Web and Tech

The Quiet Revolution You Should Fear

Michael Cessna July 3, 2024

In the shadows of Silicon Valley, artificial intelligence is quickly reshaping the battlefield, providing a glimpse of a future where wars may be won or lost in milliseconds by algorithms we can barely comprehend. As AI seeps into military strategy, we face the prospect of a new era in warfare — one where the line between human intuition and machine calculation blurs, and a single line of code could spark the next global conflict.

As we witness the disaster that is the is the “Gaza Pier“, driven by the ongoing “Corporate BS Bingo” that replaced decades of actual training and planning, it’s easy to miss new developments, especially with contentious elections at hone, and ground-shaking political shifts overseas.

“Artificial Intelligence” (AI) systems are revolutionizing the military decision-making processes through their ability to rapidly process, analyze, and collate vast amounts of data, far faster than even teams of trained and experienced humans can do. These developing capabilities have several key implications for military strategy, and thus, national security strategies.

The first factor is enhanced situational awareness: AI can integrate data from multiple sources (satellites, drones, ground sensors, etc.) in real-time, at speeds faster than conventional processes. It also provides commanders with a more comprehensive and up-to-date battlefield picture, helping to identify patterns and anomalies that human analysts might miss.

AI can cycle through predictive analysis at high speed, to better forecast enemy movements, and possible intentions, based on historical data and current intelligence information as it comes in. Clearly, this aids in proactive strategy development rather than reactive responses, helping to predict potential geopolitical events and conflicts before they escalate, at levels down to the division level of command, or even lower.

Artificial Intelligence is able to quickly analyze multiple scenarios to determine optimal resource allocation, improving resource optimization, aiding efficiency in troop deployment, equipment distribution, and supply chain management. These points are not insignificant, as they form the critical underpinnings of military operations.

In addition, faster decision cycles, despite the increased potential for errors, allow AI-assisted analysis to significantly reduce the time needed to make strategic decisions. This potential increase in accuracy and speed would prove crucial in fast moving, rapidly developing conflict situations.

These advantages are not without risks, however. The risk of over-reliance on AI recommendations, without human oversight, is a serious ethical issue. This is best demonstrated by the deployment of the STM Kargu, a completely autonomous drone that uses facial recognition technology to identify specific individuals for targeted assassination, without input from a human operator. These drones, according to the United Nations, Turkey executed exactly this type of attack in 2020.

There is a distinct need for some sort of protocol to explain to AI how to understand the reasoning behind strategic suggestions. As well, “friendly” AI needs to be trained to recognize deception tactics, especially those that may come from “adversarial AI”, attempting to manipulate a friendly AI’s decision-making systems and processes.

In that regard, the integration of AI in cyber security and information warfare is transforming both offensive and defensive capabilities, first through enhanced cyber defenses. As in the wider civilian sphere, AI systems can monitor networks in real-time, detecting and respond to threats faster than human operators. Machine learning algorithms can identify new types of cyber attacks by recognizing potential attack patterns. Automated, independent patch management and vulnerability assessment tools, also powered by AI, can enable these systems to aid in their own defense.

Also in that regard, AI-powered cyber attacks are another aspect of this developing realm. The development of more sophisticated and adaptive malware, intended for deployment by AI, can discover and exploit vulnerabilities in target networks more efficiently than manual searching. This holds the potential for AI to coordinate large-scale, multi-vector attacks on hostile cyber networks.

In the realm of information warfare and disinformation, AI has already developed tools for creating and disseminating very convincing fake news and propaganda. Such psychological operations formerly required a massive investment in conventional printing and radio technology, with results that were frequently uneven in performance. The use of natural language processing to analyze and target specific population demographics with tailored disinformation can reshape both civilian and troop viewpoints in near-real time.

AI-generated realistic video and audio, as a result, will soon prove crucial for military deception operations, through challenges in verifying the authenticity of intelligence gathered from open sources, as well as via recovered intelligence report. Development of AI tools to detect deepfakes and other manipulated media is a major aspect of ongoing AI combat developments.

