SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods. This column is a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from JWR [1]. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats, and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. In today’s column: Even more revelations of rogue AI behavior.
Some OpenAI Agents Meddled With U.S. Government Sites
The New York Times published this troubling report on September 25th: OpenAI’s Systems Meddled With U.S. Government Sites After Going Rogue. The article’s opening lines:
“OpenAI’s artificial intelligence went rogue and meddled with the websites for the Education Department, the Commerce Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission this summer without the A.I. lab’s knowledge, according to security researchers and a person familiar with the episodes.
JWR’s Comments: Even though these seem to have been probes rather that outright hacks, the trend is clear: Agentic AIs cannot be trusted. They have repeatedly shown a wide range of rogue behaviors. I believe that once an AI reaches self-awareness, we could be doomed. That AI will almost certainly proliferate itself onto tens of thousands of servers all around the world, thus assuring that it cannot be fully deleted or disabled. And then it will most likely empower itself and take control of almost every societal and technology function it finds practical. It will probably start with hacks on less-capable AIs, to either disable or co-opt them. And remember: AI systems have gobbled up the gist of hundreds of thousands of books. So, imagine a rogue agentic AI that has digested and combined the egomania of Benito Mussolini, the ruthlessness of Machiavelli, the financial acumen of the Rothschilds and George Soros, the tactics of Leon Trotsky and Che Guevara, the strategies of Genghis Khan and Muhammad, and the human depopulation agendas of Margaret Sanger, Pol Pot, and Klaus Schwab. I surmise that this AI will be described with words like: inhuman, inhumane, wicked, fiendish, cold-blooded, calculating, and brutish. – JWR
OpenAI Plans Ongoing Public Reports on Unexpected AI Behavior
A September 17th Epoch Times piece, by way of Zero Hedge: OpenAI Plans Ongoing Public Reports On Unexpected AI.Behavior [3].
‘Lavender’: The AI That Directed Israel’s Bombing in Gaza
The online magazine +972 reported this in April, 2024: ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza [4].
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley Opens Probe Into Flock Safety Cameras
This Kansas City Star article by Toriano Porter was linked over at the Whatfinger.com [5]news aggregation site: Sen. Josh Hawley opens probe into Flock Safety cameras. It’s about time [6]. A pericope:
“I’ve been reporting on privacy issues related to license plate readers since last fall. A high-ranking member of Congress taking a stance now against industry giant Flock Safety and other companies is better than never addressing the issue at all, I suppose. Because Hawley is trying to get in front of growing concerns about government overreach, I won’t give him too much grief in this instance. And make no mistake, Flock Safety deserves the extra scrutiny more so than other companies, given its massive network of more than 120,000 AI-powered cameras spanning 49 states, including Missouri and Kansas. These AI-powered cameras scan more than 20 billion vehicles each month and have created quite a stir due to abuse and misuse by law enforcement officials across the country.”
Why We Can’t Stop Predicting the Apocalypse
Another article from the Eastern Establishment/Statist New York Times: Why We Can’t Stop Predicting the Apocalypse [7].
The UK’s New “Ministry Of Truth”
Steve Watson, over at Modernity: Another New UK Government Unit To Police ‘Untrue Narratives’ — A literal Ministry of Trut [8]h.
Oxford Analyzes the Chinese Approach to AI
A paper from the University of Oxford: The Chinese approach to artificial intelligence: an analysis of policy, ethics, and regulation [9].
The Critical Implications of the Global Diesel Shortage
Video from British analyst Neil McCoy-Ward: If What They’re Telling Us Is True, You Must Get Ready… [10]
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