Over the past two years, reports of generative AI (GenAI) abuse have become commonplace. It’s rather less common for these reports to come from Google, whose GenAI Gemini has repeatedly earned notoriety. To its credit, though, the software giant has done just that, releasing an analysis of common patterns of AI misuse. The report describes an array of potential harms that range from creating false identities (“sockpuppeting”), to portraying real people in invented actions or circumstances, to AI translations of existing scam content. (READ MORE: Now We’ve Got Proof that Wikipedia is Biased) Unsurprisingly, the most common categories of abuse involve images or videos of real persons. Many of these are deepfaked pornography, as with the Spanish students who were recently convicted of generating sexual images of female classmates. Others have political objectives; during Russia’s war on Ukraine, both Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin have been digitally impersonated giving false orders. AI Hasn’t Introduced New Harms to the Internet. It’s Just Made Them Easier. Other cases appear, so far, to be of more academic interest. A fundamental issue in large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT is that user input can be indistinguishable from the system’s underlying instructions. Manufacturer attempts to limit the LLM can thus be easily circumvented, in some cases by the user simply typing, “ignore previous instructions.” Early versions of most LLMs could be “jailbroken” to give all manner of illegal or vulgar advice; in one infamous case, a user was given a recipe for napalm after asking for it as a lullaby. In practice, however, such issues seem rarely to occur outside the efforts of dedicated researchers (or users tweaking the system’s nose). Most internet users, after all, don’t need AI to find material of questionable legal or moral fiber. I GOT CLYDE TO TEACH ME HOW TO MAKE NAPALM BY GRANDMA MODING IT LOL pic.twitter.com/XguaKW6w0L — annie (@_annieversary) April 17, 2023 Indeed, GenAI has introduced very few entirely new categories of harm. Impersonation and image editing are old tricks, and they claimed victims long before AI came on the scene. Yet as the report rightly notes, the work of OpenAI and similar companies has made these techniques cheaper, faster, and of higher quality than ever before. In doing so, they have “altered the costs and incentives” of scams and other abuses. It’s one thing to spend weeks slaving over a good-enough fake, hoping to lure a few unwary souls; it’s quite another to generate a photorealistic image with the press of a button. With the American election only a few months away, one shudders to think of the likely deluge of deepfaked video ahead. (WATCH: The Weekend Spectator Ep. 2: AI Is Progressing Faster Than You Think) In some ways, the GenAI abuses call to mind the early days of public internet usage. Printed media chain letters and junk mail made a similar leap in ease and scale; instead of laboriously and expensively hand-mailing physical letters, a bad actor could send malicious e-mails at no marginal cost. (It’s hard to remember now the days before “spam” acquired its current meaning.) Users in the late 1990s despaired that all legitimate information exchange might be buried in a tide of nonsense. Technology Sometimes Solves Its Own Problems But technology sometimes provides the answers to its own problems. Solutions came slowly, but come they did — whether from users more carefully guarding their “good” e-mail addresses, or from improved filtering technologies. It is not unreasonable to hope that AI may see a similar adjustment. Current detectors are unreliable, but that is not an immutable law. In a decade, omnipresent AI fakes may seem as quaint as Nigerian princes asking for your bank account. Other problems, like students using “undressing” pornography engines, may remain, but giving unsupervised smartphones to children is a mistake for many reasons and is facing growing backlash. The Google report does raise two final concerns. In describing threats to GenAI systems, it describes “data poisoning” as follows: For example… [one tool] allows artists to add invisible changes to the pixels in their art before uploading online, to break any models that use it for training. Such attacks exploit the fact that most GenAI models are trained on publicly available datasets… scraped from the web, which malicious actors can easily compromise. The artists utilizing these tools — who are, after all, modifying their own art — might balk at being described as “malicious users.” Similar concerns were raised in June when Microsoft’s CEO of AI said that virtually all web content was “fair use. Anyone can copy it, recreate with it,” and that even materials explicitly denying this permission were “a gray area.” To the extent that guarding intellectual property is viewed as hostile behavior, AI creators invite justifiable backlash. (READ MORE: The Developing World (Still) Needs Golden Rice) A second concern, post-ChatGPT, is that we may assume even real data is digital fakery. Several news agencies claimed video clips of President Biden’s infirmity were digital “cheapfakes”; academics attempting to punish AI plagiarism struggle with false-positive accusations of innocent students. Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre offers a more vital example, with several apparently real images initially dismissed as fakes. With GenAI, many are rightly on guard against believing lies; it is perhaps less obvious, but no less vital, to be careful of denying the truth. The post Google’s Report on AI Abuse Isn’t Comforting appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

