Predictably, Matt Goodwin's GB News debate was a disaster. He opens with defending the idea "everyone" uses AI tools for research now, and it's entirely legitimate. So the book is undeniably a product of using LLMs on some level. 1/
Indeed, he has so much faith in AI he thinks AI detectors actually work - they don't, they're just other LLMs prompted to look for common grammatical tics that are mainly an artifact of deprecated models. He then rashly presents this as evidence it couldn't possibly be something he did. 2/
Goodwin also freely admits that the quotes indeed aren't real though, promising to correct them "within 48 hours" as if the timeline is relevant here and the physical copies haven't already been printed. Are they going to be pulped then Matt? /3
We continue with some ad hominem attacks on Andy Twelves for being a big lefty who can't possibly be trusted to have noticed that there are hallucinated quotes in his book. He must have made it up because he's woke or something. /4
Next there's a bizarre claim that the book has been reviewed by top men in demography, but he can't name them because peer review is anonymous. It's not in this context, and I'd be very surprised if a non-academic book publisher had any process for this at all. Matt is just academia flexing here. /5
More ad hominem stuff about Andy. /6
And putting the boot in to us lefty academics. You know what we're like. /7
Goodwin is now getting annoyed at the presenter on the most right wing news channel in the UK telling him to actually answer the questions. Apparently it's like "debating two people", which the master debater apparently can't deal with. /8
As we near the end, Matt gives up on the idea multilingual children do worse in school and tries to claim it harms other children to be around them. This is batted away immediately by Andy with some actual numbers. /9
The presenter closes with a little anecdote about realising that AI makes up quotes, and becoming more sceptical. Tragically, we do not get to see Matt's face as she says this. But we can only hope a lesson has been learned. 10/
In sum, Matt Goodwin is a pathetic loser who has had this coming for some time. He was too lazy and arrogant to understand how AI tools work before using them to shortcut a political propaganda book. And he should never get a job in academia gain. The end/