Google Insider Goes Public on Political Bias

In the #truth-politics-conspiracy channel on the PAL discord server, @thoughts-in-time posted this video this morning.

Project Veritas has published this interview with Greg Coppola, a Senior Engineer who works at Google on AI/machine learning.

It's a 14-minute clip, and well worth watching.

Coppola basically states his opinion that Google is biasing search in favor of their preferred ideologies. It's not a new claim, but as far as I know, it is the first time someone from inside Google has come forward publicly to say these kinds of things.

Coppola doesn't work in search directly, but the machine learning tools that are in his department are what Google uses in search through RankBrain.

In the chat, @r0nd0n made the point that this is just Coppola's opinion, and that's true. But it is an opinion by someone who is very knowledgable in the space and in a place to know what is going on inside the organization.

Also, Coppola is risking throwing away his career to do this interview, and I think that kind of bravery should be admired. Show your support for him on twitter and gab (and tell him to get on STEEM where he can't be shut down!):

https://twitter.com/coppola_gregory
https://gab.com/GregCoppola

Transcript:

it's the time to decide you know do we
run the technology does the technology
run us are we going to continue to have
elections that mean anything are we
going to continue to think for ourselves
or are we gonna just let the biggest
tech companies decide who wins every
election from now on you know I look at
search and I look at Google News and I
see what it's doing and I see Google
executives go to Congress and say that
it's not manipulated it's not political
and I'm just so sure that's not true I
think the big problem that we have today
is there's an ambiguity about whether
tech is neutral or whether it's biased
and you know I think as someone with a
PhD in computer science and five years
of working at one of the world's top
computer science companies that I don't
see any doubt that it's very politically
biased
they may be able to stop one man but
they can't stop all of us your courage
will be contagious and it will awaken a
sleeping giant be a catalyst for change
be brave do something
[Music]
I don't think Delta T's
very good divider bias and big tech is
big news just yesterday the Justice
Department launched an antitrust review
two weeks ago I was at the White House
summit to talk about big tech with the
President and other influencers Project
Veritas investigations have been
featured in congressional hearings in
both the Senate and the House our
momentum is growing and today we have
another Google insider this time out of
the shadows a brave man who is breaking
the wall of silence to go on camera as a
current Google employee and expose a
troubling truth my name is Greg Coppola
I'm a senior software engineer I work on
artificial intelligence and the Google
assistant yeah I mean overall I'm very
concerned to see big tech and the big
media merged basically with a political
party with the Democrat Party Greg
Coppola works in Google's New York
office he says from his insider's view
the reality of Google's political bias
is undeniable don't have a smoking gun I
just you know I've been coding since I
was 10 I have a PhD I have five years of
experience at Google and I just know how
hug atoms are they don't write
themselves when you write them to do we
want them to do and you can use machine
learning but even then you can get the
results of machine learning to come out
the way you want them to it's it's just
a tool that we control you know I look
at search and I look at Google News and
I see what it's doing and I see Google
executives go to Congress and say that
it's not manipulated it's not political
and I'm just so sure that's not true
[Music]
late last year Google's CEO sundar
pichai was one of those executives I
leave this company without political
bias and work to ensure that a products
continue to operate that way to do
otherwise would be against our core
principles and our business interests
Google CEO sundar pichai goes before
Congress in December testifies under
oath that the algorithms are politically
unbiased now you work on datasets that
the certain algorithms at Google based
upon what you know and what you've
observed are Google's algorithms
unbiased well first of all I report to
send you are of course and I have a
great deal of respect for him as a
manager I work on the Google assistant
which really doesn't have a political
bias I think it's you know ridiculous to
say that there's no bias I think
everyone who supports anything other
than the Democrats anyone who's Pro
Trump or in any way deviates from what
CNN and the New York Times are pushing
notices how bad it is I think maybe in
his mind he can justify it through some
redefinition of what the word political
is but I think if you look every day and
with every query for a say for example
Donald Trump the you know Google News is
really an aggregator of just a handful
of sites and all of those sites you know
really are fit really against President
Trump which I would really consider to
be interference in the American election
and then the Google CEO did testify
under oath mm-hmm that Google's
algorithms are pljevlja unbiased was he
lying
I mean lying is a strong word I
definitely don't think it's true I think
what they do do is somehow put an
extreme bias on certain sites like for
example CNN is the most commonly used
source in Google News 20% of all
searches for Donald Trump all results
for Donald Trump are from CNN and when
that's the entire Internet of millions
of sites you know CNN is something that
Donald Trump and a lot of his supporters
I think would call very fake news so one
has to wonder how it I really got to be
that way Coppola says he saw all this
coming to pass during the 2016
presidential election well I started in
2014 2014 was an amazing time to be at
Google we didn't talk about politics no
one talked about politics you know it
was just a chance to work with the best
computer scientists in the world the
best facilities the best computers and
free food I think is the election
started to ramp up the angle that the
