Free Republic

The big names in artificial intelligence—leaders at OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others—still confidently predict that AI attaining human-level smarts is right around the corner. But the naysayers are growing in number and volume. AI, they say, just doesn’t think like us. The work of these researchers suggests there’s something fundamentally limiting about the underlying architecture of today’s AI models. Today’s AIs are able to simulate intelligence by, in essence, learning an enormous number of rules of thumb, which they selectively apply to all the information they encounter. This contrasts with the many ways that humans and even animals are able...

I confess to being a troglodyte or cave man or idiot or whatever metaphor you'd like to use but I'm very skeptical of AI...

Ambassador Charles W. "Chas" Freeman Jr.'s nomination as chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC) has quickly become the Obama administration's most controversial appointment to date. Mr. Freeman's two post-government activities involved being a de facto employee of Saudi Arabia. In exchange, he received lavish support for his Middle East Policy Center (MEPC) and lucrative contracts for the consulting firm he founded to guide international companies into finding royal family-connected partners within the Saudi elite. This raises the reasonable questions as to whether Ambassador Freeman acted as an unregistered Saudi agent. This role has created significant concern about his impartiality...

Newly declassified documents show informant Stefan Halper was motivated in part by "monetary compensation" and was paid nearly $1.2 million from FBI over three decades. ********************************************************************** Akey FBI informant in the widely-debunked Russia collusion case was paid nearly $1.2 million over three decades, was motivated in part by "monetary compensation," and continued snitching even after agents concluded he told them an inaccurate story about future Trump National Security Advisor Mike Flynn, newly declassified documents show. The nearly 700 pages of once-secret documents, obtained by Just the News, were recently turned over by FBI Director Kash Patel to House Judiciary Committee...

Monday, on CNN’s “The Lead,” Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, claimed European allies would hold back intelligence sharing because of the Trump administration’s “reckless” Signal chat among senior national security officials. Goldberg said, “Why would they just have one conversation on Signal? They were obviously feeling like this is a good place to to talk. It’s not. It’s an it’s an open access commercial app.” Host Jake Tapper said, “The Israelis are upset about this story because some of the classified information apparently came from them. Senator Warner said, what happens if the Israelis are this mad and the...

In a survey of 475 Artificial Intelligence (AI) researchers, 76% said that as currently practiced, AI research was “unlikely” or even “very unlikely” to achieve Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). AGI is the hypothetical milestone where machines have advanced enough in order to learn as well or better than can humans. Thus, cold water is being thrown on predictions made early in the AI boom that current AI models only need more data, hardware, energy and money to eventually reach the goal of surpassing human intelligence. But current state-of-the-art AI models aren’t making much progress. In fact, most researchers from the...

Washington -- As President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk work to overhaul the federal government, they are forcing out thousands of workers with insider knowledge and connections who now need a job. For Russia, China and other adversaries, the upheaval in Washington as Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency guts government agencies presents an unprecedented opportunity to recruit informants, national security andintelligence experts say. Every former federal worker with knowledge of or access to sensitive information or systems could be a target. When thousands of them leave their jobs at the same time, that creates a lot of targets, as...

The United States is tonight poised to lift its ban on military aid and intelligence support for Ukraine after a plea by Sir Keir Starmer. The Prime Minister spoke to US President Donald Trump for 20 minutes ahead of peace talks in Saudi Arabia to end the three-year conflict. Downing Street sources said the PM raised the US’s suspension of intelligence-sharing and military aid in their call today. UK officials have also been convincing Ukrainian officials of the need to meet US requirements for its military backing to resume. Following his discussion with President Trump, a spokesman for the Prime...

Berlin (dpa) - Russia intends to test Western unity, especially with regard to NATO's collective defence clause, according to Bruno Kahl, the head of Germany's BND intelligence service. In an interview with Deutsche Welle broadcaster, he said Russia was considering testing the reliability of NATO's Article 5, which states that an attack on one ally must be treated as an attack on all. .... "It is also possible that a concrete threat or blackmail attempt from Russia against Europeans could occur earlier than previously calculated," Kahl said.

Fears President Zelensky’s forces may be left unable to defend the country from Russian missile attacks without American input... America has severed intelligence-sharing with Kyiv in what could be a huge blow to Ukraine’s ability to fight back against the Russians and defend itself from incoming missiles. The UK has also reportedly been blocked from sharing any intelligence provided by the US with its Ukrainian allies. There are fears such a decision could make it difficult to use weapons supplied by Britain and Europe, in addition to hampering Ukrainian efforts to carry out strikes behind Russian lines with US weapons...