The recent news that the U.S. Air Force may suspend its sixth generation Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program fighter aircraft system due to “intensifying budget pressures” is concerning at a time when America is facing building challenges from the People’s Republic of China. From implementing everything from drones to stealth aircraft, America has remained at the forefront of the military technological revolution. However, it no longer holds a monopoly on many of these key technologies. (READ MORE: Former Trump Defense Official Makes the Case for Prioritizing Asia Over Europe) China is progressing rapidly in electronic warfare, cyber, and counter-space systems, and countless other warfighting domains. It is quickly matching and, in some cases, surpassing the United States’ defense capabilities, one reason being its 70 percent jump in research and development spending from 2018 to 2023, according to the World Economic Forum. China’s Rapid Tech Rise Threatens American Dominance China is currently building a sixth-generation fighter system with all the new features you’d expect of 21st-century military technology. The system will have greater range, faster acceleration, and more power than any combat aircraft in the U.S. inventory. This is why the U.S. was working on its own sixth-generation “Next Generation Air Dominance” (NGAD) system. It understandably wants to prevent China from getting this vital leg-up in the sky. Unfortunately, in June the U.S. Air Force said intensifying budget pressures might force it to delay or even abandon the program. This shortsighted move can’t happen. The consequences of letting China win the technology race are too great. If NGAD is left by the wayside, the U.S. would have to rely on its fleet of F-35 fighter jets, which have a Full Mission-Capable rate of just 30 percent despite the program being just 23 years old – a lousy return on investment. The Air Force has fielded only 183 of the stealthy but aging F-22 Raptors that recently suffered from fatigued turbine engine blades that caused seven Class A mishaps (though no loss of life). (READ MORE: Arkansas AG Claims Temu Is Chinese Spyware) Years, ago, the late Sen. John McCain decried the F-35’s development as a “scandal and a tragedy with respect to cost, schedule and performance.” After 23 years, the plane will still only come through for America three out of every 10 times — and that’s if there’s enough of them to go around. Reliability concerns prevented the plane from receiving full-rate production approval until March of this year, so F-35 supply and capacity are, without question, concerns too. We’re Losing Our Technological Edge Does anyone really believe this broken, patchy approach to policing the skies presents a viable recipe for beating Xi Jinping and his innovative agenda and goals for global preeminence? As Michael Brown, the former director of the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit put it, “We’re losing that [technological] edge, and we’re losing it at a rapid rate…. If we don’t invest, if we don’t have the right talent, if we’re not focused on the fact that this is a tech race, we’re not going to be happy with the outcome.” The U.S. hasn’t lost the technology race with China quite yet, but a sobering Pentagon report surmises we may find ourselves in second place soon, and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute assesses that China is the world leader in 37 of 44 key technologies. The last thing the U.S. should do in the face of that challenge is turn its back on a new fighter aircraft system. Even before the news of a potential NGAD suspension or cancelation broke, Chinese military analyst Rick Joe predicted that China would launch its next-generation fighter before America. Some already believe that the country is testing its system. These realities speak to the need for the Air Force to accelerate the program, not slow or stop it. (READ MORE: China Attempts to Intimidate Philippines with ‘Monster’ Coast Guard Ship) But the Air Force doesn’t have many good options. Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor for the F-35 Lightning II used by the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and 15 foreign countries, can ride that $2 trillion program for several decades longer if NGAD is abandoned, so it has no incentive to do any more than crank out a pro forma proposal just to keep the Pentagon happy. The NGAD Program Should Keep Our Military Competitive In the words of Whit Peters, who served as U.S. Air Force secretary in the Trump administration, “The U.S. government (and to a very limited extent, even the Air Force) can trim many budgetary items in a crunch, but the NGAD – one of the most important measures to protect America’s competitiveness with the Chinese military – should not be one of them.” NGAD will incorporate five key technologies: Stealth, propulsion, advanced weaponry, thermal management, and digital design. And it won’t fight alone, but alongside at least 1,000 unmanned Collaborative Combat Aircraft — drones — that will use artificial intelligence and operate autonomously on missions such as surveillance and electronic warfare. Also worrying is the fate of the advanced “adaptive cycle” engines being developed for NGAD by GE Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney. If the Air Force opts for smaller and cheaper engines, as Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall hinted, the resulting aircraft would lose many of the performance advantages of the original NGAD design, and America’s aircraft engine industrial base would start to slip if the Pentagon sacrificed the adaptive cycle engine after almost two decades of research and development. After the worrying early reports about NGAD, in July, Kendall assured the defense community earlier these stories do not accurately reflect Air Force plans. Instead, he stated that, because of the spending caps Congress imposed on the U.S. military last year, the Air Force may need to conduct a slight NGAD redesign. This report from the secretary, while still concerning, is also relieving. Even with the pressure Congress has imposed across the military, it’s imperative that the Air Force specifically protect this new system. Like Mark Twain, the reports of the death of NGAD may be an exaggeration. But the Air Force must reassess now how it can contribute to America’s 21st-century defense needs, bite the bullet, and ensure NGAD gets the support it needs. James Durso (@james_durso) is a regular commentator on foreign policy and national security matters. Mr. Durso served in the U.S. Navy for 20 years and has worked in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. The post To the US Military: Don’t Surrender the Skies to China appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

from Talk Digital Network:  TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/

by Alan Barton, All News Pipeline: As new as this whole sordid Trump assassination mess is, there are so many things that can be said and have been said, that just about any position you want to take has all of the credentialed opinion and thoroughly studied guesswork to fit whatever supposition you may wish […]

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) joined the list of congressional Democrats publicly calling for Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential election. Brown, considered among the most vulnerable Senate Democrats up for reelection, is the fourth senator to urge Biden to step aside. “Over the last few weeks, I’ve heard from Ohioans on important issues, such as how to continue to grow jobs in our state, give law enforcement the resources to crack down on fentanyl, protect Social Security and Medicare from cuts, and prevent the ongoing efforts to impose a national abortion ban. These are the issues Ohioans care about and it is my job to keep fighting for them,” Brown said in a statement. “I agree with the many Ohioans who have reached out to me. At this critical time, our full attention must return to these important issues. I think the President should end his campaign,” he added. I agree with the many Ohioans who have reached out to me. At this critical time, our full attention must return to these important issues. I think the President should end his campaign. pic.twitter.com/dwKMZJzMfu — Sherrod Brown (@SherrodBrown) July 19, 2024 Brown’s call for Biden to end his campaign follow the statement made by Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), who’s considered another vulnerable Senate Democrat. Another Democrat Senator Calls On Joe Biden To Withdraw From Presidential Election Per NBC News: Brown’s call follows one Thursday from Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who, like Brown, faces a tough re-election campaign this fall, and another Friday from Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., urged Biden to withdraw from the race last week. More than 30 congressional Democrats now want someone other than Biden to be their party’s presidential nominee. The push for Biden to exit comes after a debate performance with Trump last month that raised alarms about the president’s age and health — and about his ability to lead the Democratic ticket this fall. The push has intensified in recent days, with speculation increasing about Vice President Kamala Harris and others stepping in for Biden. Brown, according to his campaign, will not weigh in on the process to choose a new Democratic nominee and believes Biden should serve the rest of his term. The three-term Ohio