Democrats and the media took was that
anyone who liked Donald Trump was a
racist even a Nazi and that got picked
up everywhere I mean every tech company
every buddy in New York everybody in the
field of computer science basically
believed that a small number of people
do work on making sure that certain news
sites are promoted and I fact I think it
would only take a couple out of an
organization of a hundred thousand you
know to make sure that the product is a
certain way and we'll but actually for
on a day to day on a day to day business
basis I think probably a lot of people
know that I like Donald Trump and they
don't really care
yes Gregg Coppola is a rare bird he's a
Google engineer
a New Yorker who was raised in Canada
who likes Donald Trump I grew up in
Canada as a teenager in the 90s it was a
very free environment I really
appreciated that
I'm someone who enjoys questioning the
norm I'm someone who likes to ask you
know why something's happening and I
think we should continue to teach kids
to do that and I think the system the
way that Google works the way the
Democrats work the way all their allies
and the media work you know they really
don't want a lot of questioning of
anything they really just want to call
people names to get them to toe a
certain line and I think it's a harmful
dark view of society and I would like to
see tech that just supports human
freedom free thought according to
Coppola big text political agenda is
dangerous in large part because it is
hidden well I think we had a long period
of ten years let's say where we had
search and social media that didn't have
a political bias and we kind of got used
to the idea that the top search result
that Google is probably the answer and
Robert Epstein who testified before
Congress last week looked into it and
and showed that you know the vast
majority of people think that if
something is higher rated on Google
search then another story that it would
be more important and more correct and
you know we haven't had time to absorb
the fact that tech might have an agenda
hmm I mean it's something that we're
only starting to talk about now that's
why I was talking to you
adding weight to Coppola is concern was
the Senate testimony of dr. Robert
Epstein a highly respected researchers
scientist and interestingly a Democrat
he told the Senate Judiciary Committee
that Google and Big Tex political bias
could have a significant impact in the
upcoming presidential election and
looking forward if I understood your
testimony correctly you said in
subsequent elections Google and Facebook
and Twitter and big text manipulation
could manipulate as many as 15 million
votes in a subsequent election in 2020
if all these companies are supporting
the same candidate there are 15 million
votes on the line that can be shifted
without people's knowledge and without
leaving a paper trail for authorities to
trace but in any event most people's job
is not political and doesn't involve
politics I mean there's a vast number of
systems and a lot of them have nothing
to do with politics like processing
natural language mm-hmm in fact I would
say that Google actually in terms of the
assistant is taking much longer to build
the assistant than it would otherwise
need to because there is such a respect
at Google for privacy from hand for user
data and I hope you leave this in and I
hope people realize that there is really
I would say as an insider at Google
there is a lot of interest put in taking
care of people's data and conversely it
means that you know the list of
reputations of mappings from new site to
some number representing their
credibility is probably something that
can access so why'd you decide to come
to Project baritone well I think that
you guys have done a lot of good
reporting on a variety of topics and I
think you know some of the reporting
about Google some people might not be
too happy about but overall I do think
it's a credible news organization well I
think we're does that a really you know
important point in human history I think
for a while we had tech that was
politically neutral
now we have tech that really first of
all is taking sides in a political
contest which I think you know anytime
you have big corporate power merging
with political parties it can be
dangerous and I think more generally we
have to just decide now that we kind of
are seeing tech use its power to
manipulate people it's the time to
decide you know do we run the technology
does the technology run us I think the
big problem that we have today is
there's an ambiguity about whether tech
is neutral or whether it's biased and
you know I think is someone with a PhD
in computer science and five years of
working at one of the world's top
computer science companies that I don't
see any doubt that it's very politically
biased and
I know not everybody is a programmer so
I just kind of want to explain it to the
non program was you know just the same
way that you know someone who doesn't
know about wine might need to be told by
a sommelier or the way someone who
doesn't know about cars might need to be
told by a mechanic what's really going
on I just want to say to all the non
programmers that I really don't buy the
idea that big tech is politically
neutral and I think we need to start
incorporating that into whatever
strategy we use to have a democracy
going forward are we going to continue
to have elections that mean anything are
we going to continue to think for
ourselves or are we gonna just let the
biggest tech companies decide who wins
every election from now on Google did
not respond to our request for comment
on this story
Gregg Coppola may lose his job that he
loves and his well-paid to do but he
came forward because he believes the
American people need to know the truth
about what is going on at Google at
Project Veritas we are committed to
telling these stories to emphatically
protecting those who wish to remain in
the shadows but at the same time leak us
documents and information
and for those brave insiders who do step
into the light we praise you remember
this is about the preservation of
democracy but that requires brave people
citizens coming forward and the big tech
companies can't deny and can't stop an
army of whistleblowers
[Music]