New AI Fake Text Generator May Be Too Dangerous To Release
February 14th, 2019In other news: AI Generates Faces of People Who Don’t Exist
Via: Guardian:
The creators of a revolutionary AI system that can write news stories and works of fiction – dubbed “deepfakes for text” – have taken the unusual step of not releasing their research publicly, for fear of potential misuse.
OpenAI, an nonprofit research company backed by Elon Musk, says its new AI model, called GPT2 is so good and the risk of malicious use so high that it is breaking from its normal practice of releasing the full research to the public in order to allow more time to discuss the ramifications of the technological breakthrough.
At its core, GPT2 is a text generator. The AI system is fed text, anything from a few words to a whole page, and asked to write the next few sentences based on its predictions of what should come next. The system is pushing the boundaries of what was thought possible, both in terms of the quality of the output, and the wide variety of potential uses.
Trump to Sign Border Security Bill, Declare National Emergency for Wall Funds
February 14th, 2019Pelosi: Next President Could Declare National Emergency on Guns
Via: New York Post:
The White House announced Thursday that President Trump would sign the bipartisan border security bill — and then declare a national emergency to find the money for his long-promised border wall that Congress wouldn’t give him.
“President Trump will sign the government funding bill, and as he has stated before, he will also take other executive action — including a national emergency — to ensure we stop the national security and humanitarian crisis at the border,” spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
A short time later, the Senate passed and the House was poised to follow.
Morgan Stanley: An Electric Pickup from Tesla or Rivian Is a ‘Serious Problem’ for Detroit
February 14th, 2019Via: CNBC:
The auto industry’s electric vehicle revolution has only just begun, Morgan Stanley told investors in a note on Thursday, and the highly profitable pickup truck market is next.
“An electric pickup truck successfully launched by a new player (i.e. Rivian or Tesla) could be a serious problem for the Detroit based [traditional automakers],” Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said in a note to investors. Jonas is widely known on Wall Street for being one of the first to recognize the significance of Tesla and electric vehicles to the auto industry.
Jonas called reports that General Motors and Amazon are in talks to invest in Rivian, if true, “the biggest news in US autos so far this year.” Without such investments, he said, GM and Ford are losing the opportunity for a “first mover advantage” in producing all electric pickup trucks. Jonas also says Rivian has a competitive advantage from building its truck from the ground up, with little prior conception of an internal combustion engine truck to cloud its view.
Retail Sales Drop the Most Since September 2009
February 14th, 2019Via: Reuters:
U.S. retail sales recorded their biggest drop in more than nine years in December as receipts fell across the board, suggesting a sharp slowdown in economic activity at the end of 2018.
The Commerce Department said on Thursday retail sales tumbled 1.2 percent, the largest decline since September 2009 when the economy was emerging from recession.
Meet the Amateur Astronomers Hunting for Spy Satellites
February 14th, 2019Via: Supercluster:
For most people, the ability to see a spy instrument from thousands of miles away but never know its purpose would be maddening.
Yet for Molczan, the mystery is part of the thrill.
Lawyer In Charge of Apple’s Insider-Trading Policy Accused of Insider Trading
February 13th, 2019Via: Bloomberg:
At Apple Inc., former top lawyer Gene Daniel Levoff was responsible for making sure employees didn’t violate insider-trading laws. It turns out he was the one who was buying and selling shares illegally, according to U.S. authorities.
Why Can’t a Bot Tick the “I’m Not a Robot” Box?
February 13th, 2019I figured that the widget was linked to Google’s dossiers on all of us, but I had no idea about the rest of it. And researchers still don’t know everything Google is doing here.
Via: Quora:
How complicated can one little checkbox be?
…
Sweet dreams, human.
Major Western Cities Are Becoming Uninhabitable Hellholes
February 13th, 2019Via: End of the American Dream:
Once upon a time, our beautiful western cities were the envy of the rest of the world, but now they serve as shining examples of America’s accelerating decline. The worst parts of our major western cities literally look like post-apocalyptic wastelands, and the hordes of zombified homeless people that live in those areas are too drugged-out to care. The ironic thing is that these cities are not poor. In fact, San Francisco and Seattle are among the wealthiest cities in the entire nation. So if things are falling apart this dramatically now, how bad will things get when economic conditions really start to deteriorate?
Texas Crude Oil Production Breaks 1970s Record
February 13th, 2019Via: Houston Chronicle:
Texas oil wells produced more than 1.54 billion barrels of crude in 2018, beating the previous record of 1.28 billion barrels set in 1973, TIPRO reported in its annual “State of Energy Report” early Monday morning.
Cities Cannot Stop 5G Implementation [???]
February 13th, 2019Maybe they need to talk to the people in Marin County to see how it’s done:
California: Three City Councils in Marin County Vote to Stop Installing Harmful 5G Towers
Via: Richard Dolan:
