Sunday, February 19
Using Artificial Intelligence in WAR
Countries including the United States and China called Thursday for urgent action to regulate the development and growing use of artificial intelligence in warfare, warning that the technology "could have unintended consequences".
A two-day meet in The Hague involving more than 60 countries took the first steps towards establishing international rules on use of AI on the battlefield, aimed at establishing an agreement similar to those on chemical and nuclear weapons.
"AI offers great opportunities and has extraordinary potential as an enabling technology, enabling us among other benefits to make powerful use of previously unimaginable quantities of data and improving decision-making," the countries said in a joint call to action after the meeting.
But they warned: "There are concerns worldwide around the use of AI in the military domain and about the potential unreliability of AI systems, the issue of human involvement, the lack of clarity with regards to liability and potential unintended consequences."
The roughly 2,000 delegates, from governments, tech firms and civil society, also agreed to launch a global commission to give clarity on its uses of AI in warfare and set down certain guidelines.
Militarily, AI is already used for reconnaissance and surveillance as well as analysis, and could eventually be used for autonomous choosing of targets—for example by "swarms" of drones sent into enemy territory.
China was invited to the conference as a key player in tech and AI, Dutch officials said, but Russia was not because of its invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago.
"We've clearly established the urgent nature of this subject. We now need to take further steps," Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said at the conference's end.
Although experts say a treaty regulating the use of AI in war may still be a long way off, attendees agreed that guidelines urgently needed to be established.
"In the end it's always the human who needs to make the decision" on the battlefield, General Joerg Vollmer, a former senior NATO commander, told delegates.
"Whatever we're talking about, AI can be helpful, can be supportive, but never let the human out of the responsibility they have to bear—never, ever hand it over to AI," Vollmer said in a panel discussion.
Saturday, February 18
Trust Me... I'm From the Government...
Democrats are equally as bad as Republicans... which means Libertarians, Socialists, and Progressive ALL CANNOT BE TRUSTED...
One of the reasons why I think this way is that in the 1960, I experienced the same problems and the same promises from politicians that I am experiencing in 2023... over 50 years later...
IF POLITICIANS REALLY MEANT WHAT THEY SAY, THINGS WOULD CHANGE AND NOTHING HAS CHANGED... ERGO...
Don't trust politicians...
Advice From the Frog
Memorizing for the Grade
Judi Dench, British actress who appeared in many James Bond movies, revealed recently that she can no longer read lines and memorize... she says she used to have a photographic memory...
Memorizing lines, I suppose is neccessary for an actor or an actress and is probably a useful tool to have in other professions as well, but for college students it is not the approach to learning that they should be taking. Unfortunately, memorizing is exactly what they are doing.
The last 3 years of full time employment was spent teaching classes at a local university. I taught 5 classes a semester and a couple of classes during the summer semesters. When I retired in 2015, I continued to teach classes on a parttime basis for 5 years at another local university.
In both those situations, I would ask my students what they remembered from the classes they just finished the previous semester and they replied NOTHING... when I asked why, they replied that they memorized for the test, then forgot. They all got "As" and "Bs".
These classes they were talking about were not electives but their businesses classes which information they would need after graduation in their business degree related jobs and profession.
These students who have GPAs of 3.5 and 4.0 will obviously get jobs but it is doubtful that they will be able to use the knowledge that they did not learn. However, most of the business world does not rely on college business classes to run their businesses. And therein lies the other problem. If they actually used the knowledge from college, their businesses would operate better and more efficiently and effectively... BUT THEY DON'T... and, these new graduates are not bothered by what they have not learned.
How far do you think our businesses are going to go with that as their basic operating principles?
I would suspect not far... but if they did manage to survive, it would be just marginally.
Intelligence of an Artificial Nature
Visual Perception - Visual perception refers to the brain's ability to make sense of what the eyes see. This is not the same as visual acuity which refers to how clearly a person sees (for example “20/20 vision”). A person can have 20/20 vision and still have problems with visual perceptual processing.
Speech Recognition - Speech recognition, also known as automatic speech recognition (ASR), computer speech recognition, or speech-to-text, is a capability which enables a program to process human speech into a written format.
Decision Making - Essentially, decision-making is all about choosing from the available options. The better choices you make, the better decision-maker you'll become. You have many decision-making examples in daily life such as: Deciding what to wear.
Language Translation - Translation is the process of reworking text from one language into another to maintain the original message and communication. the difference between interpretation and translation is that interpretation deals with spoken language in real time while translation focuses on written content
Deep Reinforcement Learning
Scientists have taken a key step toward harnessing a form of artificial intelligence known as deep reinforcement learning, or DRL, to protect computer networks.
When faced with sophisticated cyberattacks in a rigorous simulation setting, deep reinforcement learning was effective at stopping adversaries from reaching their goals up to 95 percent of the time. The outcome offers promise for a role for autonomous AI in proactive cyber defense.
