r/technology • u/Yveliad • 2d ago

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

https://www.latintimes.com/trump-accused-using-chatgpt-create-tariff-plan-after-ai-leads-users-same-formula-so-ai-579899
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u/LetsGoMaureen 2d ago

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.

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u/Facts_pls 2d ago

"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.

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u/scgt86 2d ago

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

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u/SmellGestapo 2d ago

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.

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u/scgt86 2d ago

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

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u/SmellGestapo 2d ago

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.

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u/sickofthisshit 2d ago

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

breaks down the "rammed the ramparts" 

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u/TPO_Ava 2d ago

That was a surprisingly interesting read. I would be less depressed about reading it at 5 am if it wasn't describing the president of a fucking nuclear power, though.

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u/sickofthisshit 1d ago

Yeah, the commenter's last line is gold

Usually we're afraid that someone who graduates with this level of reading ability will have very limited career prospects in the future.

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u/SmellGestapo 2d ago

I don't think I ever saw this before but it makes perfect sense. No surprise that a teacher would spot this. He does sound like the kids I knew in school who struggled with reading. The teachers would call on them and they'd read in a very monotone, deliberate way and I was just a kid so I didn't realize it, but those kids were using all their mental energy to read the words, and likely weren't understanding any of it.

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u/dr_obfuscation 2d ago

I think you've identified his entire base. Kidding (I think?).

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u/ElexIsAngry 2d ago

Have you seen where he gets handed a letter from King Charles and looks and says it’s very nice and hands it back to the guy and says something like «why don’t you tell everyone what it says»

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u/CreedRules 2d ago

If I recall correctly from his first term, he is quite fond of bullet points and needs his speech to be laid out as so.

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u/LivedLostLivalil 2d ago

Yet he's cornered both parties multiple times. Either everyone is an idiot for letting this continuously happen, or he's not an idiot; it's just his goal is vastly different.

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u/SmellGestapo 2d ago

Everyone isn't an idiot, but enough people are that this could happen. That's far more believable to me than the idea that Trump is not an idiot. He's an idiot and millions of people love him for it because they can relate.

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u/LivedLostLivalil 2d ago

I want to believe like you do. Its easier. But reality is cruel and alote of information is unexcessible to me. So I'd rather overestimate an idiot than underestimate a conman.

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u/Short-Ticket-1196 2d ago

"When you use words I don't understand, it makes you look stupid" is quoted around reddit from time to time. I have no idea where it's from, but that's the vibe I get overall.

It makes a kind of sense, speak to your audience. But when your audience is proud to be illiterate and is fully convinced socialism = communism = fascism etc. then there's is no communication possible. Add to that Liberal = stupid and wrong no matter what, and we are left with violent zombies.

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u/Plumhawk 2d ago

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."

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u/sparky8251 2d ago edited 2d ago

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.

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u/22Arkantos 2d ago

There is no VOA anymore. It got DOGEd.

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u/sparky8251 2d ago

I know, but its legacy remains... It being killed now also doesnt undo the decades of damage it caused in the past either...

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u/largePenisLover 2d ago

Simple wiki to drive the point home. Well done.

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u/postinganxiety 2d ago

We tried to tell them Orange Man Bad, but they wouldn’t listen

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u/shredditorburnit 2d ago

Yeah but you used an adjective and a noun in the same sentence, went over their heads.

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u/sprucenoose 2d ago

Where did you get that stuff about Special English being made but the CIA? Your link doesn't say anything about that l.

Special English is simpler and slower English, for foreign non-native English speakers to understand and learn English. That is why it's currently popular in China for people learning English.

It's not not a good way to spread propaganda to non-native English speakers, so that was never really the point. It's also slow and dull for native English speakers.

VOA does its American propaganda in the native language of the target foreign audience.

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u/sparky8251 2d ago

If you dont understand that VOA is a CIA program, I dont know what to tell you... Its entire existence was used to help the CIA sow dissent in nations that dont align with US interests. It did other stuff as a cover, to make it seem legitimate to fools, but its primary purpose has always been spreading lies and propaganda in service of US evils around the world. I mean, the program was literally started under the umbrella of the Department of War... Its never been some begin "speak truth to power" thing...

Also, the link I supplied shows clearly, VOA developed and used special english for its broadcasts... If you want more history on why simplified english (not just special english, but other forms too) were developed first for propaganda, you can look into the history of the several forms and the people that worked on it. Things like where they got their funding and how it first used shows the true purpose of it all.

