Sorry, my bad! I made assumptions. But if you’re a Brit you’re still from this continent, thus European.
The threat to democracy that seemed to exist in the USA during the Biden administration, seems to be the same that might exist in the Trump administration. There were threats to freedom of speech before let’s see if there will be threats now. I’m pretty sure there will.
Beware of the mix between coffee and that rectangle. It could ruin your life, even if only momentarily.
I was making a reference to what we did as a country in 2016 
The country it’s still there, it has it’s issues and a lot of potential, and I still feel it’s as connected to mine as ever.
Hitting the AI summarize button yields great results, even if it fails a bit.
Threat to democracy under Biden how? He was possibly half asleep and not very good, but other than trying to cancel student dept, I don’t think he was up in court much. Nobody mentioned a constitutional crisis once while he was president. I’m confused by this statement?
There is also a qualitative, and often legal, difference between free speech and racial slurs. A distinction that appears to be lost lately. So trust you are not conflating the two?
Outing myself as a brit who has lived in the USA a long time. I visit the UK every year, and the decline in the last 5 years is tangable and easily visible. Brexit has been a total failure for Britain. And it is really sad to see the decline.
The same thing happened after the Reformation I suppose. And that isolation indirectly led to Britain’s colonies. What a fabulous legacy those were. But I don’t see little Britain benefiting this time around.
With or without AI, History seems to be repeating, just newer more deadly technology and the same tribal instincts of humankind. To appropriate a famous quote from the past: " it is in pride in reasoning pride our error lies… "
If I comment on this you will automatically presume that I’m taking sides.
I will still say the following:
With Trump, nobody knows what will happen in a lot of aspects of his foreign policy, economic results and actual benefits for the USA, however, being afraid of him turning the country into something else than a democracy, seems to be based on the narrative that media and democratic party successfully spinned.
Are you sure the decline you see is really related to Brexit?
Yet, we are still here.
AI, by itself is not deadly technology. It’s effective and enhances the power humanity already has. If it’s weaponized, and it will, it will be capable of making weapons more effective.
The fear of AI is not that it is weaponized but that it takes over humans and somehow thinks it should get rid of us, isn’t it?
However, do you trust humans to know exactly how to use weapons for the good of us all?
I don’t.
So, the only way forward possible is no longer not developing AI, it’s that neither it, nor any human, can concentrate power, whatever that means.
Our greatest fear lies, therefore, in the mechanisms that concentrate power and resources:
Without Question.
Not entirely but significantly yes but of course COVID and the Ukrainian war have been factors.
But – for example – my partner works for a small cottage business making custom baby blankets which sold really well in other European countries. That business to Europe fell off a cliff! And there have been impact to sales to America and the rest of the world.
And this is the experience of many small businesses here in the UK.
And huge amounts of money wasted by the last Tory government on proving their fealty to the hard BREXIT ideology!
A quote by Maya Angelou that sticks in my mind
“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
He is a sexual predator, con man, grifter, and if you see recent news about Ukraine he is in Putin’s pocket. This is all true, based on his past behavior, his own words, and his current actions.
The media failed the first time around, and they got it more wrong this second time around. This man, his cronies, and most of his party should not be anywhere near the levers of power. But here we are.
Putin and Trump will carve up Ukraine at these ‘peace talks’ (that Ukraine is not invited to?) - and if Europe doesn’t stand up more of Europe will be subject to the knife.
But AI, yeah, AI in the hands of people like this? No thanks.
I’m not going to comment this… It doesn’t change the following quote.
That’s what we should act uppon.
[quote=“bmike, post:52, topic:314783”]
Putin and Trump will carve up Ukraine at these ‘peace talks’ (that Ukraine is not invited to?) - and if Europe doesn’t stand up more of Europe will be subject to the knife.[/quote]
The problem with Ukrain is something like that, but it has reached a stall. Trump wants to solve it. How should he solve it?
Ukrain can’t stand on it’s own.
Europe can’t support it and has no power.
Putin is not winning, but will keep at it forever, or until he can present his people a glorious victory, even if it’s propaganda.
Trump has the knife and wants to stop investing and also stop this from scaling up.