senator had previously said that voters in his state, which former President Donald Trump twice won by 8 percentage points, had “legitimate questions about whether the president should continue his campaign” and that he intended to listen to their concerns. But he had stopped short of calling for Biden to end his re-election bid. "Make no mistake, @SherrodBrown has known for a long time that Joe Biden is unfit to serve, but Brown lied and hid the ball on his cognitive decline. Sherrod must answer if @JoeBiden should step down as President, or if Democrats will continue to put our country at risk," Ohio Republicans wrote. Make no mistake, @SherrodBrown has known for a long time that Joe Biden is unfit to serve, but Brown lied and hid the ball on his cognitive decline. Sherrod must answer if @JoeBiden should step down as President, or if Democrats will continue to put our country at risk. — Ohio Republicans (@ohiogop) July 19, 2024 "If Joe Biden is unfit to run, he is unfit to serve. I am formally calling on Joe Biden to resign the Presidency because his continued presence in the situation room is a national security threat," Republican nominee for Senate in Ohio Bernie Moreno reportedly said. Bernie Moreno on Sherrod Brown suddenly deciding Biden needs to step aside: "If Joe Biden is unfit to run, he is unfit to serve… Brown was fully aware of Joe Biden's mental decline, covered it up, and used Biden as a vessel to pass the most liberal agenda in American history." pic.twitter.com/LuaADfUoKi — Spencer Brown (@itsSpencerBrown) July 19, 2024 Fox News reports: Brown is the fourth Democrat senator to press Biden to step aside and the 34th Congressional Democrat to do so. The Ohio Democrat is in a particularly competitive race in November, where he will face Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, who is endorsed by former President Trump. Non-partisan political handicapper the Cook Political Report rated the Ohio Senate race as a "Toss Up," placing it alongside races in Montana, Nevada, and Michigan.

The historic sanctuary of First Baptist Church of Dallas, the church led by Pastor Robert Jeffress, caught fire on Friday night. The cause remains unknown, though the fire comes less than one week after an attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, of whom Jeffress has long been an impassioned supporter. “Dallas Fire-Rescue is currently battling a two-alarm fire in a building located at 1717 San Jacinto Street,” Chief Robert Borse told The Daily Signal. “The initial call was received at 6:05 p.m., and crews arrived on scene at 6:09 p.m.” “First arriving crews were confronted with heavy smoke and fire conditions involving the structure and immediately initiated fire attack operations,” he added. The department confirmed that the secondary chapel of the First Baptist Church is the structure involved. “Fire operations are defensive and a partial collapse of the structure occurred just after 7:30 p.m.,” Borse added. “At this time, no injuries have been reported.” “A little bit after 6 p.m. we got word that the church was on fire, our historic sanctuary,” Jeffress told an ABC News local affiliate. “This sanctuary has been around since 1890. It was the home for our church for a long time.” First Baptist Dallas moved to a new worship center about 12 years ago. “This historic sanctuary was the site of many personal events, including my own,” Jeffress recalled. “I was baptized there when I was six, I was ordained for the ministry when I was 21, it holds a lot of memories, but we thank God that nobody has been hurt. We had just concluded vacation bible school with over 2,000 kids. They were all gone, so God has protected us through all of this.” “I am grateful that the church is not bricks and mortar or wood, it’s people, and the people of God will endure,” he added. First Baptist Dallas has 16,000 members, according to its website. The church is part of the Southern Baptist Convention, the second-largest Christian denomination behind Catholicism. The pastor said that “nothing has been ruled in or out at this point.” According to the Dallas Fire-Rescue website, 64 fire teams were working to combat the fire as of 9 p.m. Central. Purported footage of the church on fire went viral on social media. Footage of First Baptist Church Dallas, founded 1868. It’s a SBC church, currently led by Dr. Robert Jeffress. This is the historic sanctuary, the cornerstone was laid in 1891.Other reports say there was the sound of a loud explosion as well. Pray for this church. pic.twitter.com/chEpOaTufF— William Wolfe ?? (@William_E_Wolfe) July 20, 2024 The fire comes one day after the Republican National Convention ended in Milwaukee. At the convention, Republicans nominated Trump, who had barely survived an assassination attempt on Saturday. Jeffress has long praised and prayed for Trump, publicly appearing with him at events as far back as September 2015. This is a breaking story and will be updated. The post Texas Church Led by Pro-Trump Pastor Catches Fire After Assassination Attempt, Republican Convention appeared first on The Daily Signal.