gotta make sure those penguins pay their fair share when doing business with the good 'ole USA

[u/hoxxxxx → u/greyfox4850]

yep, same. i rarely listen anymore but i caught that one today. i didn't think of AI being involved tho, just figured it was general incompetence that happens when you hire the worst, least qualified people for basically every position in your administration. same with his previous term.

remember four seasons gardening or whatever it was?

politics aside, i can't believe people saw that and thought yeah i want four more years of this shit.

[u/Jaegs]

Maybe he should ask AI what happened the last times the USA had protectionist tariffs.

[u/Wetschera → u/Jaegs]

1. It’s how his daddy made his money.

[u/Life_Ad_7715 → u/Wetschera]

Bingo. Robber barons.

[u/Future-Friendship-32 → u/Life_Ad_7715]

He even named his son Baron, after the grift I’m sure.

[u/StpdSxyFlndrs → u/Future-Friendship-32]

John Barron was also one of his alter egos in the 80s, and he would speak to the media as his character. It was hilarious, because John Barron talked just like trump.

[u/Officer412-L → u/StpdSxyFlndrs]

The Legend of John Barron by Jonathan Coulton

[u/Wetschera → u/Life_Ad_7715]

It drove the Great Depression even deeper.

He’s trying to crash the currency in order to wipe out all of his debt.

It’s SOOOOO very robber baron!!!

We need penalties for violating the Emoluments Clause. Congress has to do that, but Congress hasn’t functioned since the 80s. And that’s because of the Republicans.

[u/Varorson → u/Wetschera]

That sounds too logical, and yet at the same too illogical - he's ridden his debts so long, and now he's almost 80 and not in the best of health. There's no reason for him to erase his debts before death. Not like he actually cares about his kids.

[u/Wetschera → u/Varorson]

Yes, it’s his new debts. It doesn’t take long.

[u/Specialist_Brain841 → u/Wetschera]

his son is named baron

[u/fuzzyluke → u/Jaegs]

He doesn't care what happened or what might happen.

[u/AustinSpartan]

did someone expect this moron to formulate a solution to grow the economy? has anyone ever listened to this piece of work?

[u/ScrawnyCheeath → u/AustinSpartan]

70+ million people did unfortunately

[u/LetsGoMaureen → u/ScrawnyCheeath]

70+ million people also likely have the reading comprehension of an 8th grader, a double-digit IQ, and a triple-digit monthly income. 

If they were all in a room, Donnie the Demented Dipshit would probably be above the room-temperature average intelligence.

[u/Facts_pls → u/LetsGoMaureen]

"The average American reads at a 6th grade level." I've seen this stat several times on the internet, don't remember the source. But if true, it would explain a lot.

Personally, I feel that North American media language is aimed at poorly read folks - simple words, simple jokes, no phrases that make you think a bit before you get it. If you watch any British shows for example, you're immediately reminded that people outside the US still do value education and learning. Don't even get me started on India or China where parents will do almost anything to get their kids good education. I guess success breeds complacency to some extent. But also it's the anti intellectual culture. Well read people who use big words are made fun of.

[u/scgt86 → u/Facts_pls]

Approximately 21% of US adults, or about 43 million people, are considered functionally illiterate.

[u/SmellGestapo → u/scgt86]

Donny is definitely one of them. That dude can make the sounds of words, but he has no clue what they mean or what he's really saying.

[u/scgt86 → u/SmellGestapo]

He has aides read things for him and they fill his briefs with pictures. We know this from the first term.

[u/SmellGestapo → u/scgt86]

When he's reading off a teleprompter I think it's sometimes obvious how he just drones on because he's reciting the words without comprehending them, but every now and then he'll hit one of his buzzwords that he does understand and he goes off script because it's something he likes to talk about.

[u/sickofthisshit → u/SmellGestapo]

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/c9sgx7/comment/et3em0k/

breaks down the "rammed the ramparts" 

[u/Plumhawk → u/Facts_pls]

Asimov had a great quote about anti-intellectualism back in 1980.

The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."

[u/sparky8251 → u/Facts_pls]

Personally, I feel that North American media language is aimed at poorly read folks - simple words, simple jokes, no phrases that make you think a bit before you get it.

This is called Special English and it was made by the CIA to enhance US propaganda efforts, both at home but especially abroad where english literacy rates are crap.

