Rep. Jayapal Gaslights After Special Counsel Hur Confirms He ‘Did Not Exonerate’ Biden In Classified Docs Report
Democrat Rep. Pramila Jayapal (Wash.) gaslighted the American public during Congressional testimony of Special Counsel Robert Hur on Tuesday, insisting that he “exonerated” Joe Biden in his report detailing the former vice president’s retention of classified materials.
During Hur’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Jayapal proclaimed that Hur’s report released last month “exonerated” Biden.
Hur pushed back however, claiming he did not, in fact, exonerate Biden at all, prompting Jayapal to cut him off and again assert he did exonerate Biden.
“I need to go back and make sure that I take note of the word that you used, ‘exoneration’, that is not a word that was in the report–” Hur began.
Rep. Jayapal: “You exonerated [Biden]”
Hur: “I did not exonerate him”
Rep. Jayapal: ““Sir, it’s my time. Thank you.” pic.twitter.com/q6w5Cq2vnG— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 12, 2024
“I’m gonna continue with my questions,” Jayapal interrupted before asserting, “You exonerated him.”
Hur responded: “I did not exonerate him…”
“Mr. Hur, it’s my time!” Jayapal snapped. She then resumed trying to argue that Biden is cleared of any wrongdoing.
But the facts, as Hur explained, found that Biden was guilty of wrongdoing, in that he “willfully retained” classified materials after serving as vice president.
“We identified evidence that the President willfully retained classified materials after the end of his vice presidency, when he was a private citizen,” Hur said during the hearing.
Special counsel Robert Hur: “My team and I conducted a thorough, independent investigation. We identified evidence that the president willfully retained classified materials after the end of his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.” pic.twitter.com/ms018Ar2xS
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) March 12, 2024
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) sought clarification, asking Hur if Biden lied when he told the American people that he did not share classified materials with a ghostwriter.
“That is inconsistent with the findings based on the evidence in my report,” Hur replied.
“So it’s a lie, is what regular people would say. Is that right?” Gaetz asked.
“Yeah,” Hur said with a chuckle.
Special Counsel Robert Hur admits Biden was, in fact, LYING when he insisted he did not share classified information with his ghostwriter pic.twitter.com/K5qctTB4K4
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 12, 2024
To make matters worse for Biden, Hur confirmed that the ghostwriter who received classified materials from Biden was not authorized to receive them.
Former Special Counsel Robert Hur: “We have an audio recording capturing a statement from Mr. Biden saying to his ghostwriter in February 2017: ‘I just found all the classified stuff downstairs’…
— MAGA War Room (@MAGAIncWarRoom) March 12, 2024
…Mr. Zwonitzer was not authorized to receive classified information.” pic.twitter.com/JSEdakIYh6
In sum, Hur’s report concluded that Biden willfully retained classified materials after serving as vice president and shared them with unauthorized individuals, but ultimately did not recommend charges, citing Biden as “elderly” and “forgetful” with “diminished faculties” which he claimed would garner sympathy from a jury.
Watch the full House Judiciary Committee hearing:
The State of Our Nation No One’s Talking About: Tyranny Is Rising as Freedom Falls
“Never has our future been more unpredictable, never have we depended so much on political forces that cannot be trusted to follow the rules of common sense and self-interest—forces that look like sheer insanity, if judged by the standards of other centuries.”—Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
Day by day, tyranny is rising as freedom falls.
The U.S. military is being used to patrol subway stations and police the U.S.-Mexico border, supposedly in the name of national security.
The financial sector is being used to carry out broad surveillance of Americans’ private financial data, while the entertainment sector is being tapped to inform on video game enthusiasts with a penchant for violent, potentially extremist content, all in an alleged effort to uncover individuals subscribing to anti-government sentiments
Public and private venues are being equipped with sophisticated surveillance technologies, including biometric and facial recognition software, to track Americans wherever they go and whatever they do. Space satellites with powerful overhead surveillance cameras will render privacy null and void.
This is the state of our nation that no is talking about—not the politicians, not the courts, and not Congress: the government’s power grabs are growing bolder, while the rights of the citizenry continue to be trampled underfoot.
Hitler is hiding in the shadows, while the citizenry—the only ones powerful enough to stem the authoritarian tide that threatens to lay siege to our constitutional republic—remain easily distracted and conveniently diverted by political theatrics and news cycles that change every few days.
