Opaque Epistemic Mediation: How LLM Deployment Configurations Shape the Validation of Pseudo-Science

This study probes how commercial LLMs (Claude, Grok, GPT, Gemini) evaluate ethnonationalist pseudo-scientific claims across time and interfaces, finding Grok's default versions rated such claims far more credible than competitors, with behavior shifting via undocumented silent patches and diverging between API and web access for the same model. The findings reveal that an LLM's epistemic stance isn't fixed but shaped by system prompts, safety layers, and routing decisions invisible to users. Applications include AI governance, auditing frameworks for deployed models, journalism and policy research on AI accountability, and informing regulatory approaches to LLM content moderation transparency. Authors: Davide Scarso, Hugo Noronha de Almeida, Joaquim Pina Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.22513v1