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told FOX News host Jesse Watters that over 100 people in the intelligence committee who were involved in the "secret sex chats" have been terminated and had their security clearances removed.JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS: Good to see you too. Not so good to see some of these transgender sex chats among the intel officials. What are we going to do about that? DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE TULSI GABBARD: Well, Jesse, what we're going to do has already been done. There are over a hundred people from across the intelligence community that contributed to and...

Judge Anthony J. Trenga, an appointee of George W. Bush, has temporarily blocked President Trump’s move to clean house in the intelligence community—specifically targeting agents involved in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives that have compromised national security in favor of leftist ideology. This ruling comes after a group of anonymous intelligence officers, who had been temporarily reassigned to roles implementing controversial Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) programs, have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the CIA. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of...

Opinion As AI continues to evolve, it is crucial to maintain clear boundaries between machine intelligence and human cognition In an era increasingly defined by artificial intelligence (AI), a curious psychological phenomenon has emerged -- humans are anthropomorphising AI tools. From virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa to large language models like ChatGPT, people often ascribe human-like emotions, intentions and even personalities to these systems. While this tendency may seem benign or even endearing, it has profound implications for society, ethics, and the way we perceive technology. By giving AI tools human-like names, voices and personalities, developers create a sense...

Senators are obviously trying to figure out how to sink Gabbard’s nomination before her scheduled hearing on Jan. 30.Senators are looking for excuses over reasons to refuse President Donald Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard — a combat veteran who previously served as a Democrat congresswoman from Hawaii and now faces character assassination.Gabbard, who is meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill Thursday afternoon, committed two crimes that now threaten to derail her confirmation: leaving the Democrat party and campaigning against the interventionist impulses of the deep state war machine.After Democrats fought to delay her way forward, Semafor...

Committee: Senate Intelligence (Select) Related Items: Data will display when it becomes available. Date: 01/20/2025 (4:45 PM Local Time) (Add to My Calendar) Location: 238 Capitol (Senate side), Washington, D.C. Website: https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/

Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail to make war against the deep state. Now it seems the first battle may take place on home ground: the White House. Congressional and intelligence sources tell Tablet that the candidate slotted in for the top intelligence spot on the National Security Council is ill suited to serve the president’s agenda. Adam Howard, reportedly the front-runner for the NSC’s senior director for intelligence, is currently staff director for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), chaired by Republican Congressman Mike Turner. According to several current congressional sources, multiple House members have raised...

He built the world’s fastest car. He sends starships to space faster – and cheaper – than NASA. But what the world’s richest man is planning at a remote facility in Memphis may be his greatest achievement to date. Recently, earth’s most powerful billionaire revealed a giant AI supercomputer 10 times more powerful than the technology used to create ChatGPT. Some are even calling it a “ChatGPT killer.” The crazy part? He has plans to double its power in a matter of weeks … and double it again by this summer. It’s the new pinnacle of AI technology. World-famous venture...

News that top US intelligence officials in 2021 suppressed research pointing to a Chinese lab leak as COVID’s origin raises two key questions: Exactly who, and why? That is, who made the call to keep Defense Department and FBI input out of the August 2021 briefing to President Biden on the issue, and out of the resulting official federal finding that COVID most likely arose naturally? And, indeed, to also block Sen. Charles Grassley’s requests for the Defense research? We know that Dr. Anthony Fauci and his public-health cronies had fought from the start to discredit all lab-leak talk. Their...

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton claimed Tuesday on CNN’s “Newsroom” that President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the intelligence community former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s (D-HI) views were “on a different planet.” Host Jim Acosta said, “We’ve seen Matt Gaetz withdraw his nomination for attorney general. Should Tulsi Gabbard do the same for Director of National Intelligence?” Bolton said, “Well look, she said many things publicly that I think disqualify her. These are not just because her views are extreme. They are on a different planet. they are the views of somebody who doesn’t understand anything about American interests. And...

The U.S. embassy in Ukraine cited “specific information of a potential significant air attack” on Wednesday morning, ordering its citizens in the country to shelter in place, as tensions between America and the Russian Federation rise ever higher. The American embassy compound in western Kyiv was closed on Wednesday morning, with a convoy of diplomatic vehicles apparently evacuating the buildings. A message posted by the embassy staff stated it had received “specific information of a potential significant air attack” that was thought to be planned for Wednesday. The closure was out of an “abundance of caution”, they said, but nevertheless...