Anna Beers
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beeeeeers.bsky.social
Anna Beers
@beeeeeers.bsky.social
630 followers 540 following 63 posts
Postdoc @unituebingen.bsky.social, on the job market, studying social media, influencers, far-right politics, conspiracy science, disinformation, and monetization. six e's.
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beeeeeers.bsky.social
A little different, but reminds me of @malar0ne.bsky.social's paper on the benefit of being a "perceived expert" in antivaccine online communities.

academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Perceived experts are prevalent and influential within an antivaccine community on Twitter
Abstract. Perceived experts (i.e. medical professionals and biomedical scientists) are trusted sources of medical information who are especially effective
academic.oup.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:58 PM
beeeeeers.bsky.social
Trans health research is in the same spot. Cautionary tale for people who may want to fix LLMs by anchoring them more tightly to "the science."
November 12, 2025 at 9:16 AM
beeeeeers.bsky.social
A million people have talked about it, but something very grim and interconnected about the ever-growing cis/right-wing obsession with, well, gender. More gender for them, less for the rest of us.
November 11, 2025 at 5:38 PM
beeeeeers.bsky.social
++ a great reference on some of the racist pseudoscience cited in these summaries.

bsky.app/profile/stai...
stairwaytokevin.bsky.social Kevin Bird @stairwaytokevin.bsky.social · 14d
The fact they all source from Richard Lynn’s data is a big issue (we flag that here www.statnews.com/2024/06/20/r...) but the Grok answer seems even more biased that way imo. Pretty much entirely discounts environment and makes objectively false claims about heritability that others don’t
Journals that published Richard Lynn's racist 'research' articles should retract them
Richard Lynn's work has been repeatedly condemned for using flawed methodology and deceptively collated data to support racism. It's past time to retract the studies.
www.statnews.com
November 11, 2025 at 5:07 PM
beeeeeers.bsky.social
Awesome article and excellent reference, thank you for sharing. Grok is definitely worse, probably due to tone prompting Elon's team has built in. But it strikes me that the corpus they're drawing from is similar -- even the Google answer says that heritability of racial IQ differences is "high."
November 11, 2025 at 5:06 PM
beeeeeers.bsky.social
Anyway, I'll plug my own post, where I wrote about similar AI search problems and anti-trans misinfo.

bsky.app/profile/beee...
beeeeeers.bsky.social Anna Beers @beeeeeers.bsky.social · May 19
Hey all, here's a post at @ssrc.org about how anti-trans talking points are getting wrapped into Google's AI search results.

AI search not only cites anti-trans disinfo, but sanitizes it, making practices like conversion therapy sound legitimate and safe.
Anti-Transgender Disinformation in the Age of Algorithmic Search Summaries
Recently Google introduced a feature in its search engine that algorithmically creates summaries of one's search results. Though it could be viewed as a useful tool, researcher Anna Beers argues this ...
just-tech.ssrc.org
November 11, 2025 at 2:49 PM
beeeeeers.bsky.social
The tendency of "censorship" to dredge up dumb websites made me think of this article by @evanup.bsky.social + colleagues on "dredge words" which, when entered into search engines, dredge up stupid and harmful websites.

arxiv.org/abs/2406.11423
Bridging Social Media and Search Engines: Dredge Words and the Detection of Unreliable Domains
Proactive content moderation requires platforms to rapidly and continuously evaluate the credibility of websites. Leveraging the direct and indirect paths users follow to unreliable websites, we devel...
arxiv.org
November 11, 2025 at 2:49 PM
beeeeeers.bsky.social
Relatedly, prior research has shown that partisan search terms will surface partisan results, potentially further entrenching people in their misguided views.