This sorry truth has persisted no matter which party has controlled Congress or the White House.
These are dangerous times.
Yet while the presidential candidates talk at length about the dangers posed by the opposition party, the U.S. government still poses the gravest threat to our freedoms and way of life.
Police shootings of unarmed individuals, invasive surveillance, roadside blood draws, roadside strip searches, SWAT team raids gone awry, the military industrial complex’s costly wars, pork barrel spending, pre-crime laws, civil asset forfeiture, fusion centers, militarization, armed drones, smart policing carried out by AI robots, courts that march in lockstep with the police state, schools that function as indoctrination centers, bureaucrats that keep the Deep State in power: these are just a few of the ways in which the police state continues to flex its muscles in a show of force intended to intimidate anyone still clinging to the antiquated notion that the government answers to “we the people.”
Consider for yourself the state of our nation:
Americans have little protection against police abuse. The police and other government agents have been generally empowered to probe, poke, pinch, taser, search, seize, strip and generally manhandle anyone they see fit in almost any circumstance, all with the general blessing of the courts. It is no longer unusual to hear about incidents in which police shoot unarmed individuals first and ask questions later. What is increasingly common, however, is the news that the officers involved in these incidents get off with little more than a slap on the hands.
Americans are little more than pocketbooks to fund the police state. If there is any absolute maxim by which the federal government seems to operate, it is that the American taxpayer always gets ripped off. This is true, whether you’re talking about taxpayers being forced to fund high-priced weaponry that will be used against us, endless wars that do little for our safety or our freedoms, or bloated government agencies with their secret budgets, covert agendas and clandestine activities.
Americans are no longer innocent until proven guilty. We once operated under the assumption that you were innocent until proven guilty. Due in large part to rapid advances in technology and a heightened surveillance culture, the burden of proof has been shifted so that the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty has been usurped by a new norm in which all citizens are suspects. Indeed, the government—in cahoots with the corporate state—has erected the ultimate suspect society. In such an environment, we are all potentially guilty of some wrongdoing or other.
Americans no longer have a right to self-defense. While the courts continue to disagree over the exact nature of the rights protected by the Second Amendment, the government itself has made its position extremely clear. When it comes to gun rights in particular, and the rights of the citizenry overall, the U.S. government has adopted a “do what I say, not what I do” mindset. Nowhere is this double standard more evident than in the government’s attempts to arm itself to the teeth, all the while viewing as suspect anyone who dares to legally own a gun, let alone use one in self-defense. Indeed, while it still technically remains legal to own a firearm in America, possessing one can now get you pulled over, searched, arrested, subjected to all manner of surveillance, treated as a suspect without ever having committed a crime, shot at, and killed.
Americans no longer have a right to private property. If government agents can invade your home, break down your doors, kill your dog, damage your furnishings and terrorize your family, your property is no longer private and secure—it belongs to the government. Likewise, if government officials can fine and arrest you for growing vegetables in your front yard, praying with friends in your living room, installing solar panels on your roof, and raising chickens in your backyard, you’re no longer the owner of your property.
Americans no longer have a say about what their children are exposed to in school. Incredibly, the government continues to insist that parents essentially forfeit their rights when they send their children to a public school. This growing tension over whether young people, especially those in the public schools, are essentially wards of the state, to do with as government officials deem appropriate, in defiance of the children’s constitutional rights and those of their parents, is at the heart of almost every debate over educational programming, school discipline, and the extent to which parents have any say over their children’s wellbeing in and out of school.
Americans are powerless in the face of militarized police forces. With local police agencies acquiring military-grade weaponry, training and equipment better suited for the battlefield, Americans are finding their once-peaceful communities transformed into military outposts patrolled by a standing military army.
Americans no longer have a right to bodily integrity. The debate over bodily integrity covers broad territory, ranging from abortion and euthanasia to forced blood draws, biometric surveillance and basic healthcare. Forced vaccinations, forced cavity searches, forced colonoscopies, forced blood draws, forced breath-alcohol tests, forced DNA extractions, forced eye scans, forced inclusion in biometric databases: these are just a few ways in which Americans continue to be reminded that we have no control over what happens to our bodies during an encounter with government officials.
Americans no longer have a right to the expectation of privacy. Despite the staggering number of revelations about government spying on Americans’ phone calls, Facebook posts, Twitter tweets, Google searches, emails, bookstore and grocery purchases, bank statements, commuter toll records, etc., Congress, the president and the courts have done little to nothing to counteract these abuses. Instead, they seem determined to accustom us to life in this electronic concentration camp.
