Free Republic

A homeowner in Richmond said almost a dozen people keep knocking on his door at all hours of the day and night, claiming he stole their lost items because of what he said is a mistake on the "Find My iPhone" app. Scott Schuster, who has lived in his home since 2018, said this has been going on every few months over the last few years. He sent ABC13 doorbell footage of the incidents. "I lost my cell phone, and I clicked Find My iPhone, and it says it was at this address," one person is heard saying. Most of...

China views public relations as an asymmetric weapon it can use to put other nations’ governments into conflict with their respective militaries. Its strategy is to have the Ministry of Foreign Affairs extend a generous economic carrot of trade agreements and infrastructure pledges, while the PLA wields an ever-present, ever-more-capable military stick. In addition, China has established itself as the indispensable economic heavyweight in terms of its ability to rapidly and efficiently fund infrastructure and development projects around the world, seemingly with few strings attached. Nations and their respective populations are told they can share in the economic growth that...

Do you remember Furbies? They were the hottest, creepiest toy of 1998. People got in literal fist fights over them in retailers across the United States. In some ways, the impish robots were an early version of AI. Their programming allowed them to learn some basic patterns of their owners, and their sensors allowed them to develop new behaviors over time, and even pick up English phrases like a parrot. The early internet was full of jokes about Furbies being our new robot overlords. Many of the Furbies were destroyed in Youtube videos to stop their imminent takeover. Now that...

Cookies. Fingerprinting. Tracking. Surveillance. Spyware. Geostalking. It's a rough neighborhood out there for denizens of the web. Whether you want to anonymously provide whistle-blowing details on a corrupt business operation or you just want to check today's weather, simply logging on is fraught with threats to your privacy. This week, two major players in the field of online privacy joined forces to release a super-private browser that they say will "make life harder for those who collect data from you." Mullvad VPN, a highly respected service based in Sweden, where providers are legally protected from being forced to collect traffic-related...

A Russian speeder races at top speed in a car, which appears to be a Subaru Impreza, weaving in and out of traffic. When entering the tunnel he fails to spot the stationary traffic ahead and plows right through it. All caught on Dash cam. Use this video as an educational and learning tool. Obey speed limits and always use your mirrors and signals. Drive safely to ensure the safety of yourself and all others. The accident in this video is completely non-fatal.

The historic investment will “leverage the trillions of machine-driven computations needed to help us finally figure out how to create a vegan sandwich for Starbucks.” Seattle-based, global coffee giant Starbucks announced that it is investing $1 billion into AI technology to help it develop a vegan breakfast sandwich. The decision comes after years of struggling to come up with an entirely plant-based version of its popular breakfast sandwiches. Starbucks announced its partnership with San Francisco-based artificial intelligence research laboratory SnackGPT to “leverage the trillions of machine-driven computations needed to help us finally figure out how to create a vegan...

According to a series of partially declassified documents, a highly classified AI system is capable of "seeing" and "detecting" UFOs. Unlike any other AIs in existence, Sentient differs in the degree of independence. Usually, the algorithm works with the loaded information, but Sentient can even direct satellites to obtain images of the objects it needs. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has fundamentally transformed the way we analyze data and conduct scientific research across various fields, including astronomy, engineering, and archaeology. With the rapid evolution of AI systems, we have now reached a point where secretive AI programs are capable of “seeing” and...

witter's website was inaccessible for many users on Monday while others reported issues seeing photos and clicking through links in the app, marking one of the most wide-ranging service disruptions to date under new owner Elon Musk. Some users who attempted to load Twitter.com or TweetDeck, a service that allows users to organize their Twitter feed into lists, were met with an error message: "your current API plan does not include access to this endpoint." Other users were able to access the site (although it appeared to load slowly), but they were met with the same error message when clicking...

Supporters of expanding the federal police state have found a new boogeyman to scare the people into surrendering their liberty: TikTok. TikTok is a social media platform that allows users to upload their own videos. It is used by tens of millions of Americans and is one of the most popular websites in the world. TikTok’s popularity and the fact that is owned by a Beijing-based company — ByteDance — has led to the spread of a claim that the site is controlled by the Chinese government. Thus the claim the Chinese government is using TikTok to collect data on...

The reason I'm suggesting this is because with AI, they can probably check all your accounts in like thirty seconds, so you can't nothing to chance if there is a chance that you have anything Big Socialists will object to which could cost your job. Do it when you don't have to and at a leisurely rate, then to have to try and get it done when you're under the gun. The reason I bring this up is because my employer just asked me for my social media and my job is dependent upon giving it to him.

As you know, there's been a mass migration of Californians to Texas over the past couple of years, but there's something these Californians need to keep in mind before moving to the Lone Star state. Texas ain't California! Let's look at just one example: car theft is such a common occurrence in California that people in San Francisco just leave their cars open, so the thieves won't damage the vehicles while robbing them. "Insurance will take care of it," they think. And all I can say to that is "thanks for helping raise all our insurance rates, 30% over the...

Connecticut police have charged two people with cutting more than 2,000 fiber optic cables, leaving over 40,000 homes and businesses without internet service in the southwestern part of the state. Norwalk police said they arrested Asheville, North Carolina, residents Jillian Persons and Austin Geddings on Saturday during a surveillance operation. Both were charged with larceny and criminal mischief crimes, as well as interfering with police. Persons also was accused of giving a false statement to police.

Jennifer Bilek is an investigative journalist, a feminist and a leading voice really looking behind the curtain at who is pushing this TRANS AGENDA! In this interview, we discuss one of the most controversial subjects of our time: the massive effort to promote transgenderism and to push "gender-affirming care" on children. Everyone has heard of the documentary "What is a Woman" but that film didn't dare ask: "Who is behind this?"

NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham has doubled-down on his decision to tweet about a gay MP, claiming his extreme opinions match those of the masses. Mr Latham wrote the tweets on Thursday in response to comments from openly gay MP Alex Greenwich blasting him for his involvement in an event where LGBTQIA+ protesters were targeted. 'Mark Latham is a disgusting human being and people who are considering voting for One Nation need to realise they are voting for an extremely hateful and dangerous individual who risks causing a great deal of damage to our state,' Mr Greenwich said last...

It was just the latest in a series of harrowing attacks that have become all too sickeningly familiar to millions of Americans: a young outcast wandering school corridors armed with assault-style rifles, innocent children and teachers shot dead in their classrooms, bodycams of brave police taking down the deranged threat in a hail of gunfire. In Nashville last week, surveillance video of 28-year-old Audrey Hale showed her blasting her way through the school's glass doors. In under 10 minutes, she had killed the school principal, custodian, a beloved substitute teacher, and three 9-year-old children. Evelyn Dieckhaus, a blond-haired third grader,...

See how well ChatGPT handled the remainder of the Monty Python Challenge

On Friday, Twitter released the recommendation algorithm portion of its code by publishing it on GitHub, where developers post open source software data. Developer Steven Tey dug into the code and found that there is a mechanism through which the US government can "intervene" with the code. "When needed, the government can intervene with the Twitter algorithm," Tey wrote. "In fact, @TwitterEng (Twitter Engineering) even has a class for it – 'GovernmentRequested.'" Tey linked directly to the code on GitHub. On March 17, Musk announced he was going to make the algorithm open source later in the month and said,...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is invading every aspect of our lives. So much is ruled by algorithms you could make the case that the robot uprising has already occurred and we lost, and lost badly. Robots decide what song plays next, robots recommend TV shows, and robots are even getting pretty good at writing and creating music. Most of us are fine with that. AI tends to automate tasks we want automated, like the aforementioned streaming recommendations, and on some level we’re all aware of these bots in our lives, so our interactions with them are more or less voluntary. But...

A security researcher has claimed that he was able to hack into Microsoft’s Bing search engine in order to change the top results to whatever he chose. Hillai Ben-Sasson, who works as a researcher at cloud security firm Wiz, was also able to take over millions of Microsoft Office 365 accounts, which he claimed gave him access to users’ Outlook emails, calendars and MS Teams messages. “I hacked into a Bing CMS that allowed me to alter search results and take over millions of Office 365 accounts,” Mr Ben-Sasson wrote. His Wiz research team spotted the vulnerability within Microsoft’s cloud...

The Workspaces overview on the Pop!_OS Linux desktop gives you a good idea of how fantastic the Linux workflow can be.Image: Jack WallenLinux might not be on the mind of every consumer that uses a PC, but it's certainly growing in popularity. The reason for this growth has to do with several factors, including how deeply embedded Linux is within the enterprise business space, how the web browser has become the primary tool for most users, the incredible evolution of Linux on the desktop, the cost-effectiveness of Linux (it's completely free), and how the open-source operating system can save you...