Moscow Now Using Artificial Intelligence for Censorship of Books to the Point of Ridiculousness, Orekh Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 9 – “Judging from everything,” Anton Orekh says, “the texts of books are passing through artificial intelligence algorithms because real censors already aren’t in a position to intensify the checking of all printed production. Machines are tireless but stupid,” and this leads to absurdities in the system.

            These algorithms, which sometimes classify books as fit for publication or as restricted to certain age groups, are sometimes based on a single word or phrase that may be used very differently in different situations, a possibility reliance on algorithms ignores (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/03/09/kniga-opasna-dlia-vashego-zdorovia).

            That leads to absurdities when an algorithm concludes that a book should be banned or listed as only for adults without any consideration of context, something human censors usually could be counted on to do and thus classifications of books in such a way as to make the entire censorship system in Russia absurd on its face.