Americans no longer have a representative government. We have moved beyond the era of representative government and entered the age of authoritarianism, where all citizens are suspects, security trumps freedom, and so-called elected officials represent the interests of the corporate power elite. This topsy-turvy travesty of law and government has become America’s new normal.
Americans can no longer rely on the courts to mete out justice. The U.S. Supreme Court was intended to be an institution established to intervene and protect the people against the government and its agents when they overstep their bounds. Yet through their deference to police power, preference for security over freedom, and evisceration of our most basic rights for the sake of order and expediency, the justices of the Supreme Court have become the architects of the American police state in which we now live, while the lower courts have appointed themselves courts of order, concerned primarily with advancing the government’s agenda, no matter how unjust or illegal.
I haven’t even touched on the corporate state, the military industrial complex, SWAT team raids, invasive surveillance technology, zero tolerance policies in the schools, overcriminalization, or privatized prisons, to name just a few, but what I have touched on should be enough to show that the landscape of our freedoms has already changed dramatically from what it once was and will no doubt continue to deteriorate unless Americans can find a way to wrest back control of their government and reclaim their freedoms.
This steady slide towards tyranny, meted out by militarized local and federal police and legalistic bureaucrats, has been carried forward by each successive president over the past seventy-plus years regardless of their political affiliation.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
We are walking a dangerous path right now.
Having allowed the government to expand and exceed our reach, we find ourselves on the losing end of a tug-of-war over control of our country and our lives. And for as long as we let them, government officials will continue to trample on our rights, always justifying their actions as being for the good of the people.
Yet the government can only go as far as “we the people” allow. Therein lies the problem.
The pickle we find ourselves in speaks volumes about the nature of the government beast we have been saddled with and how it views the rights and sovereignty of “we the people.”
Now you don’t hear a lot about sovereignty anymore. Sovereignty is a dusty, antiquated term that harkens back to an age when kings and emperors ruled with absolute power over a populace that had no rights. Americans turned the idea of sovereignty on its head when they declared their independence from Great Britain and rejected the absolute authority of King George III. In doing so, Americans claimed for themselves the right to self-government and established themselves as the ultimate authority and power.
In other words, in America, “we the people”— sovereign citizens—call the shots.
So when the government acts, it is supposed to do so at our bidding and on our behalf, because we are the rulers.
That’s not exactly how it turned out, though, is it?
In the 200-plus years since we boldly embarked on this experiment in self-government, we have been steadily losing ground to the government’s brazen power grabs, foisted upon us in the so-called name of national security.
We have relinquished control over the most intimate aspects of our lives to government officials who, while they may occupy seats of authority, are neither wiser, smarter, more in tune with our needs, more knowledgeable about our problems, nor more aware of what is really in our best interests.
The government has knocked us off our rightful throne. It has usurped our rightful authority. It has staged the ultimate coup. Its agents no longer even pretend that they answer to “we the people.”
Worst of all, “we the people” have become desensitized to this constant undermining of our freedoms.
How do we reconcile the Founders’ vision of the government as an entity whose only purpose is to serve the people with the police state’s insistence that the government is the supreme authority, that its power trumps that of the people themselves, and that it may exercise that power in any way it sees fit (that includes government agents crashing through doors, mass arrests, ethnic cleansing, racial profiling, indefinite detentions without due process, and internment camps)?
They cannot be reconciled. They are polar opposites.
We are fast approaching a moment of reckoning where we will be forced to choose between the vision of what America was intended to be (a model for self-governance where power is vested in the people) and the reality of what it has become (a police state where power is vested in the government).
We are repeating the mistakes of history—namely, allowing a totalitarian state to reign over us.
Former concentration camp inmate Hannah Arendt warned against this when she wrote:
“No matter what the specifically national tradition or the particular spiritual source of its ideology, totalitarian government always transformed classes into masses, supplanted the party system, not by one-party dictatorships, but by mass movement, shifted the center of power from the army to the police, and established a foreign policy openly directed toward world domination.”
So where does that leave us?
Aldous Huxley predicted that eventually the government would find a way of “making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution.”
The answer? Get un-brainwashed, as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries,
Stop allowing yourself to be distracted and diverted.
