Continuing exploring with Claude

Cockroaches Unite! What started as a dismissive comment on the country’s youth by the Chief Justice of the Indian Supreme Court inspired a meme that quickly turned into an Insta movement and then a real one leading to IRL protests across the country, now appears to have morphed into a full-fledged, bona fide political movement.

I have been following these developments with a flicker of hope and an immensity of interest. Given my burgeoning interest in Youtube podcasts, Reddit threads and yes, Insta reels, I have been casually tracking coverage across multiple platforms and media sources, including traditional ones.

Out of curiosity, I asked Claude to round up media coverage from around the world and summarize key themes. Note, I also asked China’s new AI, Kimi to do this too, but Kimi outright refused and its standard response was, “Sorry, I cannot provide this information. Please feel free to ask another question.“

Which makes the following summation provided by Claude all the more interesting. This is a something I would not have necessarily found on my own, because it is a question which I probably would not have thought to ask. But of its own volition, while summarizing coverage in India and around the world, Claude noted, “Indian ruling-party figures and Russian/Chinese state-adjacent commentary have been more suspicious, portraying it as either anti-national, foreign-amplified, or a deliberate effort to damage Modi’s and India’s image.” Apparently Chinese social media dubbed it the cockroach storm and suggested it would undermine the Modi government’s “strong India” image, while official Chinese media did not give the protests much coverage. That the BJP government and Chinese social media apparently are on the same page can only give us further food for thought.

Claude also provided a round-up of the coverage across regions and countries with lightning speed crunching through thousands of sites across the globe. It does not replace careful, rigorous content analysis, but it does provide an overview with links and references, a swift identification of major themes organized according to the specifications provided. As such, it is a great starting point for further research and handy way to get a grasp of what the media is saying on a particular topic.

I will leave you with Claude’s BLUF of the coverage: “Western outlets (NPR, NBC) and much of the Asia-Pacific press (SCMP) leaned toward treating CJP as an authentic, sympathetic youth-driven protest against unemployment and institutional failure. Indian ruling-party figures and Russian/Chinese state-adjacent commentary have been more suspicious, portraying it as either anti-national, foreign-amplified, or a deliberate effort to damage Modi’s and India’s image. Indian domestic outlets outside government circles (The Week, Tribune, Britannica) have mostly stuck to descriptive, relatively neutral reporting on its growth and demands.”

Additionally, ChatGPT provided the following handy summary:

Comparative Summary (ChatGPT)

The two AIs arrived at similar conclusions, which does provide some validation to the findings. I wish Kimi would’ve given me its own round-up, but alas it is Chinese and probably not allowed to comment on media matter. Still, just as you one should use multiple sources for news, it is good idea to ask multiple AIs the same question and see where they converge.

What has been your experience asking the same question of multiple AIs? And have you unearthed something that you were not expecting to? Do let us know in the comments.