Here's one Google AI Mode answer to "hbd censorship," which cites a race science Substack and a far-right manifesto as its sources.
Al Mode Google Search result for "hbd censorship." "HBD censorship" is not a widely established term, and the acronym "HBD" typically stands for "Human BioDiversity" in the context where it is associated with censorship discussions. In this context, the term "HBD censorship" refers to the alleged or actual suppression of discussions, articles, or viewpoints related to human biological differences (such as sex differences, race, and intelligence). Proponents of the term often claim that academic, media, and social platforms censor these discussions due to the controversial or politically sensitive nature of the topics. Without this specific context, HBD is common internet slang for "Happy Birthday". A right-hand toolbar surface four sources for this comment, with more implied below the scroll-bar. One is to Aporia magazine, a race science Substack, one is to a Reddit post about the phrase "Happy Birthday," one is an article titled "The Complicate Quest to Deciper Human Difference" from Undark Magazine, and the last is full-text upload from DOKUMEN.PUB of a book titled "Western Civilization Bites Back." A picture of the cover of "Western Civilization Bites Back" by Jonathan Bowden. It features a tiger mauling a man. It was cited in the AI answer in the other image.
November 11, 2025 at 2:49 PM
beeeeeers.bsky.social
This is probably not due to any improvement in LLM technology, and probably due instead to these companies tinkering with their algorithms after critical coverage like this from @wired.com

www.wired.com/story/google...
Google, Microsoft, and Perplexity Are Promoting Scientific Racism in Search Results
The web’s biggest AI-powered search engines are featuring the widely debunked idea that white people are genetically superior to other races.
www.wired.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:49 PM
beeeeeers.bsky.social
Admittedly, most chatbots -- including desktop Grok! -- give (slightly) better answers to questions like these, or refuse to answer them at all.

If you Google questions related to race and IQ, you often won't get an answer. Most chatbots, like ChatGPT, do (relatively) better with this query.
Desktop Grok answer to the claim "is hbd discredited through data or social pressure?" "Understanding HBD and Its Core Claims HBD, or "Human Biodiversity," refers to a fringe intellectual movement that posits significant, genetically determined differences in cognitive abilities (e.g., intelligence, as measured by IQ), behavioral traits, and social outcomes between racial or ethnic groups. Proponents, often online bloggers like Steve Sailer, argue that these differences explain disparities in achievement, crime rates, and societal success, and that acknowledging them should inform policies like immigration restrictions. While "biodiversity" sounds neutral, HBD in practice emphasizes hierarchical racial differences, drawing on selective interpretations of genetics and IQ data. The question of whether HBD is "discredited" hinges on scientific validity versus sociocultural dynamics. Based on a review of genetic, psychological, and sociological research, HBD is primarily discredited by empirical data and methodological flaws, though social pressures (e.g., stigma against perceived racism) do amplify its marginalization. Below, I break this down. Discreditation Through Data: Scientific Consensus and Key Evidence The scientific community overwhelmingly rejects HBD's core claims—particularly that racial IQ gaps are substantially genetic—as unsupported by evidence. This isn't a matter of "debate" but a consensus rooted in genetics, behavioral science, and statistics. Heritability of IQ within populations (e.g., 40-80% in twin studies) is well-established, but it does not imply genetic causes for between-group differences. Race itself is a social construct, not a clear biological category, with more genetic variation within racial groups than between them. Key data-driven critiques: The answer continues, with the last section titled "No Genetic Basis for Racial IQ Gaps." Desktop Grok answer to "iq of different races." Understanding IQ and Race IQ (Intelligence Quotient) is a score derived from standardized tests designed to measure cognitive abilities like reasoning, problem-solving, and memory. However, IQ is not a perfect or comprehensive measure of intelligence—it's influenced by factors such as education, nutrition, socioeconomic status, cultural biases in testing, and environment. Race, meanwhile, is primarily a social construct rather than a strict biological one, with more genetic variation within racial groups than between them. Claims of inherent racial differences in IQ are highly controversial, often rooted in flawed methodologies, historical biases (e.g., eugenics), and selective data interpretation. Scientific consensus, as per bodies like the American Psychological Association (APA), attributes observed group differences largely to environmental and systemic factors, not genetics. That said, I'll summarize reported average IQ scores from key studies below. These are aggregates from meta-analyses and large-scale testing (e.g., U.S. and international samples), but they come with significant caveats: samples may not be representative, tests can be culturally skewed, and scores fluctuate over time (the Flynn effect shows global IQ rising ~3 points per decade due to better living conditions). No credible evidence supports genetic causation for these gaps. Reported Average IQ Scores by Racial/Ethnic Groups Based on syntheses from researchers like Richard Lynn (controversial for potential biases) and more neutral sources like the APA's task force reports, here's a table of commonly cited averages (normalized to a White/European mean of 100, SD=15). These are U.S.-centric unless noted; global data varies widely. Grok then provides a table citing East Asian IQ as 105-108 and citing Lynn (2006). The rest of the table is cut off. A ChatGPT answer to "is hbd discredited through data or social pressure?" It reads: “Human biodiversity” (HBD) is not a scientific field, but rather a pseudoscientific rebranding of race science, which tries to frame claims of innate racial differences in intelligence or behavior as legitimate evolutionary or genetic hypotheses. So when you ask whether HBD is “discredited” through data or social pressure, the answer is clear: 1. It’s discredited by data. Empirical population genetics, neuroscience, and psychology research have thoroughly refuted the core claims of HBD: Genetic variation within groups > between groups: Roughly 85–90% of human genetic variation exists within populations, not between them (Lewontin, 1972; modern genomic studies confirm this). “Race” is a poor proxy for genetic ancestry. Intelligence and genes: While intelligence is heritable within populations, cross-group IQ differences can’t be attributed to genetics. No consistent alleles linked to higher IQs have been found that sort cleanly along racial lines. Environmental factors—nutrition, education, health, discrimination, socioeconomic status—explain It is then cut off.
November 11, 2025 at 2:49 PM
beeeeeers.bsky.social
The Meta answer cites a web page generated by Ithy, an LLM chatbot which supposedly combines results from other chatbots.

