Perception is reality

By Om Malik-

Om Malik

(Om Malik is a partner at True Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based early-stage venture capital group. Prior to joining True, he was the founder of Gigaom, a pioneering technology blog and media company. The views expressed in this article are his own)

As an avid Reddit user, I’ve learned to approach everything I read with skepticism, echoing Jerry Seinfeld’s catchphrase, “Really?” This morning, I encountered an unsourced post about Boox, a tablet and e-reader, which I viewed with a critical eye. According to the post, an upgrade to the Boox tablet’s operating system, which is based on Android, includes an AI assistant developed by ByteDance, the Chinese tech giant that also owns TikTok. ByteDance launched Coze, a competitor to ChatGPT, earlier this year.

The post claimed that this new bot is essentially disseminating Chinese Communist Party propaganda, accompanied by several screenshots. For example, prompts about the Tiananmen Square incident in China, compared to historical injustices in Western nations like France and the United States, reportedly yield strikingly different results. It was amusing to see the responses about North Korea and Russia.

However, it’s important to note that there is no way to verify the authenticity of these images or the post itself. The comparison between responses to prompts about various countries’ historical events raises questions about potential bias in the bot’s programming.

I’ve learned the hard way that these days, everything read on the internet must be thoroughly fact-checked to separate reality from engagement bait. I asked my community on Bluesky and Twitter if anyone has a Boox device and can replicate the results. I don’t have a Boox — and honestly, I’d rather buy my electronics from the devil I know, usually Apple.

The reason I got interested in the post was because Boox has been getting so much positive press. The Wirecutter, part of The New York Times, exulted in its praise for the device, that surely sold a lot of Boox devices:

The Boox Palma hasn’t completely replaced paper books in my life—I don’t think anything ever will. But this handy little guy fills in all the gaps in my reading life. Now I bounce effortlessly between physical and digital copies of books, and I use it frequently enough that it isn’t gathering dust in a corner as my Kindle has for years.

Nowhere in the reviews do you find that Boox is owned by Onyx International, a Chinese technology company founded in 2008. The company specializes in producing E Ink devices and e-readers under the BOOX brand name. Its headquarters is in Guangzhou, China. There is no way the company can avoid complying with government orders.

When will reviewers and media start flagging potential challenges regarding the ownership of “brands” that permeate our lives? There’s been discussion about TP-Link Routers being compromised. Russians are known to use compromised routers for their activities. Before that, concerns centered on DJI drones and cameras. It’s difficult to determine which smart devices are compromised. However, with the trend toward embedding artificial intelligence in everything, we’re likely headed for some choppy times.

A decade ago, the Edward Snowden scandal revealed how the U.S. used technology for its own purposes. In a way, these recent developments show that U.S. rivals have one-upped the country that invents so much of the world’s consumer technology in furthering their own interests.

Anyway, if the Boox rumor is true, this development signals a new phase in media manipulation. Propaganda has rapidly evolved with the times. The Greeks used games, theater, assemblies, law courts, and religious festivals to shape attitudes and opinions. During the Spanish Armada era, the Spanish employed pamphlets and letters to spread false or counter-narratives. Even the Catholic Church established a “College for Propaganda.”

The golden age of propaganda dawned in 1914 with World War I, and the term soon became part of everyday language. Since then, propaganda has evolved alongside changing communication technologies. Pamphlets, newsletters, and newspapers were quickly supplemented by radio and television, and later by the internet. We’ve indeed come a long way from the days of leaflets and Voice of America broadcasts.

Earlier this year, Foreign Affairs magazine published a detailed article about Russia’s Doppelganger project and its efforts to destabilize the West. This likely represents only the tip of the iceberg. The internet in general, and social media in particular, have raised the stakes to a point where modern wars are being fought with bots and fake news as much as with conventional weapons. After all, as an advertisement for a soft drink once proclaimed: “Perception is reality.”

As I’ve written before, AI is a new information interaction layer. It comes as no surprise that we’ve seen propaganda move to AI and chatbots. If the Boox allegations are correct, this move signifies a new phase in the ongoing battle of media manipulation. It highlights how AI technology is becoming a battleground for control over historical narratives and information flows.

With so many devices becoming part of our daily lives and AI integrating into these devices, we’re likely to see the blurring between neutral technology and tools of influence. It’s increasingly difficult to determine whether AI is offering balanced, factual information or if it is some sort of government-mandated censorship or bias.

PS: I am still waiting for Boox device owners to respond, and I will update the article accordingly.