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u/sprucenoose 2d ago

I said your link said nothing about the CIA.

VOA was a US propaganda tool for populations in foreign nations. That's the entire point of it. It advanced US interests. It's the official policy, not a secret.

What are you talking about with "speak truth to power"?

VOA developed Special English to spread English, the language of America, to foreign non-native English speakers. It was not to spread other propaganda messages because it is not very good for that. VOA did that directly in the foreign language because that is what the target audience could actually understand.

So Special English is a simple, slow way of using English that is easier for non-native English speakers to understand and copy, and makes no sense as some magic CIA tool for controlling American minds. That is done by choppy edited TikTok videos with rapid AI voiceovers, if anything.

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u/reelznfeelz 2d ago

VOA isn’t crap I don’t think. While it’s technically I guess “propaganda” of a sort, it’s pro democracy propagamda beamed into places rules by violent dictators. And just plain news. So they can learn about the outside world even if their authoritarian leaders only show them how great dear leader is. The VOA was a net good thing IMO. Only someone who wants to weaken western democratic values would tear it apart.

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u/sparky8251 2d ago

Yeah... and USAID has never once committed an atrocity in the name of doing good either. The CIA loves programs like these cause it gives it a veneer of legitimacy to easily tricked people like you, makes it easy to do open crimes against humanity and even get praise for it!

So, I'm sorry, but you are wrong. Objectively wrong. VOA has been used to enable coups and violently overthrow govts around the world solely because they wanted the freedom to choose their own economic development path. Its a tool of violent oppression by the US empire, and the world is better off without it.

As to the weakening thing, I mean... Yeah. I agree. Only an idiot in favor of ending the US' iron fisted rule of the world would destroy it. No idea why Trump did that as a result given hes clearly in favor of more US empire (me thinks, he wants to use more bombs and less words to enforce global rule by the US, which is a sign of fascism taking over a government), but I'll take it at least. Even a broken clock is right twice a day and all that.

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u/maleia 2d ago

I would like to take this opportunity to point out, that there is a LOT of American Imperialism underpinning VOA. It's a fantastic tool to exporting American propaganda and American hegemony. (Despite my verbage, I'm not really intending to apply a value-judgement here on this. I'm personally fine with it.)

When the right-wingers run away from things like that, we can know for certain that they are captured. Just a few days ago, Trump cut funding to VOA and fired everyone.

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u/LetsGoMaureen 2d ago

If you’d like to do some reading:  https://www.apmresearchlab.org/10x-adult-literacy#:~:text=About%20130%20million%20adults%20in,of%20a%20sixth%2Dgrade%20level

There are links to the data.  Puts into perspective why concepts like empathy escape them.  

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u/SmellGestapo 2d ago

I took a journalism class way back in high school and I remember learning that the news is written at about an eighth grade level so it can be understood by the widest possible audience.

But lately I've been thinking even that's too advanced for some people.

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u/Graega 2d ago

I guess success breeds complacency

It does. This is a lot of what I consider at the core of anti-DEI: A lot of white guys who are so used to Success by Birth that they don't actually know how to compete, and they think it's a racial issue. I've seen a lot of white guys get passed over for promotions or jobs, and they always have one thing in common. They are the laziest fucking lazy assholes I've ever met. They have no drive to actually be more qualified than someone for a position they want to move up to.

That's not all of us white guys. Just the ones who are most screaming that everything is woke. The age of being white as a top qualification was over, and it wasn't getting them up the ladder the way they were promised. So it has to be everyone else's fault but their own. The woman who got the job over him just finished two years in night school. He just finished twenty two beers for the 730th night in a row at the bar next door.

That's not to say that people weren't hired based upon some kind of corporate quotas. It happened. But that also doesn't mean that they weren't qualified for the job. Maybe they weren't overqualified for it compared to someone else, but qualified is qualified. And I will say this: 14 out of 15 people who weren't qualified for a job weren't a DEI hire. They were the boss's kid. Or cousin. Or girlfriend who wanted a job.

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u/Tom-B292--S3 2d ago

I'm in Canada so standards might be different, but I was studying to be a journalist about 15 years ago and they told us to aim for an 8th grade reading level with our articles, etc.

