Does anyone find it curious that the White House is meeting with tech companies to discuss the dangers of Artificial Intelligence (AI) while implementing the use of AI in our defense department, the IRS and other agencies? If AI is a potentially dangerous mechanism that requires regulation and policing because it can be so easily exploited, why is it being widely accepted for use in our government? Did we not learn anything from the Patriot Act? Fear is a great motivator and an even better way to manipulate the populace into compliance, acceptance and ultimately reliance. With AI being designated the new boogeyman that must be controlled, I am mystified by the duality of its applications.
Just recently there have been “closed door” senate meetings with the same tech companies that were found to have been victimized by the coercive tactics of the Biden administration aka our government. The question to me is, why are these companies asking for more regulation after it was just discovered that they were experiencing the same kind of coercion that the entirety of the American population was? What is their gain? Why were the meetings not public? I will be awaiting my “a-ha” moment when whatever quid pro quo was agreed on becomes apparent.
I am not trusting of Elon Musk, and what I perceive as his faux freedom fighter persona but this is what he said after one of the meetings, “The consequences of AI going wrong are severe so we have to be proactive rather than reactive,” ….. “The question is really one of civilizational risk. It’s not like … one group of humans versus another. It’s like, hey, this is something that’s potentially risky for all humans everywhere,” he said.” I think he said the quiet part out loud. This actually is a group of humans versus another. In this debate “artificial” is a misnomer to attempt for it to be an abstract force when all intelligence in technology is a derivative of human instruction, in my opinion. So if it is so dangerous, let’s just not have it then. Or maybe don’t let the government have it? I don’t know.
Is it so dangerous because it can be so easily manipulated? I would think so, and it appears that the White House agrees with my assumption. Thank goodness governments are always looking out for their citizens, amirite?
I think products should be safe too, but the same governments that just forced billions to take an experimental drug because no one regulates the regulators should maybe sit this one out. But nay, the Pentagon and the IRS have launched data based AI systems to “crack down” on American citizens as far as I can tell.
Let’s look at these initiatives; first the Pentagon. “An artificial intelligence-powered airspace monitoring system is set to be installed to enhance protection of the nation’s capital with the potential to scale across other Defense Department and U.S. government installations and systems.” I see potential exploitation of the surveillance state being run by the military with the potential to be used against the citizens versus the premise of protecting citizens. It wasn’t all that long ago that LaLoyd was issuing a stand down to counter “extremism” in the ranks of the military, ya know calling military members extremist is so en vogue these days.
The stand down was a scare tactic and a subtle warning to all military members (and even veterans) to get in line, tow the line or the full weight of the US military and government might just come knock on your door for simply being at the wrong place at the wrong time a la January 6. Unfortunately for the top brass the stand down report admitted extremism in the military was rare, but the point wasn’t to prove it wasn’t. Not really.
So as the State Department hands out monetary incentives to report your neighbors as extremist and as the DoD attempts to smear certain demographics of soldiers as extremist, the expanded surveillance using AI is ripe for misuse and nefarious outcomes. Painting patriots as extremist, conspiracy theorist, Nazis etc etc can have incredible consequences for both our personal sovereignty and freedom when not in tacit agreement with the acts of our government.
The DoD has other AI initiatives that Kathleen Hicks babbled on about saying, “Data enables the creation of algorithmic models, and with the right data we are able to take concepts and ideas and turn them into reality,” she said. “We will ensure that DoD data is visible, accessible, understandable, linked, trustworthy, interoperable and secure.” Sure, the DoD is nothing is not transparent with their data collection.
The IRS tax enforcement might be the more obvious act of using AI as a tool for extreme overreach. I will keep this one brief. The IRS also thinks data collection and AI is just the best, and remember when they passed that law that everyone needed to report anything they receive over $600? Then the IRS delayed implementation for whatever reason but only for one year so it’s still a thing.
Anyway, that isn’t billionaires and millionaires getting their Etsy payments through Venmo and Cash App, its regular ass people and the IRS can and will monitor your bank account. You’re probably not that smart if you think hiring 87,000 new agents and 20,000 just for tax enforcement was for the 1,600 identified millionaires that owe the IRS money. That data collection is your privacy and it isn’t for your safety.
My only conclusion when it comes to our governments concerns about AI, is not that they want their citizens privacy and safety to be secured, but rather they want to use the same tech companies they used to do their dirty work during round one to also do their dirty work for round two. The road to hell is paved with bad intentions and bad actors.