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. 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, venomous Blue Dragon Sea Slugs.
Do Not Touch: Blue Dragon Sea Slugs
Venomous ‘blue dragons’ washing up on South Texas beaches during spring break.
Granny Jailed for 6 Months After A.I. Error
Reader H.L. sent this troubling news: The Dark Side of AI: Innocent Grandmother Wrongfully Jailed for 6 Months After Facial Recognition Error
Hackers Join in on Iran War
Posted one week ago, at Axios: Hackers join U.S. and Israel’s fight with Iran.
Mamdani’s 20% Death Tax Proposal
H.L. sent this: Stripping the Dying of Their Assets: Mamdani’s Latest Proposal. Here is a key quote:
“Currently, New York is one of a handful of states that imposes a death tax, a 16 percent levy on estates worth more than $7 million.
But last week, the tax wish list Mamdani circulated to state legislators and Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed lowering the threshold to a mere $750,000 – which would clobber millions more New Yorkers all across the state with a punishing tax.
He would also hike the rate to a whopping 50 percent, two and a half times the next highest rate – 20 percent, charged in Hawaii and Washington state.”
Illegal Alien Numbers are Surging
As Trump closes the border, unauthorized migrants surge at U.S. airports.
How AI Chatbots Fuel Delusional Thinking
New study raises concerns about AI chatbots fueling delusional thinking. Here is a pericope:
“For his paper, Dr Hamilton Morrin, a psychiatrist and researcher at King’s College in London, analyzed 20 media reports on so-called “AI psychosis”, which describes current theories as to how chatbots might induce or exacerbate delusions.
“Emerging evidence indicates that agential AI might validate or amplify delusional or grandiose content, particularly in users already vulnerable to psychosis, although it is not clear whether these interactions can result in the emergence of de novo psychosis in the absence of pre-existing vulnerability,” he wrote.
There are three main categories of psychotic delusions, Morrin says, identifying them as grandiose, romantic and paranoid. While chatbots can exacerbate any of these, their sycophantic responses means they especially latch on to the grandiose kind. In many of the cases in the essay, chatbots responded to users with mystical language to suggest that users have heightened spiritual importance. The bots also implied that users were speaking with a cosmic being who was using the chatbot as a medium. This type of mystical, sycophantic response was especially common in OpenAI’s GPT 4 model, which the company has now retired.”
ALPR Surveillance in the News Again
How AI licence plate readers became a flashpoint in US immigration battles. The article begins:
“A fast-growing network of AI-enabled licence plate readers has become a flashpoint in the US debate over immigration enforcement as dozens of American cities cancel contracts with the company behind the technology.
Flock Safety, valued at $7.5bn and backed by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, is facing mounting resistance from local authorities and privacy advocates across the country.
Its technology, which uses cameras to identify vehicles based on features including their licence plate and bumper stickers, has created what critics describe as an unprecedented domestic surveillance network.
In particular, controversy has raged over how its systems have been used to help agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the largest crackdown on undocumented migrants in recent American history.”
JWR’s Comments: This technology is the key enabler for a police state in any modern Western nation. Everyone — not just illegal aliens — should be concerned.
—
You can send your news tips to JWR. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form.) Thanks!