They wrote the concealment down
Meta × LibGen
Training on available books is fair use, and we were careful not to seed.
A dataset we know to be pirated — in no case would we disclose that.
euphemismMeta · 2023–2025
Open roomA reading room
Closed Door
Preference falsification. What they said in public, and what they said when they thought the door was closed.
People do not have one preference. They have a preference they can afford to show. Closed Door is a reading room of cases where the affordable sentence and the private sentence both survived — because a court, a Congress, a whistleblower, or a settlement dragged the second one into the light. The point is not that companies lie. The point is to see the split clearly enough that you start noticing it in rooms that have not been unsealed yet.
Ten rooms
All roomsRename the data, rename the Slack
OpenAI × Books1/Books2
Today’s ChatGPT was not trained on those datasets.
Libgen1/2 became Books1/2; excise-libgen became project-clear.
walk-backOpenAI · 2018–2025
Open roomThe only pair that has been counted
Exxon / Shell climate
The science is uncertain; action would be premature.
There is general scientific agreement — plan for it.
advertorialExxon / Shell · 1977–2004
Open roomOur values, after the family test
Boeing 737 MAX
The MAX is safe; these messages do not reflect who we are.
Would you put your family on it? I wouldn’t.
safety theaterBoeing · 2015–2020
Open roomTestimony versus Workplace research
Instagram teens
Instagram is helpful for most teens; the research is complicated.
We make body-image issues worse for one in three teen girls.
testimony gapMeta · 2008–2021
Open roomPlatform mythology versus Greyball
Uber Files
A technology platform; we work with cities in good faith.
Greyball the officials. Kill the database. The candidate is Uber.
euphemismUber · 2013–2017
Open roomWe compete for talent — plus a smiley
Jobs / Schmidt no-poach
We compete fiercely for the best people.
Stop recruiting from Apple. :)
paper trailApple / Google · 2005–2010
Open roomDestiny versus demo-mode
Theranos texts
A full lab from a tiny drop of blood.
The demo and the production machine were different rooms.
testimony gapTheranos · 2013–2018
Open roomHumanity, and a cap table
OpenAI founding mail
A nonprofit, so that AGI benefits humanity.
Tech belongs to the world — and startup-like compensation if it works.
mission splitOpenAI · 2015–2024
Open roomAddiction as a messaging constraint
Purdue / Sackler
Addiction is rare. The crisis is abuse.
Play down the risks. Hammer on the abusers.
advertorialPurdue · 1996–2019
Open roomTours
Sequenced paths. Twenty to forty minutes. The product is finishing one of these, then noticing the next rename.
25 minutes
Concealment moves
Start here if you want the rename, the euphemism, and the values statement.
Begin tour25 minutes
Founders, two audiences
Start here if you already read Musk/Altman and want the Valley register.
Begin tour30 minutes
Science versus comms
Start here if you already believe technical staff often tell each other the truth.
Begin tourCompare the same move in two rooms: Meta LibGen vs OpenAI LibGen. Or read by person.