Education Secretary Linda McMahon confuses AI with A1

That second sentence.

 

Well she was in professional wrestling. In professional wrestling it must stand for Artificial Oneness.

 

Elena Ceausescu was poorly educated but as her husband rose in power (eventually becoming the Romanian dictator) she remarkably also rose in education level. Eventually she obtained a PhD in Chemistry with a dissertation on polymers. It was allegedly written by academics forced to do so and later forced to include her on academic papers. When she traveled overseas to scientific conferences and activities she would surround herself with scientists and when a question was asked she would turn to them and ask their opinion and then say a few words after they answered. Remarkably her dissertation is still cited occasionally (though it wasn't really by her). They tried (with some success) to nominate her for the Nobel Prize and get her acknowledged by various scientific societies around the world.

Related to this post she had a nickname (among others) in Romania due to her mispronunciation of CO2.

"She was sometimes nicknamed Codoi, referring to her alleged mispronunciation of the name of the chemical compound CO2 (C for carbon, O for oxygen, and "doi" being Romanian for "two"). She was mocked by many, including an official who called her by this nickname during her show trial. Contributing to the humorous effect, "codoi" is an actual word in Romanian, meaning "big tail".

 

Should read, they tried with (some success) to get her nominated to various scientific societies around the world. Of course, no success with the Nobel Prize.
In some cases a lot of pressure was brought to bear to get her memberships in societies. Her public image was as mother of the country and respected scientist.

 

In case anyone is interested in reading further about Elena Ceausescu, I found these two interesting articles.

https://paperpile.com/blog/elena-ceausescu-scientist-fraud/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/22/a-moral-issue-to-correct-the-long-tail-of-elena-ceausescus-fraudulent-scientific-work

And just looked and her dissertation is still floating around (abebooks for example).

 

Sure, Linda McMahon said A1 instead of AI.
It was a slip-up. Happens to the best of us—especially when you're speaking publicly under pressure, with cameras rolling and critics waiting to pounce.
Okay, yes—Linda McMahon said A1 instead of AI. It was funny. The internet had its moment. Even the steak sauce got in on it. But let’s take a breath.
Remember when President Obama said there were “57 states”? Or when George W. Bush gave us “misunderestimated”? These things happen. It’s called being human.
This was a blooper reel moment. Not a crisis.

 

Honestly, I get where you’re coming from. But in this group, I often feel like no one is even trying to offer a different take.
So even if I don’t always get it right, I feel it’s worth at least trying to represent the other side—especially in a community like ours where perspectives can get a bit one-sided.

I’m not here to make excuses—just to encourage a little more balance when one mistake becomes the entire narrative.

 

Neither of those things involved policy they were advocating. Nobody has yet (here or in other places I've seen this mentioned) brought up the most likely possibility: she doesn't know anything about AI, she was given a briefing to read and decided to adopt those talking points wholesale as policy without even talking to another person about it to learn her mistake.

Today I learned! Putin is also alleged to have purchased the dissertation for his 1997 Candidate of Sciences in Economics (which was heavily plagiarized) but he seems to have some shame about it. He never refers to himself as doctor, never mentions his degree in his campaigns and never uses it as justification for particular economic policy.

 

Putin is celebrating today

"The rouble has even beaten gold, a traditional safe haven asset for investors in times of upheaval, which has gained 23pc since the turn of the year. Silver has risen 12pc.
The upturn in fortunes for the Russian currency comes as the dollar has come under pressure from the US president’s trade policy, which has rocked investor confidence.
Meanwhile, the rouble has been buoyed by record-high interest rates of 21pc as the Bank of Russia battles to temper inflation and support Vladimir Putin’s struggling war economy."

 

Linda McMahon: I agree. I think it is likely that she is simply a nearly 77 year old person not keeping up with tech trends and perhaps not even tuned in to media (the kind you listen to). So, she may have only seen it in print and always read it as A1.

Putin: I read that about him a few years back. I suspect that people don't want to make too big an issue of it lest they accidentally fall out of an upper story window.

Defenestration seems to be the way in Russia. I was reading that Ceausescu's enemies had a way of developing cancer early in life. That ranged from union leaders who were protesting and then negotiated a settlement (allegedly exposed to prolonged X-rays) to allegations they used a cancer causing radiation weapon on a media person who had angered Nikolai Ceausescu.

Journalists name was Noël Bernard
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noël_Bernard_(journalist)

As also reported by Romania defector General Pacepa.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_Mihai_Pacepa

Communist countries like Romania were (as Ted Koppel described) where 1984 came to life.

 

I’m not defending every action or quote from any administration—nor am I ignoring the serious concerns people rightly raise.
You’re absolutely entitled to your perspective—but calling “balance” baloney?
I'm glad I can still post here, being "outcast"
In my view this community has been very left oriented, not everyone but majority in my opinion.
In my view in a community that values higher education, isn’t the very essence of that supposed to be critical thinking, and the ability to engage with differing viewpoints without shutting them down?
I think that If we only ever tolerate one perspective, even in reaction to perceived harm, we risk becoming exactly what we claim to oppose.

 

Lol what is there to tolerate? Being wrong? There are not two sides to this issue. AI is not the same A1. One is an intelligent computation system and the other is a steak sauce. This isnt a leftist issue, it is a merit issue. If our education secretary cant tell the difference between AI and A1, then she isn't up for the job.

 

It was a slip-up. Happens to the best of us.

 

Me and Steve have VERY different takes on education policy (he promotes homeschooling and parental choice, I'm pro-public education and very sceptical of what they push as "parental choice"). Doesn't mean we should disagree on statements of fact - like, Linda McMahon is incompetent and out of touch show biz exec who has no biz being an EdSec. Her only qualification is being a long time friend of Trump (they both were on-screen pro wrestling characters; Trump famously "beat" her husband Ed, a WWE owner, in a wrestling match).