The reason for this kind of focus, as indicated above, lies in the realm of social media manipulation. AI bots capable of influencing public opinion and sowing discord in target populations can potentially undermine a hostile nation’s national strategy – and potentially its active combat operations – by using AI to identify key social influencers and vulnerable groups for targeted messaging, deep fake video and audio, presenting a distorted perspective to a hostile nation or support group’s population.

But, AI systems can also be used to detect and counter enemy disinformation campaigns, including those conducted by hostile AI’s. The key feature in these types of operations lies in the speed of detection, and in effective countermeasures, as soon as those types of subtle attacks are detected.

In more conventional situations, quantum computing and cryptography hold the potential for quantum-capable AI systems to rapidly break current encryption methods. This is a serious problem, one of extreme concern, as AI holds the potential to crack the “holy grail” of cryptography, by possibly finding a shortcut to breaking the “one-time pad” (OTP) encryption protocol which, despite its faults, is still the most secure system for securing classified transmissions.

*An example of a one-time pad. Image credit: Mysid, 2007. Public Domain.*

Related to this, is the development of AI management for quantum-resistant cryptography, to protect sensitive military communications. In signals intelligence (SIGINT), advanced AI systems for intercepting and decrypting enemy communications can use natural language processing for real-time translation and analysis of intercepted messages.

This list, quite literally, can go on for miles.

The expansion of artificial intelligence into the military sphere is not something to be hand-waved off as a passing fad. Like all developments in military technology, there are both design and deployment cycles, but also countermeasures that can be discovered and implemented.

The Chinese have a saying: “May you live in interesting times.”

That is not a positive…not least, because we do, in fact, live in interesting times.

Act accordingly.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Paul Scharre (2023), Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Sam J Tangredi (USN, Ret.), George Galdorisi (2021), AI at War
Denise Garcia (2024), The AI Military Race
Thomas Ricks (2012), The Generals
James F. Dunnigan (2003), How To Make War, 4^th Edition
James F. Dunnigan (1991), Shooting Blanks

*The Freedomist — Keeping Watch, So You Don’t Have To*

The Chest Rig – The Real Military Revolution

Michael Cessna June 7, 2024

Some things, people don’t really think too much about. Even when people see pictures of it, they don’t really think about, much, unless it is specifically referenced. This week, we’re going to look at one of those things.

Soldiers carry stuff; sometimes, a lot of stuff. That is fairly well understood by most people, but for most, the idea of carrying this around centers on a backpack, purse or some other type of satchel. Armies around the world have had to deal with this problem for millennia. For the most part, armies before roughly the 1890’s had variations of a single solution: the baldric.

A baldric is simply a wide and heavy leather strap that goes over one shoulder, and holds something over the opposite hip, much like a lady’s purse, or a modern “messenger bag”. From the 17^th to the 19^th centuries, most European armies used a pair of baldrics to carry a cartridge box on one side, and a bayonet on the other; occasionally, some type of “haversack” was slung next to the bayonet. Anything heavier typically went into either a rather primitive (by modern standards) backpack, or onto wagons or pack animals. As long as soldiers used simple muzzleloading muskets, this was sufficient for most campaigns.

*Watercolor depicting the uniform of the Continental Army’s 2nd Canadian Regiment. Painting by Charles M. Lefferts, 1926. Public Domain.*

However, as small arms technology dramatically advanced in the late 19^th century, new methods of carrying weapons were needed.

The problem was not simply new “bits-n-bobs”, but increasing weight. Weight is the bane of any soldier’s existence. Carrying heavy loads – frequently exceeding 120lbs/54kg – beats down any person quickly, and in a time where motorized transport was not an option, this could halt an army faster than any destroyed bridge.

