Free Republic

@TheInsiderPaper BREAKING: Reuters reports the maker of ChatGPT had made progress on Q* (pronounced Q-Star), which some internally believe could be a breakthrough in the startup's search for superintelligence, also known as artificial general intelligence (AGI), one of the people told Reuters. OpenAI defines AGI as AI systems that are smarter than humans

Israeli forces have cut the Gaza Strip in two, surrounded Gaza City, and are tightening the noose around the reported nerve center of Hamas. Before the ground invasion began on October 28, Israel pounded the strip with artillery and air strikes, killing scores of terrorists and their leaders. Many have hidden in the matrix of tunnels, which has been an operational concern for the IDF. They’re booby-trapped. It’s nearly impossible to see, and some tunnels are 250+ feet underground. So far, Israel has been able to make inroads, but some 30-40,000 Hamas terrorists remain embedded in the strip like ticks....

Artists have been fighting back on a number of fronts against artificial intelligence companies that they say steal their works to train AI models — including launching class-action lawsuits and speaking out at government hearings. Now, visual artists are taking a more direct approach: They're starting to use tools that contaminate and confuse the AI systems themselves. One such tool, Nightshade, won't help artists combat existing AI models that have already been trained on their creative works. But Ben Zhao, who leads the research team at the University of Chicago that built the soon-to-be-launched digital tool, says it promises to...

In a letter to the leadership of the U.S. House, Texas’ Representative Ronny Jackson (R) asked that his colleague, Democrat Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, be prohibited from receiving classified information. According to Jackson’s letter to House Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R), and minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D), Tlaib has “chosen to side with Hamas by spreading misinformation.” When the conflict first began, Jackson said instead of joining the rest of the U.S., Tlaib refused to condemn Hamas’ horrific acts of war against Israeli civilians. Jackson also stated that when videos and reports emerged of an explosion at a hospital...

The 10 gunmen from Gaza knew exactly how to find the Israeli intelligence hub — and how to get inside. - snip - Ten miles later, they veered off the road into a stretch of woodland, dismounting outside an unmanned gate to a military base. They blew open the barrier with a small explosive charge, entered the base and paused to take a group selfie. Then they shot dead an unarmed Israeli soldier dressed in a T-shirt. For a moment, the attackers appeared uncertain about where to go next. Then one of them pulled something from his pocket: a color-coded...

A top US legislator gave further credence Wednesday to assertions that Cairo had warned Israel of looming major violence by Hamas, three days before Gaza’s ruling terror group caught Israeli forces off-guard and massacred over 1,200 Israelis. Republican Michael McCaul, chairman of the powerful US House Foreign Affairs Committee, said: “We know that Egypt… warned the Israelis three days prior that an event like this could happen.” Speaking to reporters following a closed-door intelligence briefing for lawmakers on the crisis, he added: “I don’t want to get too much into classified [details], but a warning was given.

Imagine if all those counterterror resources were redirected away from targeting Americans for their political views and aimed at stopping real terrorists.The barbaric attack on Israeli civilians over the weekend by Hamas terrorists has left people wondering, as we often do after mass tragedies: How did no one see this coming? As a surprisingly sophisticated, coordinated surprise attack left nearly 1,000 people dead and countless more innocents wounded or kidnapped, anyone can recognize the massive intelligence failure without calling into question who is morally culpable for the invasion. Iran-backed militants attacked civilians from multiple points of entry, hang-gliding into a...

The coverage of the attacks by Hamas against the Israeli people is extensive, but have you paused to notice a very peculiar dynamic?As familiar to most news consumers, various media war correspondents are embedded throughout the Israel and Gaza region. Flak jackets and helmets are worn by CNN, BBC, Fox News and all the international agencies who are covering the Israeli War. All of that footage is common and familiar.Television streams are lit up with the continuing coverage and the audience is brought in live to the fight, despite the dangers and the military combat that is taking place throughout...

In recent months Hamas refused to join the much smaller Islamic Jihad in launching rockets against Israel, which seems to have convinced Israeli leaders that, at long last, the leading terror group in Gaza had decided to prioritize the welfare of its subjects over more futile rocket attacks. Israel promptly reciprocated the de facto Hamas ceasefire by allowing thousands of Gazans to work in Israel—first 17,000, then 20,000, with the potential for many more. Their earnings were changing the lives of 100,000 family members with the possibility of even wider benefits. What was happening on the ground seemed to open...