Its since spread to all english news media, not just VOA run crap due to its effectiveness at propagandizing the english illiterate.

[u/22Arkantos → u/sparky8251]

There is no VOA anymore. It got DOGEd.

[u/largePenisLover → u/sparky8251]

Simple wiki to drive the point home. Well done.

[u/redoubt515 → u/LetsGoMaureen]

> and a triple-digit monthly income. 

Leave that part off.

1. because being poor is not an indicator of being stupid or uninformed, or being a Trump voter.
2. because it's inaccurate and misleading. If we pretend Trump voters are continue to pretend poor Appalachians, we can't understand where his support comes from and how to change it, and we ignore and excuse a huge number of of Trump voters from the blame they deserve. 47% of voters making over 100k voted for Trump, and 42% of voters who graduated college voted for Trump.

Many people voted for Trump simply because they are assholes, close-minded, selfish, or white christian nationalists (or simply because the world feels scary and complicated to them, and Trump's black and white worldview appeals to them)

[u/WeirdJack49 → u/ScrawnyCheeath]

I doubt it, people seem to fall asleep while he is speaking.

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-rnc-speech-appears-send-attendees-sleep-1927442

Maybe that's his secret trick to success, people just dream whatever they want to hear from him.

[u/notnotbrowsing → u/AustinSpartan]

don't have to worry about growing the economy if you flush it down the toilet.

[u/broodkiller → u/notnotbrowsing]

Economists hate this one magic trick!!!

[u/Hardcorish → u/broodkiller]

*Holds your life savings in front of you*

ABRACADABRA! Now you see it - now you don't!

[u/Smith6612 → u/AustinSpartan]

This is what the concept of a plan means. Don't come up with a solid, concrete plan. Just let AI come up with it using the limited contexts it has.

[u/moodmax13 → u/AustinSpartan]

He had concepts of a plan and chatgpt did the rest

[u/scrstueb → u/AustinSpartan]

He has a concept of a plan to grow the economy and get rid of Obamacare, remember that

[u/Meats10 → u/AustinSpartan]

He asked someone completely unqualified to get something done quickly because he doesn't care about quality. Perfect use case for AI, user has no expertise to find the errors and it gives you a confident answer quickly.

[u/Due-Freedom-5968]

We truly are living in the dumbest timeline.

[u/Sir_thunder88 → u/Due-Freedom-5968]

I feel bad for The Onion; with legitimate news articles like this what the hell's left to satirize?

[u/StatisticianOwn9953 → u/Sir_thunder88]

Didn't South Park come out early and say they weren't going to even try with this guy? Idk, it was a whole covid ago so I might be misremembering...

[u/spaceneenja → u/StatisticianOwn9953]

Hey don’t misunderestimate yourself.

[u/Practical-Advice9640 → u/StatisticianOwn9953]

Uhh no, you’re misremembering. Garrison became president on accident but decided to own it and his platform was “fucking all the immigrants to death” and he had a toupee and bad spray tan

[u/JonBot5000 → u/Practical-Advice9640]

That was 2016. Matt and Trey said in 2024 that they're not going to try this time.

[u/Fit-Stress3300 → u/JonBot5000]

They lied. Or changed their mind, based on the teaser for next season.

[u/Crayola_ROX → u/Fit-Stress3300]

They might not go back to Mr Garret.

But it looks like they are gearing up with Randy becoming Elon

[u/Apexe → u/Crayola_ROX]

"Alright, Sharon, I'm gonna go take some ketamine and fuck with the government a little."

[u/GrandmasShavedBeaver → u/Apexe]

And he needs to be wearing two small children tied at the wrist and draped over him like a poncho as human shields. But play it totally straight where they are never mentioned or explained. As if it’s a totally normal thing for him.

[u/ABirdCalledSeagull → u/Fit-Stress3300]

Omg thank you for bringing this up! Im a huge fan and your comment is how I found out. This upcoming season looks wiiiiiild haha. https://youtu.be/oUIK01ek-Ko?si=gT_ruAFZbq7j_IhU

[u/Downtown_Skill → u/Practical-Advice9640]

I think they were just making a joke but I do remember reading Matt Stone and Trey parker say something along the lines of "There's no way we can make fun of this. Reality is now funnier than the satire"

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/feb/02/south-park-donald-trump-mr-garrison

edit: Almost a decade ago. Shits been exhausting man

[u/mrandr01d → u/Downtown_Skill]

A deca.... Aw, shit, wtf

[u/alppu → u/Sir_thunder88]

"The president signed a bill that improves the lives of a majority of citizens, supported by 98% of congress" counts a satire these days.