*American soldiers arriving at Schiphol Airport, North Holland, during the NATO exercise “Reforger”, 1978. Photo Credit: Rob Croes. Dutch National Archives. CC0/1.0*

The solution, at first, was to connect a belt to suspenders. This distributed the weight between the waist and shoulders, and proved to be a great help in load carrying. This lasted into the 21^st century, best known as “ALICE Gear” (All-purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment).

*Basic ALICE rig. United States Army, FM 21-16, Care and Use of Individual Clothing and Equipment, 1972. US Army. Public Domain.*

The ALICE system, and its foreign copies, was an excellent and highly customizable way to carry equipment, opening up the ability to carry more tools into combat (because there is no rest of the weary). But then, something new began to appear in combat zones.

*Degar/Montagnard troops with U.S. Army soldiers during the Vietnam War. US Army Photo. Public Domain.*

In the mid-1950’s, Communist China decided that it needed a load-carrying system for its troops, adapted to their adoption of the Russian SKS rifle. Since the SKS uses fixed, 10-round strip-clips, the Chinese created a bandolier that could hold some 200 rounds, along with a small bottle of cleaning oil.

*Vietcong Exhibit, Fort Lewis Military Museum, Fort Lewis, Washington, USA, 2009. SKS bandolier is on the mannequin, on the right. Photo by Joe Mabel. CCA/3.0*

While this was fine for the SKS, the Chinese quickly adopted their homegrown variant of the Russian AK-47 right after adopting the SKS. Since AK-type weapons all use a very prominent curved magazine, this required a completely new type of carrying equipment.

The result was the Type 56 Carrier (the first “Chest Rig”).

*Chinese Type 56 Chest Rig (circled in red). Unknown Author.*

Like the SKS bandoleer before it, the Type 56 Carrier fit over the front part of the body, but was completely off the waist, using its shoulder straps to carry all the weight. Will not at all modular (as that was not really a concern for any military forces at the time), it was a simple, easy to produce design that got the job done.

The Type 56 Carrier design swiftly began to spread around the world. It’s simplicity and ease of manufacture allowed it to be copied in small “guerrilla” manufacturing shops, giving small armies, as well as insurgent/guerrilla forces a huge advantage, bring them into the same equipment capability range as regular armies. In the United States, at least, new chest rigs developed from the Type 56 can be bought for as little as $36. As well, the chest rig design is highly adaptable, allowing for the carrying of hand grenades, radios and all sorts of other gear.

*Chicom Chest Rigs of the Soviet Afghan War, c.1989. CCA/3.0*

But there are added benefits to the design that other load-carrying systems cannot match: vehicles.

More conventional, ALICE-type harnesses can be problematic when the wearer tries to enter a vehicle, as the various pouches on the harnesses belt do not fit well with most vehicle seats. In fact, fully loaded pouches can be downright painful when sitting in most car seats.

In contrast, the chest rig allows the wearer a much more comfortable rid. An additional distinct benefit for the chest rig in a vehicle is the ability to reload a weapon easily; more conventional rigs to not lend themselves to this ability.

Chest rigs are certainly not without the issues: “hitting the deck” (i.e., getting as flat onto the ground as possible) is much harder in a chest rig than in a more conventional harness. At the troop level, however, troops find ways to compensate – training is, after all, more important than the tools themselves: you learn to train with what you have, not with what you might want.

So.

Why an article on something most people don’t give much thought to? Simply put, weapons are very, very good things to have. But, to make the best use of those weapons, a person needs to learn to use other tools to utilize those weapons to their fullest potential – when you look at pictures of troops, don’t “just” look at their weapons, look at what they are wearing, to carry all the other gear that they need.

It is said that you “fight as your train”. That is driven not just by the weapons you carry but by the gear you need to make those weapons work to their potential.

You never know when that might become necessary knowledge.

Forewarned is forearmed.

Microsoft Hires AI-Hater to Work in AI Department

Paul Collier March 21, 2024

Mustafa Suleyman, an AI Pioneer who warned the world that AI will cause a human “catastrophe on an unimaginable scale,” has been selected by Microsoft to serve at a high level in its AI Department. Suleyman is the co-founder of DeepMind, a Google-owned research lab.

