It Was Only a Matter of Time… AI Child Abuse Images A Problem.
Regulation Coming? Probably
Thinking About Having ChatGPT Write Something Important?
Baidu AI Better Than ChatGPT?
AI Certification From MS?
More Stringent Export Rules Coming Soon
Musk Not So Free Speech-Friendly After All?



WE 1 – Only A Matter Of Time… I Wish I Didn’t Have to Write This Piece
Well, the UK has discovered that there is a huge community of people who are using tools like Stable Diffusion and its OSS counterparts to create images which should never have had any reason to exist. Not only porn, which is kind of a foregone conclusion at this point, but child porn. They call it CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Materials), and it will get you banned from many of those tools if you try to create it using them. They have found that Patreon has not been effective in their stated policy of 0 tolerance for these kinds of materials. Authorities have noted a number of creators on the platform who sell subscription access to these sorts of materials on the platform. The report, by the National Police Chiefs’ Council, has made the rounds and made it to GCHQ, which is the heart of the UK’s intelligence, security, and cyber efforts. Hey commented that “Child sexual abuse offenders adopt all technologies and some believe the future of child sexual abuse material lies in AI-generated content.” I would push back and say that it is just as much the present as it is the future. This story shouldn’t need to be written because there should never be a reason for anyone to create any porn, much less depictions (whether real or not) of stealing the innocence of a child. However, it is a pretty accurate barometer of a society or civilization has become depraved enough for such things to be commonplace at all. This version of humanity needs an overhaul. These sorts of behaviors need swift justice with no mercy. It must be eradicated. Beyond that, society needs a heart transplant, the heart of stone which has been carefully cultivated by the Powers & Principalities and their semi-human minions, for a heart of human flesh, brought back to life by the 7 Spirits of God. We need a baptism in fire and the Real. Only that can wipe out the heart issues which lead to the creation and consumption of any kind of erotic materials. Brief soapbox sermon coming…
Hear me clearly, I am not saying that the human body is something to be hidden away or to become ashamed of. What I am saying is that the objectification of another human being is wrong. No one deserves to be reduced that way. God made our bodies beautiful and made reproduction an enjoyable experience, one which knits two people into one over a lifetime. That is why it is so destructive to allow ourselves to engage with lust rather than to grow into the Real of love. When we step back from those tendencies and allow Love to break through our shells and humble us, then we can see healing and freedom. When we choose to relate to others as fellow humans rather than as objects to manipulate and use in some way which demeans them (and ourselves), then porn and lust will no longer be the strongholds that they currently are. Celebrate and appreciate the beauty of others, God made it, but choose to see the person, not just your attraction to the perception you have of them.
Back to the story, though, here’s the cycle that investigators have seen: create CSAM images, share the tame ones on platforms like Pixiv, which is hosted in Japan, where such things are not illegal, then link to subscription platforms for the nastier stuff. Send other users to platforms like Patreon where the darkest stuff is behind a paywall (same old story as e-THOTs and cam performers). It is hard to put a dent in these things when it is legal in places such as Japan (think about hentai, much of which is related to abusing children… That is big money industry, y’all). Does this sort of thing fall under the aegis of free speech, or is it something which is right for governments to shut down? I think I already stated my strong opinion above, but what do y’all think?

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65932372

WE 2 – Google Talking AI Regulation with EU
You know me well enough by now, I think, that you probably know more or less what I’m likely to say about this, however, here I go anyway. Small gov’t = more freedom, more freedom = better life in general for we the people. More regulations, whether necessary to put a check on unethical and evil individuals and corporations are always a double-edged sword. They cut both ways. As with the previous story, there needs to be a heart change, but that can only come from surrender to Jesus Christ. Until then, until there is a revival of genuine relationship with God, bigger gov’t, which comes through more extensive regulations and less freedom for we the people is an unfortunate necessity, if we stay within the current system. So, what is being talked about? Government agencies being formed to more or less audit all new AI models and tools before commercial release, trying to put a check on the ridiculous pace of development on these tools and platforms, and other similar things. On the surface, aside from the almost hysteria that is fueled by things like the open letter from industry insiders back in March, it looks like a positive thing, but as I said before, more regulations = less freedom. If you are afraid of the technology, simply refuse to use it. It is still possible. If you are concerned about things like privacy more than “AI taking over the world”, then use FOSS models which you can set up an instance for and control what goes in so that what comes out is under your control and is free. As for recompensed the copyright issues, that is a tricky thing. We need to make sure that human creatives are for their intellectual labors, no matter what AI uses their work to learn from. Perhaps a rule about AI permutations of a creator’s work need to obtain some royalties of some sort. I don’t know. This is all very murky, to me.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/28/google-has-had-productive-talks-with-eu-on-ai-act-cloud-boss-says.html




WE 3 – A Couple of Lawyers Got Caught…
Bozos decided to use chatGPT to draft legal papers. Oops. They are colleagues from an NYC law firm, Levidow, Levidow, & Schwartz. I could make a joke about certain ethnicities and lawyers being unethical, but I don’t think I will. On separate cases, these geniuses decided to not only roll the dice and chance their whole documents being the product of a string of so-called “hallucinations” from chatGPT, but then doubled down and lied to the court repeatedly about it. These lazy, unethical attorneys should probably be run out of the profession for being lazy and immoral enough to not check the documents before submitting them, then lying to the court about the imaginary case law cited. #smh y’all. So they get bad publicity and a low ball fine of $5k apiece. I can’t even. Big shock that Peter LoDuca and Steven A. Schwartz (both of whom sound to be from a particular people group) would try to BS the court to get something positive for their clients. Half of the legal profession is based on sophistry, which basically means artfully disguised lying. I’m not saying that all lawyers are liars, but the profession has that reputation for a reason.
https://gizmodo.com/chatgpt-ai-lawyers-fined-5000-fake-cases-1850569981

