They could add a text box where users have to explicitly type the following words before it lets them interact in any way with the model: "I understand this model was created with old texts so any racial or sexual statements are a byproduct of their time an do not represent in any way the views of the researchers".

That should be more than enough to clear any chance of misunderstanding.

I would claim the public can easily handle something like this, but the media wouldn't be able to resist.

I could easily see a hit piece making its rounds on left leaning media about the AI that re-animates the problematic ideas of the past. "Just look at what it said to my child, "<insert incredibly racist quote coerced out of the LLM here>"!" Rolling stones would probably have a front page piece on it, titled "AI resurrecting racism and misogyny". There would easily be enough there to attract death threats to the developers, if it made its rounds on twitter.

"Platforming ideas" would be the issue that people would have.

i think we (whole section) are just talking past each other - we never said we'll lock it away. it was an announcement of a release, not a release. main purpose for us was getting feedback on the methodological aspects, as we clearly state. i understand you guys just wanted to talk to the thing though.