Can he push Ukrain into accepting any terms he wishes? Yes, depending on Europe.
Can he push Europe into accepting any terms he wishes? Most probably yes.
What’s the variable he has to negotiate? Putin.
Does it makes sense that he understands how that variable can be solved? Yes
After knowing how it all can be solved, will it make sense to present that solution to Ukrain and Europe? Yes
From this point on I have only questions:
Will they Ukrain and Europe accept it?
What will they have to do if they don’t accept it?
Will they be able to do what they have to?
What of AI in the hands of people like you and me, so we can have as much power as we can and be able to confront them better if we can?
Musk recently announced Grok 3 claiming it to be the smartest AI on the planet.
My daughters’ views notwithstanding – as others have indicated – AI is here and it’s here to stay.
Like João says “What of AI in the hands of people like you and me…” – as long as we understand it’s limitations and those that provide the AI, it can be a powerful tool for us all.
I use it a fair amount for work and my interest in Myxomycetes.
The casual literature on Myxomycetes is lacking (this slime mould replicated the rail network of the greater Tokyo area) and much of what is available is very scientific and difficult to find. Certain AI tools have be fantastic collating this difficult to find information.
For work I will write up my own reports from my brain and then put it through an AI to see what it thinks of it (redacted of course) and I will change parts of the report if I feel the AI has phrased something better or pointed something out.
Off course I don’t accept cart blanche what an AI says.
He was a Russian agent all along and is busy pursuing his agenda. The scary part is the wool that has been pulled over the collective eyes.
Feel a bit odd saying it out loud as conspiracy theories are bit my thing. But the body of evidence is just overwhelming.
Not at all against conspiracy theories, they usually endup with someone saying I told you so.
However, aren’t there so many conspiracy theories for all sides, all with such convincing body of evidences, which sometimes are not real evidences but evidences we tend to believe, just because we already picked a side?
Trump screams suspicious all over, but I’d really like to see that body of evidences.
What’s that phrase “Can you speak truth to power?” Well possibly some will, but it doesn’t mean Power is listening…
So, if that’s right, let’s take the “what we think about actors at a personal level” factor from the equation and simply focus on their actions and their outcome. Let me also be very careful to say that I am suspicious about Trump, but was also very suspicious about Biden and Kamala and Obama and about all leaders.
For one to be a leader at this level, I imagine a lot of actions that have had to take place and I don’t imagine anyone I fully respect, taking part in the kind of actions I imagine.
So, what I think is that Trump is acting differently because acting the same way will lead to the same outcome, therefore he is shifting or even shuffling conceptions of what external policies should be, in a very pragmatic way, by using or bluffing on using real power.
He is mostly concerned about China taking over the world and moving USA from being the global Empire.
He thinks Russia and Europe have to discuss between themselves to solve the beef they have with each other, and he feels that beef is secondary to the worries he has with China.
He feels Ukranian war have sucked too much energy out of the USA and also transferred a lot of energy to China and he wants that to stop. He is taking bold moves to do that and challenging anyone that tries to affect those moves.
He is thinking about resources all over the world and taking hold of what he still can, because China as slowly taking hold of everything else, just look at Africa and Asia, including Russia and the concentration of resources China has been doing there.
He feels the middle east is taken care of as long as Israel stands strong and the UAE keep spending money and selling oil to everyone.
He isn’t too concerned about South America, yet but sees potential and resources in it. Milei’s Argentina is key there and he wants to support it, so it may create a movement of capitalist economy that in the end will help the USA.
He has made his direct neighbours fall in line already.
So, after settling all matters in Europe and Middle East, he’ll be able to focus in Asia.
It could be an over simplistic analysis, but it makes sense to me, it’s pretty clear in my head and doesn’t require any conspiracy theory.
Not sure if you are supposed to send links on this thing, but google Yuri Shvets. good article in the Guardian. It is also possible that Trump just the useful and easily manipulate idiot rather than an actual asset.
There is a lot of smoke around this one and there was prior to 2016, so given that he is literally enacting Putin’s wildest dream of dismantling Nato and destabilizing Europe, it is really hard not to make a link.