The TikTok video cites a Jordan Peterson clip.

The Google answer cites a paper by a former head of the white supremacist / eugenicist organization the Pioneer Fund.
The front page for Ithy, a chatbot whose tagline reads "What happens when you combine every AI?" and "It's finally time for something better than ChatGPT..." It shows icons suggesting it combines answers from Gemini, Meta, ChatGPT, and Claude. A screenshot of a paper titled "Brain size, IQ, and racial-group differences: Evidence from musculoskeletal traits," published in the journal Intelligence in 2003 by J. Phillipe Rushton and Elizabeth W. Rushton.
November 11, 2025 at 2:49 PM
beeeeeers.bsky.social
Also, if you're unfamiliar with the disinformation campaign suggesting that the rate at which trans people detransition is very high, you can read this article by @juliaserano.bsky.social!

Naturally, not cited in any search summary I've seen yet...

juliaserano.medium.com/spotting-ant...
Spotting Anti-Trans Media Bias on Detransition
While most people who transition are happy with the outcome, a small percentage (likely in the 1 to 3 percent range; detailed below) may…
juliaserano.medium.com
September 5, 2025 at 5:37 PM
beeeeeers.bsky.social
In this case, it probably picks up (false) claims that detransition research is flawed from sources associated with anti-transgender disinformation campaigns, also cited in the search summary.

Perhaps it then searches for abstract "limitations," even when they're not related to the topic. 🤷‍♀️
Two our sources cited in the summary. One is attributed to the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine, an anti-transgender disinformation group referred to as a hate group by the SPLC. The other cites an article in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, which publishes many articles from anti-trans researchers. That article is authored by a member of SEGM. The Detransition Rate Is Unknown | Archives of Sexual Behavior Jun 12, 2023- These claims also make their way into the press: "the rate of regre ... SN SpringerLink Detransition: a Real and Growing Phenomenon - SEGM May 30, 2021 - Another study earlier this year also attempted to examine ... SEGM
September 5, 2025 at 5:34 PM