The person Meta has recently appointed to address “ideological and political bias” in artificial intelligence is Robby Starbuck. Who is Robby Starbuck? He is a failed filmmaker turned failed congressional candidate and right-wing influencer. Starbuck believes that pesticide turns children queer and that the COVID-19 vaccine caused actor Matthew Perry’s untimely 2023 death, not ketamine, as the autopsy found.
The recent designation comes as part of a defamation lawsuit settlement, first obtained by the Wall Street Journal, that the company reached with Starbuck after Meta AI incorrectly stated that he was involved in the January 6 insurrection and a believer of QAnon. “Since engaging on these important issues with Robby, Meta has made tremendous strides to improve the accuracy of Meta AI and mitigate ideological and political bias,” Meta and Starbuck said in a joint statement to the publication. The goal of his AI bias advisor at Meta is to make the company’s chatbot less “woke.”
Meanwhile, Robby Starbuck has been busy targeting companies for their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. He went after Harley Davidson and Jack Daniels in 2024. Starbuck went after Tractor Supply in June. He directed his over 500,000 X followers to boycott Tractor Supply over its offering of LGBTQ+ resources. “It’s time to expose Tractor Supply,” Starbuck says on the X platform, listing grievances such as “LGBTQIA+ training for employees, funding pride/drag events, a DEI Council, funding sex changes, climate change activism, Pride month decorations in the office, DEI hiring practices, and LGBTQIA+ events at work.”
Starbuck accused the company’s CEO, Hal Lawton, of promoting “woke priorities” that do not align with Tractor Supply’s customer base. Then he urged his followers to contact Tractor Supply’s corporate office and make their opposition heard. Tractor Supply subsequently announced a few days after that it would end all DEI programs and wiped all DEI content from its website. “We have heard from customers that we have disappointed them. We have taken this feedback to heart,” the company says in a statement.
Starbuck and his wife, Landon, produced a documentary together spreading the debunked conspiracy theory that toxic chemicals are causing children to identify as LGBTQ+. He falsely asserted that exposure to the pesticide atrazine turned amphibians “gay,” prompting male frogs to mate.
Robby Starbuck has also claimed that displaying pride flags is “grooming and indoctrination,” and supported the unsubstantiated idea that trans people transition solely to assault cisgender women in public bathrooms (although the opposite is true—Trans people are far more likely to be the victims of violent assaults).