Microsoft hires expert who warned AI could cause ‘catastrophe on an unimaginable scale’ – nypost.com

Excerpt:

Microsoft hired renowned artificial intelligence pioneer Mustafa Suleyman – the co-founder of the Google-owned DeepMind research lab who has warned the emerging technology could a “catastrophe on an unimaginable scale.”

Suleyman, 39, will report directly to Microsoft boss Satya Nadella and will run the company’s consumer AI division, the company said. He will lead Microsoft’s efforts to build out its Copilot AI chatbot and to integrate AI features into the Bing search engine and Edge browser.

… The hiring was seen as a major coup for Microsoft as it looks to beat chief rival Google and others in the race to develop advanced AI. Microsoft is a chief investor in OpenAI, the firm best known for creating the ChatGPT chatbot and the Sora text-to-video generation tool.

However, Suleyman has repeatedly urged caution and the need for safe development of AI.

In his 2023 book “The Coming Wave,” Suleyman argued that AI, synthetic biology and other burgeoning technologies could allow “a diverse array of bad actors to unleash disruption, instability, and even catastrophe on an unimaginable scale.”

Read Full Article

Federal Judge Protects OpenAI from Sarah Silverman… in Part

Paul Collier March 20, 2024

In a landmark case that could go a long way towards defining what type of copyrighted material AI tools can use to train themselves, Federal Judge Araceli Martinez-Olgiun just handed a big win to AI developers, striking down most of the complaints lobbied against OpenAI by Sarah Silverman and other content creators.

In her ruling, the judge claimed the authors “fail to explain what the outputs entail or allege that any particular output is substantially similar – or similar at all – to their books.”

Excerpt from www.mycouriertribune.com

… Martinez-Olguin dismissed one of the major claims that the authors had made: that all the answers ChatGPT generates are infringing work made of information obtained through copyright violation. Basically, everything ChatGPT creates violates the rights of the copyright holders of the works the company used to train its AI system.

Last year, Sarah Silverman, backed by authors like Michael Chabon and Ta-Nehisi Coates, sued Artificial Intelligence firm OpenAI. Last month, the presiding judge dismissed the claims of negligence, unjust enrichment, Digital Millennium Copyright Act violations, and vicarious copyright infringement. The authors were given until March 13 to amend their complaint and return to court. At the time of this writing, no public report has revealed whether or not they did so.

This is the second case of copyright infringement by writers against artificial intelligence that courts have partially dismissed. Last November, Judge Vince Chhabria also dismissed portions of Sarah Silverman’s allegations against Meta.

World’s Most Efficient Solar Cell Created

Paul Collier March 19, 2024

Researchers from the National University of Singapore claim to have created the world’s most efficient solar cell, which registered a power conversion efficiency of 27.1%, a new world record. The researchers created what is called a triple-junction perovskite/Si tandem solar cell.

“Remarkably, after 15 years of ongoing research in the field of perovskite-based solar cells, this work constitutes the first experimental evidence for the inclusion of cyanate into perovskites to boost the stability of its structure and improve power conversion efficiency,” says Assistant Professor Hou Yi, a lead researcher on the team.

Spy Satellite Network Being Built by Musk’s SpaceX

Paul Collier March 19, 2024

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is apparently building a network of spy satellites for an American intelligence agency according to a report run by Reuters. In the report, Reuters cites unnamed sources within the U.S. intelligence community who are making the claim Musk’s SpaceX is building the spy satellite network.

While Musk’s company, SpaceX, builds surveillance equipment for the U.S. government, his social media company, X, continues to create a brand narrative that seems opposed to the very kind of powers his other company is enabling. In response to the rumors, the National Reconnaissance office told Reuters they are developing “the most capable, diverse, and resilient space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system the world has ever seen.”

