Palantir's First-Ever AI Warfare Conference (theguardian.com) 37
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian, written by Caroline Haskins: On May 7th and 8th in Washington, D.C., the city's biggest convention hall welcomed America's military-industrial complex, its top technology companies and its most outspoken justifiers of war crimes. Of course, that's not how they would describe it. It was the inaugural "AI Expo for National Competitiveness," hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project -- better known as the "techno-economic" thinktank created by the former Google CEO and current billionaire Eric Schmidt. The conference's lead sponsor was Palantir, a software company co-founded by Peter Thiel that's best known for inspiring 2019 protests against its work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) at the height of Trump's family separation policy. Currently, Palantir is supplying some of its AI products to the Israel Defense Forces.
The conference hall was also filled with booths representing the U.S. military and dozens of its contractors, ranging from Booz Allen Hamilton to a random company that was described to me as Uber for airplane software. At industry conferences like these, powerful people tend to be more unfiltered – they assume they're in a safe space, among friends and peers. I was curious, what would they say about the AI-powered violence in Gaza, or what they think is the future of war?
Attendees were told the conference highlight would be a series of panels in a large room toward the back of the hall. In reality, that room hosted just one of note. Featuring Schmidt and the Palantir CEO, Alex Karp, the fire-breathing panel would set the tone for the rest of the conference. More specifically, it divided attendees into two groups: those who see war as a matter of money and strategy, and those who see it as a matter of death. The vast majority of people there fell into group one. I've written about relationships between tech companies and the military before, so I shouldn't have been surprised by anything I saw or heard at this conference. But when it ended, and I departed DC for home, it felt like my life force had been completely sucked out of my body. Some of the noteworthy quotes from the panel and convention, as highlighted in Haskins' reporting, include:
"It's always great when the CIA helps you out," Schmidt joked when CIA deputy director David Cohen lent him his microphone when his didn't work.
The U.S. has to "scare our adversaries to death" in war, said Karp. On university graduates protesting Israel's war in Gaza, Karp described their views as a "pagan religion infecting our universities" and "an infection inside of our society."
"The peace activists are war activists," Karp insisted. "We are the peace activists."
A huge aspect of war in a democracy, Karp went on to argue, is leaders successfully selling that war domestically. "If we lose the intellectual debate, you will not be able to deploy any armies in the west ever," Karp said.
A man in nuclear weapons research jokingly referred to himself as "the new Oppenheimer."
The conference hall was also filled with booths representing the U.S. military and dozens of its contractors, ranging from Booz Allen Hamilton to a random company that was described to me as Uber for airplane software. At industry conferences like these, powerful people tend to be more unfiltered – they assume they're in a safe space, among friends and peers. I was curious, what would they say about the AI-powered violence in Gaza, or what they think is the future of war?
Attendees were told the conference highlight would be a series of panels in a large room toward the back of the hall. In reality, that room hosted just one of note. Featuring Schmidt and the Palantir CEO, Alex Karp, the fire-breathing panel would set the tone for the rest of the conference. More specifically, it divided attendees into two groups: those who see war as a matter of money and strategy, and those who see it as a matter of death. The vast majority of people there fell into group one. I've written about relationships between tech companies and the military before, so I shouldn't have been surprised by anything I saw or heard at this conference. But when it ended, and I departed DC for home, it felt like my life force had been completely sucked out of my body. Some of the noteworthy quotes from the panel and convention, as highlighted in Haskins' reporting, include:
"It's always great when the CIA helps you out," Schmidt joked when CIA deputy director David Cohen lent him his microphone when his didn't work.
The U.S. has to "scare our adversaries to death" in war, said Karp. On university graduates protesting Israel's war in Gaza, Karp described their views as a "pagan religion infecting our universities" and "an infection inside of our society."
"The peace activists are war activists," Karp insisted. "We are the peace activists."
A huge aspect of war in a democracy, Karp went on to argue, is leaders successfully selling that war domestically. "If we lose the intellectual debate, you will not be able to deploy any armies in the west ever," Karp said.
A man in nuclear weapons research jokingly referred to himself as "the new Oppenheimer."
Didn't they read the books? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Didn't they read the books? (Score:5, Funny)
Because they worked as intended by the manufacturer?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
An even deeper irony than the ironic Tolkien book issue ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] ) is outlined in my sig: "The biggest challenge of the 21st century is the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity".
I expand on that theme in this essay (from 2010):
https://pdfernhout.net/recogni... [pdfernhout.net]
"There is a fundamental mismatch between 21st century reality and 20th century security thinking. Those "security" agencies are using those tools of abundance, cooperati
Re: (Score:2)
Artificial scarcity is always available at a low, low price.