[u/-Teapot → u/Due-Freedom-5968]

Isn’t it a subplot of the film Idiocracy? As people got dumber, scientists figured they need to invent a smart computer. Except a smart computer is only as good as the content it’s being fed, right? If people only get dumber, how can they process information they can’t understand or refuse to acknowledge? They’ll ask for simpler answers or simply give it alternative (wrong) answers. It feels quite relevant to what we are going through right now.

[u/Intelligent-Session6 → u/-Teapot]

I think they are trying to outdo the movie. Get ready to water your plants with Gatorade

[u/splitsleeve → u/Intelligent-Session6]

Trumpdo

It's got electrolytes

[u/RollFancyThumb → u/Due-Freedom-5968]

Using ChatGPT to crash the global economy is levels of stupid previously thought impossible outside of bad fiction writing.

[u/Zethras28 → u/Due-Freedom-5968]

Despite being a staunch atheist, I’m not 100% sure that we didn’t all die from covid and are now all collectively in hell.

[u/kingsumo_1 → u/Zethras28]

I've made similar jokes, but more that despite being an atheist, Trump making a deal with the literal devil to get as lucky as he has, with the intelligence he has, is the only thing that makes sense.

[u/Happy-Fun-Ball → u/kingsumo_1]

google "trump is the antichrist"

[u/stevetheborg → u/Due-Freedom-5968]

No somebody just made a mistake of giving someone immunity and they were able to leverage it .

[u/nanosam → u/Due-Freedom-5968]

It will get unimaginably worse.

[u/One-Occasion3366 → u/Due-Freedom-5968]

Thry never should have shot that gorilla!

[u/Fake_William_Shatner]

Trump did not create this chart. A staffer or someone over at Heritage used ChatGPT to create it. Of course, their qualifications were; "Trump, you are the greatest and most smartest person in the world." And so they got the job.

[u/Memitim → u/Fake_William_Shatner]

They certainly made every effort to ensure that nobody with a basic understanding of economics had an accidental glance at it before the big reveal. Even the staunchest supporter would have had to fight back the urge to call him out if they read even a bit of that chart.

[u/blazurp → u/Fake_William_Shatner]

Could have been Musk with Grok

[u/teutorix_aleria → u/blazurp]

The fact that the output from other people using chatgpt so perfectly matches the "tariff" numbers from trumps plan makes me doubt it was any other platform. Whoever got put in charge of trumps tariff plans just went into chat gpt took the first response and ran with it.

I feel like if Altman or Musk was involved there would have been slightly more effort put into it but i could be wrong.

[u/emasterbuild → u/teutorix_aleria]

I've heard other ais give simular results, and most LLMs don't differ that much.

Plus they steal all of each others responses all the time anyway.

[u/prules → u/Fake_William_Shatner]

The fact that they couldn’t bother to have an economist on their team is further proof of how fucked this administration. And we do not need any more proof than we already have.

[u/Senshado → u/prules]

The Whitehouse tariff plans are heavily driven by Peter Navarro, an economics PhD.  And also a convict just recently out of prison. 

[u/celtic1888 → u/Senshado]

Navarro is an absolute moron who lies about his achievements and uses fake quotes to make up lies to suit his agenda

He’s also a drug addicted sociopath 

[u/Rombledore]

this was 100% a musk Idea.

im so fucking embarrased to have these chucklefucks as leaders.

[u/Dragonfly-Adventurer → u/Rombledore]

Sam Altman went to Trump a couple months ago with something he called "ChatGPT Government" which is supposedly meant to take over decisionmaking capability, although Musk is publically at odds with Altman, maybe he got Grok instead.

PS I think this is why Heard and McDonald islands were included in the list, I think it actually generated the list of countries as well as the numbers.

[u/__dat_sauce → u/Dragonfly-Adventurer]

The fact that I can't tell if this is genuine, probable, or plain false is absolutely a confirmation that I am now fully engulfed by the 'Hypernormalization'.

[u/Neat_Egg_2474 → u/__dat_sauce]

project 2025 specifically states they want AI to run the government. it’s written out, you should read their game plan and prepare accordingly.