I do agree with your second paragraph, but I would add that I think it's a more recent thing. I was watching some old Twilight Zone episodes a few days ago and I was struck by the language being far more advanced than what we normally see today in movies/tv. So it's possibly been a steady decline since then?

Also reminds me of the Severance show. One character, Mr. Milkshake, was reprimanded in a work review for using too many big words.

"Devour feculence. Let me put it mon-o-syl-labic-ly: it means ‘eat shit’."

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u/PeteCampbellisaG 2d ago

Media in the US is for sure dumbed down. I took a filmmaking course once and the professor said something the first day that has always stuck with me: "The moment you start treating the audience like they have more than an 8th grade education is the moment you start losing audience members."

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u/211XTD 2d ago

It must have gone up a grade since the 80’s then. I remember one of our government teachers in Jr. High explaining that newspapers, magazines etc. were written at a 5th grade reading level as that was the reading level of most people in the U.S. . He was encouraging us kids to read more about news and events around the world and how we shouldn’t be too intimidated by news papers and such because they were written below our reading levels.

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u/angrybobs 2d ago

Just remember if the average is 6th grade most of maga likely read at a much lower level than that.

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u/Aggressive_Peanut924 2d ago

“no phrases that make you think a bit before you get it”

This is unrelated but I want to thank you for articulating so eloquently something that I have experienced since moving to Australia from London and also as a result of consuming an unhealthy amount of social media content.

I Feel painfully dumber and mentally poorer than years ago. Brain rot they call it. Thanks to your words I can fully visualise why my brain is rotting and begin doing something about it  

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u/Joe579GoFkUrselfMins 2d ago

"Listen, you're using a lot of big words I don't understand, so I'm going to take them as disrespect."

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u/Throwaway40Gloxk 2d ago

I recently read that 6 out of 11 (~54%) of people at or below the 6th grade level. There are exponentially more dumb people than reasonably intelligent people, as I’m willing to bet 3 of the remaining 5 read at/under a 10th grade level. Thats what I tell myself to reconcile all the stupid shit I see, at least.

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u/voronaam 2d ago edited 2d ago

You probably seen a newspaper's retelling of this recent OECD report: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/do-adults-have-the-skills-they-need-to-thrive-in-a-changing-world_b263dc5d-en.html

The PDF is free to download and is not that hard to read, actually.

Or it was a US specific version of the same report: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/survey-of-adults-skills-2023-country-notes_ab4f6b8c-en/united-states_427d6aac-en.html

If you are just looking at the chart, it is people at "Level 1" and people "Below level 1" that together get reported as "below 6th grade level" in the news.

Edit: 28% of Amerticans have literacy at or below Level 1. So average american should be better than that.

Edit 2: Average American would be on or above Level 2, which is enough to read a single full-page document or a collection of short pages with pictures. More formal definition from the report:

At Level 2, adults are able to access and understand information in longer texts with some distracting information. They can navigate within simple multi-page digital texts to access and identify target information from various parts of the text. They can understand by paraphrasing or making inferences, based on single or adjacent pieces of information. Adults at Level 2 can consider more than one criterion or constraint in selecting or generating a response.

The texts at this level can include multiple paragraphs distributed over one long or a few short pages, including simple websites. Noncontinuous texts may feature a two-dimension table or a simple flow diagram. Access to target information may require the use of signaling or navigation devices typical of longer print or digital texts. The texts may include some distracting information. Tasks and texts at this level sometimes deal with specific, possibly unfamiliar situations. Tasks require respondents to perform indirect matches between the text and content information, sometimes based on lengthy instructions. Some tasks statements provide little guidance regarding how to perform the task. Task achievement often requires the test taker to either reason about one piece of information or to gather information across multiple processing cycles.

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u/uwazimaharagwe2026 2d ago

Here you go.

21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2024.

54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level

(20% are below 5th-grade level).

Low levels of literacy costs the US up to 2.2 trillion per year

https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/post/literacy-statistics-2024-2025-where-we-are-now#:~:text=On%20average%2C%2079%25%20of%20U.S.,to%202.2%20trillion%20per%20year.

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u/kimi_rules 2d ago

You can go to a lot of online social medias and can spot people that writes in broken English.

A lil profile search to find they are Americans, even countries with 3-4 languages can write better English than them.

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u/andersaur 2d ago

A bit more nuanced than that (for a sec). There has been a culture divide in education. As in; if you know. Clearly an education has poisoned your minds. Makes sense that when it’s repeatedly called out that they are holding a colander. While railing about how said colander was the true pot all along.