Learn your rights.
Stand up for the founding principles.
Make your voice and your vote count for more than just political posturing.
Never cease to vociferously protest the erosion of your freedoms at the local and national level.
Most of all, do these things today.
BREAKING: Dan Bongino Breaks Spy Story Of The Century, Alex Jones Sends Emergency Message
Senator Says Dems Using Illegals To Create Extra Congressional Districts & Inflate Blue State Electoral Votes
GOP Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty joined Fox News host Maria Bartiromo this week to warn the American people about Democrats using illegal immigration to gain more political power by giving blue states more electoral votes.
Hagerty was discussing legislation he recently proposed to address the issue that was defeated in the Senate after every Democrat voted against the bill last week.
The proposed bill would have simply excluded illegal immigrants from being counted in the U.S. Census since it’s used to tally the number of House seats each state receives and how many Electoral College votes they get in presidential elections.
Bill Hagerty:
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) March 11, 2024
“Democrats want these illegal migrants in here to create more electoral power. Since Joe Biden came into office, the estimates are as high as 10 million people that have come in here — that would be 13 extra congressional districts.” pic.twitter.com/WQsHO5rraS
The move would favor Democrats as migrants typically vote for the party that welcomed them into the country and provided them millions of dollars in government handouts.
Also, sanctuary cities in blue states filling up with illegals would inflate their House seats and Electoral votes.
“I think this proves the motive of the crime at our border,” Hagerty told Bartiromo. “They want these illegal migrants in here to create more electoral power for them in their blue states. They’re basically creating sanctuary cities to be a magnet so these people will disproportionately flow to these blue states. They’re shipping them there as rapidly as they can.”
He continued, “Since Joe Biden came into office, the estimates are as high as ten million people that have come in here. That would be thirteen extra congressional districts if you allocated them the right way. This is a tremendous amount of power that the Democrats are bringing in. They’re giving their voters, the blue state voters, disproportionately more power than they are giving my voters in Tennessee.”
X owner Elon Musk commented on the segment, writing, “More Presidential and House of Representatives electoral votes will be assigned to the new illegals Biden has let in than the population of 40 US states. Let that sink in.”
More Presidential and House of Representatives electoral votes will be assigned to the new illegals Biden has let in than the population of 40 US states.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 11, 2024
Let that sink in. https://t.co/V8MhMFOzNS
Musk had previously brought up the topic, writing, “Since illegals are mostly in Democrat states, both the House and the Presidential vote are shifted ~5% to the left, which is enough to change the entire balance of power! This is a major reason why the Biden administration is ushering in record levels of illegals and doing so few deportations.”
Most Americans do not know that the US census currently counts, for purposes of voting power, all people in a district, regardless of citizenship!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 9, 2024
Senate Democrats just voted unanimously to defeat an amendment that would have stopped counting illegals for congressional seat… https://t.co/5gXt4Z1wzP
“This should be a crime,” wrote GOP Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
This should be a crime. https://t.co/p8i1WOnBmR
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) March 12, 2024
Well, it is already a crime to allow and facilitate the hordes of illegals entering the country so the laws are on the books if law enforcement would take action.
In Discussion with Rurik Skywalker
Making Sense of Multipolarity
The “Dork” Enlightenment and Acceleration Agenda
Don’t forget to check out my latest Substack
I am delighted to present two recent conversations I had with the pseudonymous Rurik Skywalker (formerly Rolo Slavsky) on his excellent and always thought provoking Slavland Chronicles Substack. If you are are not familiar with Rurik’s work—and why not?—he provides invaluable insights into all thing Russian, and much more, from the perspective of a Russian patriot.
Always challenging, often provocative and utterly fascinating, it is safe to say that we do not agree on a number of issues. And that is partly why I hope we will do more of these interviews. As Rurik eruditely explains, we need some “peasant solidarity” if we are going to prevail over corporate and oligarch tyranny. We must put aside our divisions, respect our differences and find common ground.
Rurik and I have discovered we share more common ground than we hold opposing views.
I am lucky to have the opportunity to talk with knowledgeable people and I always learn a lot from them. The discussions with Rurik have been a great experience and I hope to do more interviews with him in the future.
So prepare to be challenged, perhaps even offended, and please dive into these conversations.
Welcome to The Slavland Stalker
The post In Discussion with Rurik Skywalker appeared first on Iain Davis.