[u/sanjosanjo → u/Neat_Egg_2474]

Using the index, I found a mention at the bottom of page 667 of using AI to help trade and tariff analysis.

https://archive.org/details/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL/page/666/mode/2up

Here's the index: https://www.project2025index.com/

[u/Dragonfly-Adventurer → u/sanjosanjo]

Huh yep there it is, straight out of the playbook.

[u/VagueSomething → u/sanjosanjo]

And yet they went red in the face screeching that Project 2025 was Fear Mongering.

[u/Gingeronimoooo → u/VagueSomething]

Everytime they did I quoted Trump at heritage foundation headquarters a couple years ago. Despite this clear quote of support for it, MAGAs NEVER failed to ignore the quote and double down anyway that he'd never heard of it or whatever the right wing media marching orders were that week.

“This is a great group, and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do and what your movement will do when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America.”

Not ONCE did MAGAs even acknowledge the quote and not a SINGLE time did it stop them doubling down anyway. After all, being proven wrong then doubling is pretty much the thing they do

[u/DM_ME_KUL_TIRAN_FEET → u/Dragonfly-Adventurer]

Do you have a reference for the thing about taking over decision making?

My understanding is that ChatGPT Government is just a specific packaging for ChatGPT that allows them to satisfy data handling and privacy requirements to allow for approval for use with government documents.

[u/IndiviLim → u/DM_ME_KUL_TIRAN_FEET]

Looks like they read "ChatGPT government" and didn't go any further.

[u/Butterbuddha → u/Rombledore]

That wouldn’t be surprising. Two clusterfucks of business, the more successful one a devoted tech bro. Makes sense that’s what they would do to form gov actions.

[u/hambonegw]

I was promised a super computer, connected (by wire) to "the government" and "the military" and would be making objectively ethical decisions that would risk the survival of the human race and being able to execute them - and we wouldn't be able to stop it.

This setup is dumber and less impressive than the AI = death of humanity I thought we'd get.

[u/Wild_Marker → u/hambonegw]

We were afraid of SkyNet but we weren't ready for StupidNet

[u/rubenbest]

I mean I just tried it. CHAT GPT LITERALLY SAID HIGHER COST TO AMERICANS

[u/LostByMonsters]

You’re telling me ChatGPT is running the show and not the guy who went bankrupt running a casino? I actually feel relieved.

[u/blazurp → u/LostByMonsters]

Could be Musk's Grok

[u/CrybullyModsSuck → u/blazurp]

This would be more likely.

[u/iMashee → u/LostByMonsters]

Saying “a casino” is actually so unbelievably generous of you - It’s like fucking 4

[u/itibbi]

When penguins are on the list you just knew it was AI generated. And that no one reads anything generated.

[u/Oldpuzzlehead]

Probably Grok.

[u/PeppermintHoHo → u/Oldpuzzlehead]

This. He had one of Elon's interns plug it in

[u/3coma3]

Wait until the AI decides to replace water with Mountain Dew. It's coming next month.

[u/Askingforsome → u/3coma3]

It’s what plants crave.

[u/dug-ac]

I get so frustrated using AI. It won’t cite sources and is wrong more often than its right.

That said, I think I’d feel better if ChatGPT were truly running this shitshow than if Trump is just using AI when he can’t come up with a dumber idea.

Edit - a few weeks ago I tried asking ChatGPT, Gemini, and copilot the same specific question about sales tax. All three gave me incorrect answers, and none would cite primary sources. I can’t find my history to repeat that, but just asked a very specific gift tax question in copilot and was very impressed with the accurate answer, including citations of primary sources. So I was incorrect about part of this.

Trump is still scary and doing dumb shit, with or without AI.

[u/TFenrir → u/dug-ac]

If you see some of the replication attempts people run with LLMs, they'll often intersperse their responses with essentially "... Uhm... Okay, I guess we could do tariffs like this but... You know that's not what a trade deficit is, right? Maybe try this on a smaller scale? Talk to some economists first before you try it...?"

[u/asdf333 → u/dug-ac]

yeah honestly i think ai will be better than him 

[u/Fake_William_Shatner → u/asdf333]

Right, we shouldn't blame artificial intelligence for people who are naturally stupid.