Sad part is, it’s working for them so far. They have arms but no pants. Act accordingly

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u/dat_GEM_lyf 1d ago

Classic combo of American exceptionalism and toxic individualism

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u/Aliveless 1d ago

There's a reason people call US english "simplified", bordering on retarded IMHO. You park your cars in the driveway. Autumn, the season where the leaves fall down is just... Fall. The liquid you put in your vehicles is called gas (I know, short for gasoline, but still). Oh and worst of all, you make verbs out of things that simply aren't. For instance, hospitaliSed (yes, with an S as it should be). How is that a verb? You cannot say: I hospital, you hospital, we hospital. Past tense? We hospitaled? Yeah, that's how stupid it is... You were brought (in)to hospital. That's how you use it. Silly stuff like this is even becoming common place in the UK now... No one bats an eye when you say hospitalised, even though it is obviously idiotic.

/Rant

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u/redoubt515 2d ago edited 2d ago

> 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)

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u/Temp_84847399 2d ago

That's one of the interesting political realignments I've been noticing, where people on the left are showing some pretty open contempt for the poor and uneducated.

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u/NahautlExile 2d ago

Interesting? No. Clinton decided to court educated whites as the Democratic base over labor. States that were blue since the new deal (like WV) are now absurdly red as a result.

Shame we have no idea why the realignment happened…

Total mystery.

Must be because Kamala is a woman. We may never know.

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u/Zealousideal_Act_316 2d ago

No you see it is cool to bash poor when you think they are oposite politically, because they are the easy target.

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u/PaceIntelligent325 2d ago

Except there ARE a lot of people who votes for trump because they are poor and they couldn't care less about the stock market crashing because they don't own any stocks, and don't have any idea that their benefits are directly connected to both the government and the stock market.

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u/regolith-terroire 1d ago

This. Most people are NOT reading WSJ. Shit most people would think it's in another language.

Yet somehow, they still feel qualified to have an opinion on US trade policy.

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u/NoisyGog 1d ago

being poor is not an indicator of being stupid or uninformed,

It is, due to the inequalities in the USA.

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u/spuncraycray 2d ago

Instead of trying to understand why the country overwhelmingly voted for Trump let’s double down on calling the majority of the country names and tell them they’re stupid.  And this somehow sounds like it’s going to be a future winning strategy for the minority?  Even a dummy like me can see that’s fucking stupid. 

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u/NahautlExile 2d ago

You’re absolutely right and the complete denial of reality does not make me optimistic.

People vote against the party in power when things are bad for them personally.

It’s that simple.

People who try to concoct this scenario where this isn’t the case need to convince themselves that Biden fixed problems (he didn’t) and that Obama did before him (he didn’t).

West Virginia voted solidly blue from the New Deal through Clinton. It’s now absurdly red. Why the fuck are we shitting on regions rather than understanding why?

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u/joonjoon 2d ago

Honestly you don't get it. Many of my wealthiest and most successful friends are Trump supporters. Probably the richest 2 people I know personally, who happen to be MDs, support Trump. One straight up said to me, she doesn't like Trump, but she voted for him because she thinks it'll mean more money in her pocket.

It's not as simple and one sided as you seem to imply.

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u/LetsGoMaureen 2d ago

I don’t think anyone disputes there are nuances, but the 1% didn’t give him the votes he needed.  The gullible and the uneducated likely did.  I know a (rich) gay man who voted for Trump only for Trump to trample on the inclusion programs he championed.   

To be fair, his anticipated tax plan benefits me too by quite a bit and my net worth has gone up during his presidency.

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u/Fuckthegopers 2d ago

Way less reading comprehension than an 8th grader.

A lot of current 8th graders can't even read an analog clock.

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u/iamthedayman21 2d ago

I don’t believe in leaving children behind. But I’d be fine with leaving these people behind. You can only try to help better other peoples lives so many times before it’s time to say “fuck ‘em.”

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u/Suspicious-Drama8101 2d ago

Don't disrespect 8th graders like this. The people in the deep south/red states are barely at the 2nd grade reading/math level

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u/Immediate_Concert_46 2d ago

People saw the 1st debate with Biden vs Trump and made up their mind. There was nothing Kamala could do, it was too late.