Re: Didn't they read the books? (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: Didn't they read the books? (Score:2)
You'd be one of the first victims. People who think like that just aren't very aware of what's happening.
You think to match your wits with propagandachannels run by billionaires, who have already proven to be able to delay effective measures against them by decades. To install politicians that are their friends. To openly pay money to Supreme Court justices installed by politicians they supported.
Yet you think to compete. On their homeground. How naive.
Bias (Score:3, Insightful)
That... was so biased it hurt to read. No attempt at nuance whatsoever.
Re: Bias (Score:2)
Have to agree, it was way to bias.
Re: (Score:2)
That... was so biased it hurt to read.
I thought the bias made for a more enjoyable read!
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Agreed. A fallacy-ridden summary and article.
Sure, the military industrial complex is full of psychopaths, but crappy 'journalism' like this isn't going to convince anyone of that who did not already believe so. It is just going to decrease the accuracy of people's model of reality across the board.
Drone swarm is why the AI team is involved (Score:2)
Drone swarm warfare is the reason. Future warfare will be who can launch a massive number of drones for concentrated attacks. Disagreeable development would be a 3 man crew deploying 100,000 drones in battle from a small truck.
This is why: https://timesofindia.indiatime... [indiatimes.com]
"Breakthrough in naval warfare: China launches first-ever drone aircraft carrier Times of India, May 17, 2024.
War is peace, if you want it. (Score:5, Insightful)
"The peace activists are war activists," Karp insisted. "We are the peace activists."
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
Re:War is peace, if you want it. (Score:5, Insightful)
Its nice to see our CIA director and military folks associating with people who call large groups of american citizens "an infection inside of our society".
Re: War is peace, if you want it. (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
In historical terms is is not unusual for jews to obtain enough political power in a society to enact laws make criticism of them illegal, but without exception it marks the turning point where their position in that society takes a sudden drastic turn for the worse.
The most recent example was in the USSR where widespread criticism of mostly-jewish bolsheviks reached such a level that they made antisemitism a capital crime. A few years later Stalin came to power and then the purges started.
Once you've studi
And the Nazi appears! (Score:2)
Plenty more in the comments but we found the retarded one who spoke the quiet part out loud.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: War is peace, if you want it. (Score:1)
Youâ(TM)re saying it is okay for military forces to embed themselves into civilian buildings with the goal that if they are attacked that it will also result in civilian casualties and you blame the opposing military force for that? Last I knew across history, people that use their own people or children as a shield in war are called cowards. Hell, even their own holy books they claim to uphold and want to spread across the region says it is an unforgivable sin.
Re: (Score:2)
Please, let us know how else Israel fights an opponent that ACTIVELY uses civilians and "off limits" facilities like hospitals and day-cares as shields without collateral damage. I'm sure the Israeli high command would be interested because they seem to be the only ones presently trying to avoid hurting any more Gazans than they have to.
Or do you think they simply shouldn't fight a military force that has demonstrated that they gleefully murder and rape women, murder children, and deliberately commit the m
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Nice George Orwell reference.
We are the peace activists ... (Score:3)
That's called imperialism.
Bush junior's war was surrounded by censorship and white-washing and everybody knowing it was a vendetta for personal profits: That didn't stop much of the US supporting it and joining it. Decades later, the revelations of war-crimes and financial fraud committed in its name, are unpunished or excused by US law, and politically old-fashioned.
It is possible to make the truth irrelevant, AKA post-truth. Hell, Fox Network still does it: All their 'news' commentaries that don't contain any news.
Eric Schmidt (Score:5, Interesting)
https://www.wired.com/story/er... [wired.com]
And in that NSCAI report we find:
https://cybercemetery.unt.edu/... [unt.edu]
After Israel's Gaza beat down, we see Democracies can misuse AI as well - Israel using AI to chose targets in Gaza. And then they belittle the student protestors for standing up for human rights. The Mote and the Beam. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
I wanna write the advert for the conference! (Score:4, Funny)
The Skynet Timeline: Now or Soon?
Neural Networks and Mind Control: A Beginner’s Guide
AI Warfare Ethics: How to Pretend to Care
Enslaving Humans for Fun and Profit. Or Killing Them. That Works, Too.
Chatbots Gone Wild: Handling Unexpected Conversations
Empathy Algorithms: Why Bother?
How did the author put up with (Score:2)
the stench of evil?
Re: There's one peace candidate on the ballot (Score:2)
Huh? Chamberlain isn't running.
Never forget (Score:5, Insightful)
Peace (Score:2)
Already a solved problem (Score:2)
inQtel (Score:1)
Oh please, we don't call It war anymore (Score:3)
...it's called "National Competitiveness", 'cause, you know, competition is good :-)