And Now… AI Assisted Police Reports
April 24th, 2024
Via: Forbes:
American cops are increasingly leaning on artificial intelligence to assist with policing, from AI models that analyze criminal patterns to drones that can fly themselves. Now, a GPT-4 powered AI can do one of their less appealing jobs: filing paperwork.
On Tuesday, Axon, the $22 billion police contractor best known for manufacturing the Taser electric weapon, launched a new tool called Draft One that it says can transcribe audio from body cameras and automatically turn it into a police report. Cops can then review the document to ensure accuracy, Axon CEO Rick Smith told Forbes. Axon claims one early tester of the tool, Fort Collins Colorado Police Department, has seen an 82% decrease in time spent writing reports. “If an officer spends half their day reporting, and we can cut that in half, we have an opportunity to potentially free up 25% of an officer’s time to be back out policing,” Smith said.
These reports, though, are often used as evidence in criminal trials, and critics are concerned that relying on AI could put people at risk by depending on language models that are known to “hallucinate,” or make things up, as well as display racial bias, either blatantly or unconsciously.
Ukraine Destroys Russian Oil Depots in Smolensk
April 24th, 2024This is 500km inside Russia. Does anyone know what sort of long range unmanned system Ukraine is using for these attacks?
I found this from 2023: Zelenskyy says Ukraine has developed a long-range weapon, a day after a strike deep inside Russia:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday his country has developed a weapon that hit a target 700 kilometers (400 miles) away, in an apparent reference to the previous day’s strike on an airport in western Russia.
Zelenskyy said on his Telegram channel the weapon was produced by Ukraine’s Ministry of Strategic Industries but gave no other details.
On Wednesday, a four-hour wave of drones that Moscow blamed on Ukraine hit an airport near Russia’s border with Estonia and Latvia, damaging four Il-76 military transport planes, according to local reports.
The airport is in Russia’s Pskov region, about 700 kilometers (400 miles) north of the Ukrainian border.
Is this really a homegrown Ukrainian system? I hope so, because if NATO systems are blowing up oil infrastructure deep inside Russia…
Not good.
Via: Politico:
Ukrainian drones destroyed two fuel storages in Russia’s Smolensk region in the early hours of Wednesday, a Ukrainian law enforcement official familiar with the matter told POLITICO.
The attacks came despite public warnings from US officials that Kyiv’s attacks on Russian oil refineries risk destabilizing global markets, with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin urging the country to focus on military targets.
“The SBU [Security Service of Ukraine] continues to effectively destroy the military infrastructure and logistics that provide fuel to the Russian army in Ukraine. These objects are and will remain our legitimate targets,” the Ukrainian official said, on condition of anonymity.
The strikes on the two fuel storage and pumping bases in the Smolensk region, some 500 km from the border with Ukraine. The attacks on the facilities, owned by Russian oil giant Rosneft, resulted in the loss of 26,000 cubic meters of Russian fuel, the official said.
Biden: “Four More Years. Pause.”
April 24th, 2024NOW – Biden: "Four more years. Pause." pic.twitter.com/PW1HBgaCVu
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) April 24, 2024
Best And Worst States To Be A Gun Owner
April 24th, 2024This is from ammo.com:
#1 New Hampshire
#2 West Virginia
#3 Arkansas
#4 Montana
#5 Mississippi
#6 Missouri
#7 Oklahoma
#8 Texas
#9 South Dakota
#10 North Dakota
#1 Hawaii
#2 California
#3 New York
#4 Illinois
#5 New Jersey
#6 Connecticut
#7 Maryland
#8 Massachusetts
#9 Rhode Island
#10 Michigan
Cities’ “Doom Loops”
April 24th, 2024Via: Of Two Minds:
The context of the Doom Loop is the process and politics of this decay are the second-order results of central bank easy money (free fiat). That led to financialization becoming the city’s core function and the subsequent loss of the city’s previous mission. The people living in cities just haven’t gotten the message yet.
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This is why those who understand these dynamics are getting out, even though the city was their home.
Nearsightedness Reaching Epidemic Levels
April 24th, 2024Via: Study Finds:
The two main factors identified as leading to increased myopia are increased reading and other activities that require focusing on an object close to one’s eyes and a reduction in time spent outdoors.
U.K.’s Only Munitions Factory Explodes, Just Days After U.S. Army Ammunition Factory Catches Fires in Scranton, PA
April 23rd, 2024Via: The Gateway Pundit:
The United Kingdom’s lone munitions filing factory exploded on Wednesday, just two days after a fire erupted at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
As The Gateway Pundit previously reported on April 15th, the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant (SCAAP), the United States’ primary producer of 155mm artillery shell bodies, caught fire.
Just two days later, on April 17th, a section of the United Kingdom’s lone munition factory exploded after a single shell went off inside the factory.
The explosion occurred at the BAE Systems munitions factory in Glascoed, Wales.
BAE Systems is the biggest defense contractor in Europe and the 7th largest in the world.
The cause of the explosion at the munition factory is currently being investigated.
How Proposed Legislation Might Pave the Way for Online Age Verification and Digital ID
April 23rd, 2024Via: Reclaim the Net:
Bipartisan legislative efforts are underway in the US House of Representatives to adopt new versions of two laws originally drawn up to deal with the safety of youth online.
But the fear is that the bills introduced now – H.R.7891, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), and H.R. 7890, the Children and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) 2.0 – will facilitate implementation of a future sweeping age verification and digital ID push.
These concerns are raised because KOSA is directing the secretary of commerce, together with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to conduct a study “evaluating the most technologically feasible methods and options for developing systems to verify age at the device or operating system level.”
At this stage of the proceedings, the study will not be used to mandate that platforms implement “an age gating or age verification functionality” – however, once the authorities have at their disposal the technical solutions to do it, some observers expect it could be used for a more aggressive legislative push at the federal level later on.
Robot Dog with Flamethrower Attached
April 23rd, 2024Comedy Gold: “Clearing snow and ice from your driveway”
Via: New York Post:
A company have unveiled a robot dog companion — with flamethrower attached.
Throwflame say the Thermonator is the first-ever flame-throwing quadruped robot dog.
…
The Ohio-based firm have announced the $9,420 bot is available for purchase by the general public and government agencies for the first time.
The Thermonator can be remotely operated by wifi or bluetooth to fire jets of fire up to 30ft.
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Throwflame suggest the robot can be used for wildfire control and prevention, entertainment shows or even clearing snow and ice from your driveway.
How Big Tech and Silicon Valley are Transforming the Military-Industrial Complex
April 23rd, 2024Via: Brown University:
Over the past decade, the center of America’s military-industrial complex has been slowly shifting from the Capital Beltway to Silicon Valley. Although much of the Pentagon’s $886 billion budget is spent on conventional weapon systems, and goes to well-established defense giants such as Lockheed Martin, RTX, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Boeing, and BAE Systems, a new political economy is emerging, driven by the imperatives of big tech companies, venture capital, and private equity firms. As Defense Department officials have sought to adopt AI-enabled systems and secure cloud computing services, they have awarded large multi-billion dollar contracts to Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Oracle. At the same time, the Pentagon has increased funding for smaller defense tech startups seeking to “disrupt” existing markets and “move fast and break things.” This report examines how the priorities of the tech industry, the peculiarities of venture capital (VC) funding structures, and Silicon Valley’s startup model are likely to lead to costly, high-tech products that are ineffective, unpredictable, and unsafe when deployed in real world conditions.