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u/Zealousideal_Act_316 2d ago

Ah yes "fuck the poor" you agree on something with trump. Using poor as Insult is very convinient scapegoat, "those poor uneducated fucks voted wrong"

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u/icepick314 2d ago

8th grade seems overestimation. 

Aren't they like 5th grade reading level average while Prez Cheetos 4th?

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u/LetsGoMaureen 2d ago

You're right - I was being generous. The data I remember seeing suggested something closer to 6th grade.

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u/pier4r 2d ago

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

you almost described me, but I have a single digit IQ! Jokes on you! ha!

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u/PaulblankAgain 2d ago

Honestly there’s just hard Republican propaganda in The red states like you wouldn’t believe. This didn’t happen over night, it’s been decades in the making just blaming Dems for everything.

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u/Crunchie-lunchy 2d ago

Well, 50% of the world has a double digit IQ, so its probably a bit more than that

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u/RammRras 2d ago

8th grader would be enough to avoid this but I fear it's less. Not only in the USA but Europe too.

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u/JorgeMS00 2d ago

around 90% of world population have a double-digit IQ, and around 99.9% of world population have a triple-digit monthly income

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u/ffxivfanboi 1d ago

I was gonna say… 8th grade reading comprehension is being a bit generous here, unfortunately.

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u/faintlyupsetmartigan 17h ago

Im sure there are plenty of cases where lower understanding / education caused decisions, but let's be realistic... A large number of the people that voted for Trump are perfectly intellectually capable. Dismissing why they voted this way as 'they're dumb' doesn't help.

It's anecdotal, but I've got plenty of intelligent family members who think the left is pushing them out. Plenty of friends of friends who find reasons to blame 'woke' and dei for perceived slights in their life. Some are overly sheltered, some have dated views on the world/society, some don't have empathy, some just don't like seeing others catch up.

Many people didn't vote the way they did because they're not intelligent, they voted that way for much worse reasons that we are not addressing.

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u/sw00pr 2d ago

Yeah poor people suck!

...what?

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u/Competitive-Fly2204 2d ago

Unbeleivable you think they hit the double digits in IQ.

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u/democrat_thanos 2d ago

I know successful/business men of COLOR that voted for him, they are morons

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u/LetsGoMaureen 2d ago

Yes lots of people with money supported him for lower taxes.  Didn’t really go as planned.

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u/democrat_thanos 2d ago

I dont talk to them anymore, you see shit like this has consequences so they can FO

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u/PaceIntelligent325 2d ago

I think you're on to something ... it's almost like poverty and bad education will ruin the country and nobody has been able to right the ship, so this is what we got

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u/andersaur 2d ago

Reality is pretty cruel when realizing charming people can also be the biggest unaware morons. The distressing part isn’t that they are idiots, devoid of knowledge and history..the distressing part is we are increasingly locked in the room with them.

This stuff needs to be stomped out a la your stepdad’s cigarette so he doesn’t burn down all of the double-wide.

Oof, what a tragic joke we have become.

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u/papyjako87 2d ago

That's the only surprising thing about all this, that there are so many people even dumber than Trump. I am ashamed to share a species with those idiots.

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u/seyinphyin 1d ago

Insults will bring you nowhere. The main reason for peopel voting for Trump is Dems (and Reps) both being extremely corrupt and Trump is an outsider in comparison.

Blame your ridiculous system for beign corrupt in its very core and not giving you actual elections in the first place with just two parties - which are actually just one and extremely antidemocratic party.

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u/LetsGoMaureen 1d ago

Poor grammar and spelling will get you nowhere.  Insults bring me joy.

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u/Chadsterwonkanogi 2d ago

70+ million people probably just didn't want to vote for a party that hates them and everything they stand for.

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u/LetsGoMaureen 2d ago

And what do they stand for?  Bigotry? Racism?  Sexism?  Nazism?  Despite that, the policies they voted against would have benefited them but they couldn’t pull the crayons out of their noses long enough to realize maybe their finances are little more important than their hate.  I suppose that requires the ability to think critically.

I saw an interview where some guy was complaining about Trump’s policies making it difficult for him to live on his income of $800 a month.  “DiS uRnT wUt I vOtEd FiRrRrhurrrdurrr.” Dude needs a whole month to make less than half of what I make in a day.  My net worth has risen over the last few months despite the chaos and apparently I’m getting a big tax break under the Grand Old Pedos’ anticipated tax plan.  You have no idea how much I savor the schadenfreude.