One of the most dangerous forms of misinformation today does not come from ignorance. It comes from articulate, confident individuals who speak fluently while omitting what matters most.
I was reminded of this recently when I saw a YouTube video claiming that Yann LeCun had left Meta. The claim sounded convincing. It was delivered with authority. Even Google’s AI summary echoed it.
And yet, it was false.
After reading LeCun’s own words, the truth was clear: he is founding a startup to continue his long-standing Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI) research—focused on world models, physical reality, reasoning, planning, and persistent memory—while remaining affiliated with Meta as Chief AI Scientist.
The correct interpretation was never hidden. It was simply inconvenient.
This episode is a textbook example of how misinformation actually works today:
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not through outright lies,
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but through collapsed context, selective framing, and narrative shortcuts.
AI systems didn’t “hallucinate” in a vacuum. They reproduced a story people wanted to believe.
And that brings me to Elon Musk.
The Richest Man, the Poorest Truth
Every time I open X, I watch the richest man in the world—who also appears to be the most emotionally bankrupt—spread misinformation with astonishing ease.
Elon Musk presents himself as a champion of truth, free speech, and altruism. But his lawsuit against OpenAI exposes something very different: a systematic pattern of cherry-picking facts to obscure his real objective—total power and control.
This is not speculation. It’s documented.
When Musk claims he wanted OpenAI to remain “essentially a philanthropic endeavor,” he lifts a single phrase from a longer record. What he leaves out is far more revealing.
The full record shows that Musk:
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pushed aggressively to move OpenAI from non-profit to a corporate structure,
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demanded majority equity,
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insisted on full control because he felt “burned” before,
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spoke of accumulating $80 billion,
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and even floated the idea of his children controlling AGI as a matter of succession.
These are not the words of an altruist.
They are the words of someone obsessed with ownership, legacy, and dominance.
Cherry-Picking as a Power Strategy
What makes Musk particularly dangerous is not just misinformation, but how skillfully it is delivered.
He does not lie in crude ways.
He tells partial truths, framed as moral clarity.
This is far more effective.
By isolating fragments and stripping them of context, Musk creates confusion among people who are already emotionally overwhelmed, politically polarized, and information-saturated. Confusion breeds dependency. Dependency breeds obedience.
This is how power consolidates itself in the modern world—not by censoring truth outright, but by flooding the space with curated half-truths.
Misinformation Thrives on Emotional Blindness
Why does this work?
Because many people have never learned to sit still with discomfort, uncertainty, or contradiction. They cling to confident narrators who promise clarity without self-examination.
This is exactly how emotionally blind systems operate:
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strong language replaces substance,
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moral posturing replaces accountability,
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certainty replaces inquiry.
People like Yann LeCun—careful, precise, and explicit with language—do not thrive in this ecosystem. Their words are too nuanced. Too honest. Too hard to compress into slogans.
So they get misrepresented.
AI Didn’t Fail—Humans Did
When Google’s AI summarized LeCun’s move as a “departure,” it did not invent that narrative. It reflected a human bias toward simplification and drama.
AI over-summarization.
Narrative completion bias.
Ignoring primary-source language.
In contrast, LeCun was meticulous. He said exactly what he meant:
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a startup,
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a continuation of AMI research,
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ongoing affiliation with Meta,
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dissatisfaction with LLM-only approaches—nothing new.
The truth was there for anyone willing to read it.
That is the key difference: people who read sources versus people who consume narratives.
Power Is Afraid of Clarity
Musk’s conflict with OpenAI is not about truth.
It is not about safety.
And it is certainly not about altruism.
It is about control.
The moment you restore full sentences, full records, and full context, the illusion collapses. That is why selective quoting is essential to power. That is why noise, outrage, and division are cultivated.
Truth does not need to shout.
It only needs to be complete.
And completeness is precisely what authoritarian personalities cannot tolerate—because it exposes them.
Final Thought
This moment in history is not defined by AI intelligence.
It is defined by human emotional maturity—or the lack of it.
Those who cannot face their own inner chaos will always seek external control.
Those who cannot tolerate uncertainty will follow the loudest voice.
Those who confuse confidence with truth will be easy to manipulate.
Reading primary sources is no longer optional.
It is an act of resistance.
Truth does not belong to the most powerful.
It belongs to those who are willing to look—without shortcuts, without idols, and without fear.
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