In discussions about the political influence of separatism and language imposition in Spain, the question of reliable data and facts comes up again and again.

As the newest instrument chatgpt, a product of the so-called artificial intelligence, offers itself since the beginning of 2023. I tested it once with the question: „What percentage of Catalans have Spanish as their mother tongue?“

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The adjacent document on the left shows a translation using DeepL of the dialog with chatgpt. The screenshot of the original dialog in German follows below the article.

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The adjacent document on the left shows a translation using DeepL of the dialog with chatgpt. The screenshot of the original dialog in German follows below the article.

In my blog, I always try to back up my opinions with facts. This includes that I refer to verifiable sources. However, all sources themselves have the problem that they do not necessarily reflect facts and are politically controlled. Wikipedia is the best known example of this, that in the field of natural sciences it is very useful, but in the historical, social and political field it is often very one-sided manipulated and should only be used with caution.

Inspired by an article of Markus Fiedler „A Date with A.I.“ (AI=Artificial Intelligence), which shows the extremely manipulative approach of chatgpt, I checked chatgpt for reliability myself. I asked about the percentage of Catalans whose native language was Spanish.

The result is very sobering. Chatgpt offers a quick and perky answer. However, when investigating the system itself, one has to realize that no evidence whatsoever can be provided for this answer. It could be pure fantasy. The provided links always run into an „error“, as the log documented above proves. That's why I gave up after a few attempts. Chatgpt can't substantiate its answer and only comes up with text blocks of apologies and the next wrong link, which makes a human being tired, the computer hardly that's why I did not try more repitions.

What remains? With all information, I first look for who gives it and who finances it. That is one of the most important pieces of information for me. But that says nothing about the truth or the manipulation of the information, e.g. by omission or addition. Also a truth packed in two lies is difficult to discover.

No matter where the information comes from, it always remains: „Believe little! Question everything! Think for yourself!“

Although I am also very critical of the UN and UNESCO, I would like to agree with the following article from UNESCO regarding the language statements: „Why mother tongue education is so important“. This article is available in Spanish and French, too.

Now the reader of my blog can form an opinion about the Spanish political parties who, whether from Madrid or the corresponding regional capitals, think they have to decide in which language lessons should be given. I think that the parents should decide, because they know best the mother tongue of their children. This right is denied them in all the autonomies with regional language in Spain and this is reliable information.

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Screenshot of the original dialogue with chatgpt in German

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Screenshot of the original dialogue with chatgpt in German