Scientists from the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory documented their findings in a research paper and presented their work Feb. 14 at a workshop on AI for Cybersecurity during the annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence in Washington, D.C.
The starting point was the development of a simulation environment to test multistage attack scenarios involving distinct types of adversaries. Creation of such a dynamic attack-defense simulation environment for experimentation itself is a win. The environment offers researchers a way to compare the effectiveness of different AI-based defensive methods under controlled test settings.
Such tools are essential for evaluating the performance of deep reinforcement learning algorithms. The method is emerging as a powerful decision-support tool for cybersecurity experts—a defense agent with the ability to learn, adapt to quickly changing circumstances, and make decisions autonomously. While other forms of AI are standard to detect intrusions or filter spam messages, deep reinforcement learning expands defenders' abilities to orchestrate sequential decision-making plans in their daily face-off with adversaries.
Deep reinforcement learning offers smarter cybersecurity, the ability to detect changes in the cyber landscape earlier, and the opportunity to take preemptive steps to scuttle a cyberattack. READ MORE...
Friday, February 17
Advice From the Frog
Federal Government Social Media Surveillance
Social media has become a significant source of information for U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies for purposes ranging from conducting investigations to screening travelers. This raises a host of civil rights and civil liberties concerns. Someone’s social media presence can reveal an astounding amount of personal information: beliefs, professional and personal networks, health conditions, sexuality, and more.
With that in mind, this growing — and largely unregulated — use of social media by the government is rife with risks for freedom of speech, assembly, and religion, particularly for Black, Latino, and Muslim communities, who are already targeted the most by law enforcement and intelligence efforts. Many of the agencies currently conducting social media surveillance today have a history of using this and other types of monitoring to target minorities and social movements.
Which federal agencies are conducting surveillance on social media platforms?
The three agencies that use social media the most for monitoring, targeting and information collection are the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the State Department.
However, many other federal agencies monitor social media, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Postal Service, the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Federal agencies use social media for four main purposes.
Investigations: Law enforcement agencies monitor social media to assist with criminal and civil investigations, some of which may not require a prior showing of criminal activity. Without any factual basis, FBI agents can open a type of inquiry called an “assessment” if they have an “authorized purpose” like preventing crime or terrorism, during which they can carry out searches of publicly available online information. Subsequent investigative stages, which require some factual basis, open the door for more invasive surveillance tactics, such as the monitoring and recording of chats, direct messages, and other private online communications in real time. ICE agents can look at public social media content as well as operate undercover online to monitor private online communications, but the circumstances under which the latter is permitted are not publicly known.
Threat detection: FBI agents can monitor public social media postings even without opening an assessment or other investigation. Various components within DHS, including its Office of Intelligence & Analysis, also monitor social media, aiming to identify potential threats of violence or terrorism.
Situational awareness: The federal government also uses social media to provide an “ear to the ground” when coordinating a response to breaking events. A range of DHS offices — including the Office of Operations Coordination and Planning, Customs and Border Protection and the Federal Emergency Management Agency — keep tabs on a broad list of websites and keywords being discussed on social media platforms. Such monitoring can help keep people informed about developments during a crisis, identify those in need of help, and determine “threats or dangers” to DHS personnel and facilities. However, privacy impact assessments of these programs suggest there are few limits on the content that can be reviewed.
Immigration and travel screening: The social media accounts of travelers and immigrants coming into the United States are used to vet them upon entry, as well as to monitor them while they live here. Those applying for a range of immigration benefits also undergo social media checks to verify their information and determine if they pose a security risk. READ MORE...
A New Civil War in US of A
There is no doubt in my mind that slavery was wrong and should never have happened but it did and now we as a nation need to get beyond that... HoWEvER, the blacks do not want to let it go... thinking they can milk the system and get more than they are presently receiving...
AND... therein lies our problem...
The US of A is no longer a NORTH/SOUTH country... We are a North - South - East - West - and Central country which is comprised of 60% Whites and 12% blacks, spread out all over the US of A. Only 55% of the black population live in the south.
White cops kill a black man and the blacks say it is white supremacy...
Black cops kill a black man and the blacks say it is white supremacy...
This kind of mentality is beginning to PISS OFF the 60% of the population that is white.
NOW... if one adds to that white supremacy push, the following:
- BLM
- CRT
- woke
- CANCEL CULTURE
- Private White Schools
- Private White Communities
- Private White Churches
- Whites may stop attending Professional sports because of so many black players
- Private White Beaches
- Smaller companies that dont have to follow Federal employment guidelines
- Private White Colleges
- HOW MANY BLACKS WILL BE ABLE TO PURCHASE ELECTRIC VEHICLES???
- HOW MAN BLACKS WILL BE ABLE TO AFFORD SOLAR PANEL HOMES???
- HOW MANY BLACK WILL WANT TO ENROLL IN STEM EDUCATION???
- HOW MANY BLACKS WILL BE WILLING TO GIVE UP SELLING ILLEGAL DRUGS???