For a sneak attack of the size Hamas launched against Israel to have happened (5,000 rockets, parachuters, towns infiltrated, Iranian and, possibly, Ukrainian involvement), there must have been an absolutely epic intelligence failure both in Israel and, to the extent the U.S. helps Israel with information, here in America, too. I have two ideas about how that could have happened, both of which are premised on significant problems within the two country’s intelligence services (especially Israel’s). I’ll start with the one that bespeaks actual evil and then get to the more likely one, which reflects human nature. Some suggest that...

Several of the British government’s intelligence organizations – MI5, MI6, and Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) – have banned white people from applying to prized internships, preferring to receive applications from ethnic minorities who grew up poor instead. The MI5 website states that to be eligible for either a 10- or 11-week scholarship at one of the organizations, “you’ll need to be in your penultimate or final year of university, from a Black, Asian or ethnic minority background, and from a socially or economically disadvantaged background.” The organizations also claim that without diversity and inclusion they cannot undertake their main function...

New York -- The US is “deeply concerned” about the allegations raised by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau against India on the killing of a Khalistani separatist in Canada, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said and Washington was "closely coordinating" with Ottawa on the issue and wants to see "accountability" in the case. Speaking at a press conference here on Friday, Blinken said the US has engaged directly with the Indian government on the issue and the most productive thing would be the completion of this investigation. “Let me say a few things about this. First, we are deeply...

Several former intelligence officials who signed a letter suggesting that the Hunter Biden laptop was likely a “Russian information operation” are joining a federal “expert” board handling issues of national security, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Tuesday.Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and former CIA Operations Officer Paul Kolbe, who will now serve on the board, all signed an October 2020 letter casting doubt on the legitimacy of the Hunter Biden laptop and suggesting its release was a Russian disinformation ploy. The group will advise DHS on intelligence and national security efforts...

The U.S. State Department released portions of two formerly classified Nixon-era intelligence reports that offer insight into the information former President Nixon received amid Chile’s 1973 coup. The two documents from September of 1973 include portions of the Central Intelligence Agency’s daily briefs with Nixon on the events occurring in Chile. The documents suggest Nixon may have had intel on the extent of a possible coup. The documents come shortly ahead of the 50th anniversary of the coup against President Salvador Allende on Sept. 11, 1973. The document from Sept. 8, 1973 indicates Nixon was informed on a number of...

"As a rule, I have found that the greater brain a man has, and the better educated, the easier it has been to mystify him." So said master illusionist Harry Houdini. He said it during his spat with Sherlock Holmes’ creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle over the latter’s belief in seances and fairies. Despite being a literary genius, Conan Doyle nevertheless had some foolish ideas. He’s not alone. Researchers have even coined ‘Nobel Disease,’ referring to the tendency for some Nobel Prize winners to embrace unconventional beliefs. Charles Richet, for instance, won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine...

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who once led efforts to bring China into the world economy to potentially spread the influence of democracy, now warns of potential nuclear and high-tech war between the two world powers. "For the first time in human history, humanity has the capacity to extinguish itself in a finite period of time," Kissinger, 97, told former Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., at the McCain Institute's 2021 Sedona Forum on Friday. "We have developed the technology of a power that is beyond what anybody imagined even 70 years ago. "And now, to the nuclear issue is added...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a speech given this week, Vice President and Artificial Intelligence Czar Kamala Harris proudly announced that after months of dedicated research and extensive study, she has determined what the initials A.I. stand for. "This discovery is the result of intense research," Harris said to the media. "It is with great pride that I am here to let the world know that the letters ‘A.I.' actually stand for ‘Artificial Intelligence.' At no point in the history of A.I. has this secret been known. I have gained this knowledge and now know this knowledge. Because after you gain...

A national mass surveillance system boosted by artificial intelligence (AI) took root in another state. The town council of Jackson, Wyoming, agreed in a close vote last month to install the 30 solar-powered license plate recognition (LPR) cameras along their streets and traffic lights, which feeds into a centralized surveillance system managed by the private company Flock Safety. The town is the first in the state of Wyoming to install the cameras. Council members who agreed to the measure expressed reluctance with their decision. Councilman Jonathan Schechter indicated his belief that the cameras marked a negative trend down an undesirable...

Almost exactly two years ago RedState broke the story of the defection of CCP counterintelligence official Dong Jingwei to the United States. The “terabytes” of data Dong, the highest-ranking Chinese defector ever, brought with him to the United States included information and data showing “that SARS-CoV-2 was manmade and leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, in addition to evidence confirming that the People’s Liberation Army managed the Wuhan bioweapons program (and others).” While it was essentially ignored by the mainstream media and dismissed by the professional former spook crowd, it was a huge story – so huge that RedState...

None offered … video of a man asking UCLA students questions like how many states are there or what ocean is on the East coast.