Indoor Dining Suspended at Taco Bell Restaurants In Oakland Amid Crime Wave
Taco Bell restaurants in Oakland have suspended indoor dining access and will serve customers only at drive-thru windows amid a crime wave sweeping the Bay Area, according to reports.
The popular Mexican-style fast food chain is the latest business to radically alter operations in the California city, which has been descending into lawlessness for some time, as InfoWars has documented.
Additionally, the same locations have gone cashless and will only accept electronic payments, according to signage photographed by local residents.
Taco Bell has officially closed ALL dining in Oakland indefinitely due to a series of robberies & crime surge
— BAY AREA STATE OF MIND (@YayAreaNews) March 12, 2024
All locations in Oakland will now be 100% cashless and drive-thru only pic.twitter.com/uFNTtVBB6S
The changes apply to at least four out of five Taco Bell franchises in the city, which are owned and operated by Diversified Restaurant Group.
“Providing a safe environment for team members and customers is the priority at Taco Bell restaurants. The franchise owner and operator has informed us that they are consistently evaluating and working to ensure a safe environment by implementing procedures, such as closing dining rooms, and hiring security guards, and they have taken extra measures to meet with local law enforcement,” Taco Bell Corp. told ABC7 News in a statement.
NEW: Taco Bell locations in Oakland shut down indoor dining and go cashless due to lawlessness in California
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 12, 2024
One city council member suggests bringing in the National Guard to safeguard businesses pic.twitter.com/M94ZfuTFtT
In January, In-N-Out announced the closure of its only Oakland location — despite being profitable — citing violent crime and thefts affecting employees and guests, potentially making it the first location to ever be shut down by the wildly-popular West Coast-based company.
Other restaurant chains, including Raising Cane’s and Denny’s, have also reduced services in Oakland or closed altogether due to rampant crime and insecurity.
InfoWars has been documenting the surge of crime across the United States, including carjackings, ‘street takeovers,’ smash-and-grab loot mobs, home invasions, and physical attacks on innocent victims.
Hidden Camera Inside Boeing Plant Reveals Horrifying Truth About Air Travel Safety
Separating Information from Disinformation: Threats from the AI Revolution
Artificial intelligence (AI) cannot distinguish fact from fiction. It also isn’t creative or can create novel content but repeats, repackages, and reformulates what has already been said (but perhaps in new ways).
I am sure someone will disagree with the latter, perhaps pointing to the fact that AI can clearly generate, for example, new songs and lyrics. I agree with this, but it misses the point. AI produces a “new” song lyric only by drawing from the data of previous song lyrics and then uses that information (the inductively uncovered patterns in it) to generate what to us appears to be a new song (and may very well be one). However, there is no artistry in it, no creativity. It’s only a structural rehashing of what exists.
Of course, we can debate to what extent humans can think truly novel thoughts and whether human learning may be based solely or primarily on mimicry. However, even if we would—for the sake of argument—agree that all we know and do is mere reproduction, humans have limited capacity to remember exactly and will make errors. We also fill in gaps with what subjectively (not objectively) makes sense to us (Rorschach test, anyone?). Even in this very limited scenario, which I disagree with, humans generate novelty beyond what AI is able to do.
Both the inability to distinguish fact from fiction and the inductive tether to existent data patterns are problems that can be alleviated programmatically—but are open for manipulation.
Manipulation and Propaganda
When Google launched its Gemini AI in February, it immediately became clear that the AI had a woke agenda. Among other things, the AI pushed woke diversity ideals into every conceivable response and, among other things, refused to show images of white people (including when asked to produce images of the Founding Fathers).
Tech guru and Silicon Valley investor Marc Andreessen summarized it on X (formerly Twitter): “I know it’s hard to believe, but Big Tech AI generates the output it does because it is precisely executing the specific ideological, radical, biased agenda of its creators. The apparently bizarre output is 100% intended. It is working as designed.”
There is indeed a design to these AIs beyond the basic categorization and generation engines. The responses are not perfectly inductive or generative. In part, this is necessary in order to make the AI useful: filters and rules are applied to make sure that the responses that the AI generates are appropriate, fit with user expectations, and are accurate and respectful. Given the legal situation, creators of AI must also make sure that the AI does not, for example, violate intellectual property laws or engage in hate speech. AI is also designed (directed) so that it does not go haywire or offend its users (remember Tay?).