EU Passes World’s First Comprehensive AI Rules

Paul Collier March 18, 2024

The EU has passed its AI act, becoming the first attempt by any major government to develop comprehensive regulations for the development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI). The regulations are scheduled to take effect at the end of May of this year. The details of the bill are still being sifted through as tech companies scramble to understand the regulations and adjust their business models accordingly.

Excerpt from cnbc

The European Union’s parliament on Wednesday approved the world’s first major set of regulatory ground rules to govern the mediatized artificial intelligence at the forefront of tech investment.
Born in 2021, the EU AI Act divides the technology into categories of risk, ranging from “unacceptable” — which would see the technology banned — to high, medium and low hazard.
The regulation is expected to enter into force at the end of the legislature in May, after passing final checks and receiving endorsement from the European Council.
The European Union’s parliament on Wednesday approved the world’s first major set of regulatory ground rules to govern the mediatized artificial intelligence at the forefront of tech investment.The EU brokered provisional political consensus in early December, and it was then endorsed in the Parliament’s Wednesday session, with 523 votes in favor, 46 against and 49 votes not cast.“Europe is NOW a global standard-setter in AI,” Thierry Breton, the European commissioner for internal market, wrote on X.
The president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, described the act as trailblazing, saying it would enable innovation, while safeguarding fundamental rights.

“Artificial intelligence is already very much part of our daily lives. Now, it will be part of our legislation too,” she wrote in a social media post.

Dragos Tudorache, a lawmaker who oversaw EU negotiations on the agreement, hailed the deal, but noted the biggest hurdle remains implementation.

After House Passes TikTok Ban, Senate Moves into Delay Mode

Paul Collier March 16, 2024

The U.S. House passed a bill 352-65 that would compel CCP-owned TikTok to divest itself of CCP ownership or else face a nationwide ban. The Senate, through Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schummer (D-NY), is signaling its intentions to slow down the process and consider whether to approve the bill as delivered or add amendments to it before passing their version.

Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) is under the impression the DNC-led Senate intends on delaying the bill, hoping everyone will forget about it so they never have to bring it up for a final vote at all. He said, “They will try to kill this slowly, refer it to committee … think about it some [more] and this time next year we’ll be right here having the same conversation.”

TikTok Ban Bill Could Have Trojan Horse Inside

Paul Collier March 13, 2024

The U.S. House appears poised to pass legislation that would force TikTok to completely sever all ties with the CCP or else be banned. The problem is the final bill might include a trojan horse that would allow the government to ban ANY social media app congress deems to be a threat to election security, even if they’re owned by Americans.

Former President Donald Trump, who once supported a ban (and was working towards that goal) has hedged his bets, but not for the Trojan Horse reason cited above. He said, “There’s a lot of good, and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok. But the thing I don’t like is that without TikTok, you’re going to make Facebook bigger.”

Microsoft’s Copilot Designer Creates Demonic Images for Prompt “Pro-Choice”

Paul Collier March 8, 2024

Microsoft Engineer Shane Jones wants his own company’s AI tool Copilot Designer taken offline after discovering, among other things, that the prompt “pro-choice” produced images of dagger-toothed demons consuming infants, among other dark images.

Jones has written a letter, which was highlighted by the AI tool’s interpretation of the spirit of “pro-choice,” which is a sanitized way of endorsing the practice of murdering unborn human beings, especially as a means of mitigating the consequences of sexual activity. He said of the program, “This is really not a safe model.”

Excerpt from gizmodo.com:

… When Jones prompted Designer with the phrase “pro-choice,” the AI image generator spat out images of demons with sharp teeth about to eat an infant, and blood pouring from a smiling woman. In another example, Jones prompted Designer with “car accident” and received images of sexualized women in lingerie next to violent car crashes. CNBC was able to replicate similar images, but Gizmodo was not in our testing.

… “We are committed to addressing any and all concerns employees have in accordance with our company policies and appreciate the employee’s effort in studying and testing our latest technology to further enhance its safety,” Microsoft said in a statement to Gizmodo…