WE 4 – Could Baidu’s Ernie Be Better Than ChatGPT?
Well, according to Chinese State media, it very well may be already. If true, and the published results for Ernie 3.5 are real, then it is quite impressive. However, until those results are reproduced independently, I do not put much weight behind them. Ernie is not available officially in English, but could be. So much speculation in this piece that I struggle to take it seriously. Baidu, for all accounts and purposes, IS Google behind the Great Firewall of China, and it has a full suite of apps & services, just as Google does everywhere else. This article salivates at the thought of CCP controlled “competition” for Google, which still holds 90% of the world’s search traffic. This needs to change, y’all. We can put a dent in it by choosing to stop using it. Sure, it will take conscious effort from FAR more people than will ever see this blog, but it can be and needs to be done. This giant needs to learn that it can’t be evil if it is going to continue growing the way it needs to in order to keep its market cap. It will be a hard thing for to write to ever praise Google for anything, until they fix their whole business model.

https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/chinas-baidu-ai-is-better-than-chatgpt-heres-why


WE 5 – MS Seems to Be the Early Bird Here…
Microsoft is launching a free, basic intro-to-AI concepts certification program. May seem slightly overkill, as it is very easy to create prompts for chatGPT which get you close to what you want. However, the corporation is a trusted name in the computing space, and the course seems to promise help in refining your prompts to get what you want even more easily. Do you think this is necessary or even beneficial? Have you or your employer jumped on the bandwagon? I’ve only used generative AI directly twice, other than the summaries in Brave Search, which I actually don’t use much anymore because of that feature and due to the fact that I’ve noticed left-bias creeping into their results. I have largely switched to Qwant these days. But I digress. What do you guys think about this move from Microsoft?

https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-is-already-offering-a-generative-ai-certification-program-160023724.html

WE 6 – US Harshing Even More on China’s AI Vibes
New regulations banning or at least even more severely limiting the export of processors which could be used to beef up AI to China are going into effect soon. Nvidia, the maker of some of the best AI chips in the world, has already seen a stock valuation hit from the announcement. The chip which Nvidia hamstrung so that they could sell it to China, the A800, looks like it is unlikely to make the cut under the new regulations. Remember last fall, when I covered the introduction of the current regulatory framework? The basic idea is that Depends’ handlers do not want the CCP gaining any more ground on the ailing US tech and military sectors (due to intentional failures in our educational system, in my opinion), so they are seeking to kneecap the CCP by cutting off its supply of US chips. Sure, they are also looking to invest Biden Bucks in tech mega corps who make these chips (NVIDIA, Samsung, Intel, Qualcomm, and AMD), but without the gains in education that we need in order to lead in creating innovation the way we have for the last 50-60 years, since the transistor became a thing. Our problem is a long-term one, and simply cutting supply for our rivals won’t solve the problems we face, currently. This is an issue which is pervasive and systemic, as well as being intentionally created through forcing students to adopt “rightthink” rather than simply teaching them facts and critical thinking skills and letting them be. So much brainpower has been wasted on teaching people WHAT to think, rather than HOW to think, that there isn’t enough left over for real thought and innovation which is actually necessary for our nation and our world to thrive into the future. These things need to be purged from our education system so that real, true things can be taught, and kids can grow up to think critically and logically for themselves, but I digress. What do you guys think about trying to slap a bandaid on a gaping wound like this?
https://www.pcmag.com/news/us-mulls-even-tighter-restrictions-to-stop-ai-chips-from-reaching-china

WE 7 – Wait, Elon Isn’t the Champion of Free Speech?
Nope. He’s just a guy who has gotten filthy rich on government subsidies and programs which benefit the companies he has either started or purchased. He has profited immensely from the “Green” scam which has so many people convinced that Teslas are the greatest thing since sliced bread. He is also a fat cat based on his contracts with NASA for the Falcon and Falcon heavy rockets from SpaceX. I’ve never been on the Elon hype train, guys. You know that if you’ve watched my videos for any amount of time. I’m tired of talking about this clown. He was smart enough to get involved with PayPal in the early days, along with Peter Thiel, and others. That was what netted him his first billion. After that, he bought Tesla, founded SpaceX, the Boring Company, and Neuralink. So, not only has Elon’s leadership led to an INCREASE in censorship on the behest of gov’t actors, but he has arbitrarily shut down conversations and forms of speech that he decides he doesn’t like, for instance, now it is a ban-able offense to use the term “cis” on Twitter. That one makes me laugh, actually. However, the writer of this article makes a valid point that Elon’s “free speech absolutism” is, or at least appears to be little more than a joke at this point, only worthy of being memed in the the ground (my addition). I’ve never trusted the man. Honestly, 5 or 6 years ago, I’d drool whenever I saw a Tesla go by. Not any more. The shine has worn off “bigly”, now, I actually have to suppress a desire to call the person who bought it an idiot. Could it be that he is showcasing how arbitrary any limitations on speech really are? Maybe, and while I don’t trust him, I still have a deeply ingrained desire to see the best in others until they prove that they are unworthy of that beneficial doubt. Elon has yet to do that in my book. I am deeply suspicious of him, though, and I do not see that changing anytime soon.
https://gizmodo.com/10-times-elon-musk-censored-twitter-users-1850570720