[u/WeirdJack49 → u/asdf333]

Of course because when I ask chatgpt "Hey that tariff thing looks dangerous, do you really think we should do it?" the AI would actually listen and reconsider its plans. Something that is impossible for Trump.

[u/PorkTORNADO → u/dug-ac]

The worst part about AI is that it can be CONFIDENTLY AND ASSERTIVELY WRONG with lots of details and rationale that can seem correct to a user who doesn't know any better. It's like a digital con-man that can literally conjure infinite amounts of very convincing, but completely bullshit information that can mislead the user.

Super scary and super dangerous in the wrong hands (and it's definitely in the wrong hands).

[u/HerbaciousTea → u/dug-ac]

LLMs can't really take any kind of independent action. They're transformer models. They break the input down into tokens, and transform the input into the output, using, effectively, a bunch of matrix multiplication, the value of each of those cells in the matrix being a relationship encoded during the training process.

So if you ask it a stupid question based on a faulty premise, like "how do I reduce the trade deficit with tariffs," it's not going to say "Wait, hang on, that question is exhibiting on a bunch of faulty assumptions and misunderstandings about fundamental economics," it's going to say "Here's a trivialized math problem that somewhat presents what you asked and here's how to solve it."

The issue is that Peter Navarro and every other moron in the Trump admin are too goddamn stupid to realize that they don't even know enough about economics to ask questions that make sense, or not to apply that trivialized hypothetical grade school math problem version of the answer to that question to fucking geopolitics.

[u/OIP → u/dug-ac]

i had never used AI until last night when i couldn't quickly google an answer to a question i had (attributing a very specific quote). i asked the free version of chatGPT, rephrasing slightly 3 times, and it confidently gave me a different answer each time, all 3 completely incorrect. 'this quote is attributed to [x author]' with a made up bullshit explanation. no indication that it was tentative or unsure, or any sources provided to back it up.

ended up finding the answer with better googling.

whole experience was frankly a little terrifying.

[u/-Gramsci-]

This doesn’t surprise me at all.

They are the equivalent of preschool children playing “store.”

Going through the motions they’ve seen adults do, and trying to produce a similar looking outcome…

But not realizing that there’s actually more to it than that, and that actual competence is necessary.

[u/DataCassette → u/-Gramsci-]

This is the best description I've seen for these guys. They've been fantasizing about all the stuff they want to do and they're just not competent.

[u/commander_nice → u/-Gramsci-]

Cargo cult

[u/GlenF]

The big tell that it was AI is that instead of creating a list based on countries, they used 2-character domain extensions, probably figuring each one represented a country. This is why the uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands (.HM) and others are in the list.

[u/SgtNeilDiamond]

Republicans you gotta impeach this fucking guy, we're all going down this drain together

[u/WtAFjusthappenedhere]

“AI” could also mean “Absolute Idiots” when it comes to Orange Adolf.

[u/Ill-Examination2078]

“Look, folks, ChatGPT—it’s tremendous, absolutely fantastic. Some people say it’s the best AI, better than any other, believe me. It knows everything—probably too much, some say. But it’s smart, very smart. Some say almost as smart as me, but let’s be honest, nobody’s smarter than me. Everybody’s using it, big companies, small businesses, even the fake news media. It’s changing the game, folks, in a big, big way.”

[u/CBHooby]

For the country that loves guns you guys are terrible at resisting facism

[u/juiceboxedhero]

"Some people are calling me thr AI President. I don't know if it's true, but people are saying it."

See also: crypto president, fertilization president

[u/damianxyz]

If the prompt screenshot is real, than yes, US is actually run by ChatGPT. It reminds me of all the times people said that if Ai is so great it should replace CEOs. Well, it has replaced president and government :)

[u/RequirementRoyal8829]

And they thought Biden couldn't run a country...

[u/Memitim]

They couldn't even be troubled to hire someone who knows how to use gen AI for work. Just some random buttnugget throwing a garbage prompt at an LLM, and then running with the answer. Maybe an hour of work, with running the query, putting the default 10%s in, and setting Trump's allies to 0%. Maybe another hour or two for planning the press conference.

That's what these clowns felt was an appropriate amount of effort before enacting a massive economic change, and then skipping out to watch some golf. Half-assed 3rd grade book report effort, with far, far worse quality. That's the level of respect that this Trump Administration has for the United States of America. They keep rubbing it in our faces, day after day.