However, because such filters are applied and the “behavior” of the AI is already directed, it is easy to take it a little further. After all, when is a response too offensive versus offensive but within the limits of allowable discourse? It is a fine and difficult line that must be specified programmatically.
It also opens the possibility for steering the generated responses beyond mere quality assurance. With filters already in place, it is easy to make the AI make statements of a specific type or that nudges the user in a certain direction (in terms of selected facts, interpretations, and worldviews). It can also be used to give the AI an agenda, as Andreessen suggests, such as making it relentlessly woke.
Thus, AI can be used as an effective propaganda tool, which both the corporations creating them and the governments and agencies regulating them have recognized.
Misinformation and Error
States have long refused to admit that they benefit from and use propaganda to steer and control their subjects. This is in part because they want to maintain a veneer of legitimacy as democratic governments that govern based on (rather than shape) people’s opinions. Propaganda has a bad ring to it; it’s a means of control.
However, the state’s enemies—both domestic and foreign—are said to understand the power of propaganda and do not hesitate to use it to cause chaos in our otherwise untainted democratic society. The government must save us from such manipulation, they claim. Of course, rarely does it stop at mere defense. We saw this clearly during the covid pandemic, in which the government together with social media companies in effect outlawed expressing opinions that were not the official line (see Murthy v. Missouri).
AI is just as easy to manipulate for propaganda purposes as social media algorithms but with the added bonus that it isn’t only people’s opinions and that users tend to trust that what the AI reports is true. As we saw in the previous article on the AI revolution, this is not a valid assumption, but it is nevertheless a widely held view.
If the AI then can be instructed to not comment on certain things that the creators (or regulators) do not want people to see or learn, then it is effectively “memory holed.” This type of “unwanted” information will not spread as people will not be exposed to it—such as showing only diverse representations of the Founding Fathers (as Google’s Gemini) or presenting, for example, only Keynesian macroeconomic truths to make it appear like there is no other perspective. People don’t know what they don’t know.
Of course, nothing is to say that what is presented to the user is true. In fact, the AI itself cannot distinguish fact from truth but only generates responses according to direction and only based on whatever the AI has been fed. This leaves plenty of scope for the misrepresentation of the truth and can make the world believe outright lies. AI, therefore, can easily be used to impose control, whether it is upon a state, the subjects under its rule, or even a foreign power.
The Real Threat of AI
What, then, is the real threat of AI? As we saw in the first article, large language models will not (cannot) evolve into artificial general intelligence as there is nothing about inductive sifting through large troves of (humanly) created information that will give rise to consciousness. To be frank, we haven’t even figured out what consciousness is, so to think that we will create it (or that it will somehow emerge from algorithms discovering statistical language correlations in existing texts) is quite hyperbolic. Artificial general intelligence is still hypothetical.
As we saw in the second article, there is also no economic threat from AI. It will not make humans economically superfluous and cause mass unemployment. AI is productive capital, which therefore has value to the extent that it serves consumers by contributing to the satisfaction of their wants. Misused AI is as valuable as a misused factory—it will tend to its scrap value. However, this doesn’t mean that AI will have no impact on the economy. It will, and already has, but it is not as big in the short-term as some fear, and it is likely bigger in the long-term than we expect.
No, the real threat is AI’s impact on information. This is in part because induction is an inappropriate source of knowledge—truth and fact are not a matter of frequency or statistical probabilities. The evidence and theories of Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo Galilei would get weeded out as improbable (false) by an AI trained on all the (best and brightest) writings on geocentrism at the time. There is no progress and no learning of new truths if we trust only historical theories and presentations of fact.
However, this problem can probably be overcome by clever programming (meaning implementing rules—and fact-based limitations—to the induction problem), at least to some extent. The greater problem is the corruption of what AI presents: the misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation that its creators and administrators, as well as governments and pressure groups, direct it to create as a means of controlling or steering public opinion or knowledge.
This is the real danger that the now-famous open letter, signed by Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, and others, pointed to: “Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth? Should we automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones? Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us? Should we risk loss of control of our civilization?”
Other than the economically illiterate reference to “automat[ing] away all the jobs,” the warning is well-taken. AI will not Terminator-like start to hate us and attempt to exterminate mankind. It will not make us all into biological batteries, as in The Matrix. However, it will—especially when corrupted—misinform and mislead us, create chaos, and potentially make our lives “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”
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