Level Up: Control Information Flow with Litigation
April 16, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold. I find it interesting that AI detectors identify my writing style as AI output. I suppose I should be flattered, but I just don’t care.
I worked with a fellow who had one trick he used in meetings. When a discussion was not going the way this wizard wanted, he would say, “Let’s pop up a level. This idea is just part of a larger picture. Let me describe what I see.” The fellow would then reframe his hobby horse to be the stallion of this “broader view” or what I called his “meta argument.” Most of the people in the meeting were thinking about nuts and bolts. This fellow would talk about owning a business of which nuts and bolts were just a tiny part and not too relevant to his big picture. Did this work? Yep, most of the people at this particular firm loved to think about “next level” concepts. Novelty can be compelling. Sometimes.
Thanks, Venice.ai. Good enough but this is quite overblown even for superior mythical entities. What’s with the lightning bolt in a sensitive area?
“Can AI Judge Journalism? A Thiel-Backed Startup Says Yes, Even If It Risks Chilling Whistleblowers” describes a company that wants to “to adjudicate the truth of journalism.” Pay money. Sue a journalist. Bright people. Smart software. Big money. The write up says:
Thiel, who funded the Gawker lawsuit partly in defense of the individual right to privacy, has long been critical of the media. D’Souza says his goal is to restore trust in the Fourth Estate, which he argues has collapsed over decades. Critics, including media lawyers, warn Objection could make it harder to publish the kind of reporting that holds powerful institutions to account, particularly if that reporting relies on confidential sources. Anonymous sources have played a key role in major award-winning investigations into corruption and corporate wrongdoing. These are often people who are at risk of losing their jobs or facing other retaliation for sharing important information. It’s the journalist’s job — alongside their publication’s editors, peers, and lawyers — to ensure that those sources are reliable and not acting out of pure malice and to verify the information they provide.
Yep, we are popping up a level. The individual story is an example of thinking at a very small scale. Viewed from a “meta” perspective, truth, privacy, and other Superman ideas are protected. The people who are thinking about whether a single article is biased, incorrect, unverifiable are problematic. The fix is “let’s pop up a level.”
Based on my experience watching this type of argument unfold in the meetings to which I referred, there are some issues:
- Sounding “good,” “logical,” and “correct” is different from the actual issue discussed at the micro level. Micro decisions are the basics of solving a problem that has arisen
- The entity that has a “superior” view or knows the trick to solve a problem in linear algebra seems like a genius but is actually using information to shape an agenda. The method works and most people don’t recognize the game play.
- The stated goal can be different from the “real objective.” People are dazzled by what’s novel and can fail to see that a tactic is just part of an effort to impose controls on certain behavior. The pop-up-a-level guy says, “Hey, look at it from this perspective. This view solves the problem and eliminates the detail and tail chasing.”
Why do I view this announcement of a for-fee service to chase journalists? I think this is a meta play, and the actual objective is to provide a “logical” and “good” method for controlling information flow. How confident am I that the purpose of the adjudication is to advance a control narrative? I would suggest a 95 percent confidence score.
Will the technology work? It depends on what one means by “work.” Do Anduril drones work on the front lines in Ukraine? Does Palantir occupy a leadership position in AI? Does Objection deliver the “truth” of a story? I have some partial answers to my questions. I am not sure mine are correct. How about popping up a level to learn the “truth”?
Think about that question.
Stephen E Arnold, April 16, 2026
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