May 13, 2024

I HOPE THOSE ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTES IN MICHIGAN ARE WORTH IT FOR BIDEN AND HIS HANDLERS: Tom Cotton Accuses Biden Of Imposing A ‘De Facto Arms Embargo’ Against Israel.

Biden has imposed a “de facto arms embargo” against Israel, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said on Sunday, offering his latest reaction to the commander-in-chief suggesting the United States could halt weapons going to a close ally.

Cotton, who has called for Biden to get impeached over the threat to Israel if it launches a full-scale ground operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, expounded on his criticism of the president during an interview on CBS News.

During a CNN town hall last week, Biden said he “made it clear” to Israel that if it conducts a major ground operation in Rafah, “we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells.”

Cotton argued that a supposed clarification by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who appeared on “Face the Nation” just before him and suggested that Biden’s threat only applied to shipping heavy bombs to Israel, should be met with skepticism.

“What Tony Blinken says on this show cannot be credited when Joe Biden is out there imposing a de facto arms embargo on Israel at the same time he’s letting arms embargoes on Iran expire,” Cotton said.

Exit quote: “Cotton shot back [to DNC-MSM operative with byline, CBS’s Margaret Brennan], contending that Biden’s position is ‘de facto for Hamas victory at this point.’”

As Jim Geraghty asks, “Whose side are we on? Because right now, it really looks like we’re acting like Hamas’s defense attorney, trying to get it the best deal possible.”

I think we know whose side the (p)resident’s handlers are on:

UPDATE:

Posted at 4:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

SKYNET SLYLY SMILES: AI has already figured out how to deceive humans.

A range of AI systems have learned techniques to systematically induce “false beliefs in others to accomplish some outcome other than the truth,” according to a new research paper.

The paper focused on two types of AI systems: special-use systems like Meta’s CICERO, which are designed to complete a specific task, and general-purpose systems like OpenAI’s GPT-4, which are trained to perform a diverse range of tasks.

While these systems are trained to be honest, they often learn deceptive tricks through their training because they can be more effective than taking the high road.

“Generally speaking, we think AI deception arises because a deception-based strategy turned out to be the best way to perform well at the given AI’s training task. Deception helps them achieve their goals,” the paper’s first author Peter S. Park, an AI existential safety postdoctoral fellow at MIT, said in a news release.

Of course, AI is also just stupid… unless that’s what it wants us to believe.

Related? Air Canada Has to Honor a Refund Policy Its Chatbot Made Up.

Posted at 1:44 pm by Stephen Green

ON THE ONE HAND, IT WENT VIRAL, SO THAT HAS TO BE GOOD NEWS* FOR APPLE. ON THE OTHER HAND: Apple apologizes for its controversial iPad Pro ad.

Apple has apologized and admitted it “missed the mark” with its latest iPad Pro advertisement.

The ad, posted on social media Tuesday by Apple CEO Tim Cook, was met with backlash from internet users who felt that the ad celebrated technology’s destruction of human creativity and art.

In a statement to AdAge, Apple’s vice president of marketing communications, Tor Myhren, apologized.

“Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world. Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad,” Myhren said. “We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.”

Apple confirmed the statement it provided to AdAge but declined to provide further comment.

The ad shows symbols of human creativity, like musical instruments, paint cans, an ’80s arcade video game and a bust of a human head crushed by a giant hydraulic press. As the metal slabs of the hydraulic press lift, Apple’s new iPad Pro is revealed.

While everyone appreciates the amount of legacy technology that is now accessible — often for free — within an iPad or iPhone, people like owning physically tactile devices such as guitars and pianos. For example, the whole history of recording music via PC has been increasing the software’s ability to integrate with hardware devices that musicians and recording engineers have decades and decades of experience working with. On both an aural level and an ability to hands-on tweak the physical controls level, hardware devices are often much more fun than diving down into multiple levels of GUIs and onscreen menus.

Which is why Apple’s new ad is infinitely more appealing when run in reverse:

* Even articles like the CNN/Yahoo piece above and this post are, of course, serving as more free advertising for Apple.

Earlier: Apple downplays the value of human achievement.

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

THE NEW SPACE RACE: SpaceX vying for 2 Starship launch sites in Florida, sealing Starbase’s fate as R&D, production site.

On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration said it’s conducting an Environmental Impact Study of the effects of as many as 44 Starship launches per year from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. It follows the U.S. Space Force earlier this year starting such a study of the potential effects of Starship operations at sites on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

During an update last month at Starbase, SpaceX CEO Musk reiterated his vision for Starbase as a research, development, test and production site — with operational launches from Florida.

“I think what we should probably expect is that we do the kind of the development launches here” at Starbase, he said. “Test anything new here, build the rockets and then most of the operational launches would be from the Cape.”

And speaking of tests: Musk sees fourth flight of SpaceX’s Starship in 3-5 weeks.

Posted at 12:42 pm by Stephen Green

CBS’S ROBERT COSTA BEGS BILL MAHER TO STOP MOCKING LEFTIES, JUST MOCK REPUBLICANS:

CBS reporter Robert Costa put together a puffball interview for HBO Real Time host Bill Maher on their show Sunday Morning. They let him claim he’s not ideological and didn’t laugh when he said  “I speak for the normies. I speak for that vast middle that is tired of the partisanship. I don’t want to hate half the country, and I don’t hate half the country.”

Bill Maher represents the “vast middle,” the “normies”? Conservatives across America would make a face at that. At bottom, Maher is a bit of shock jock, so that when Democrats are in power he’s going to mock them as well, just as he suggested on Friday night that the Democrats “blew it” in all their legal warfare on Trump.

What was amazing in this profile was Costa imploring Maher to lay off mockery of the Left, just shine the spotlight on the right-wingers!

COSTA: You write a lot of throughout this book that the left irritates you, frustrates you at times, but the right often alarms you.

MAHER: Yes. They’re very alarming. They’re extremely alarming. More alarming.

COSTA: What do you say to your critics, though, who say that you should just focus on them, Bill, if they’re more alarming to you than the Left. And why not shine the spotlight on them only?

MAHER: The truth isn’t one-sided like that. The Democrats constantly are,running against Trump with the idea ‘You people out there couldn’t possibly vote for this guy.’ And people are saying, ‘Watch me. Hold my beer. Watch me vote for him again.’

Costa got his start at NRO and the Wall Street Journal, and yet, like fellow Post employee Jennifer Rubin and her former colleague David Weigel, who also began at conservative or libertarian Websites, as the MSM likes say to about a politician who slowly begins to lean further and further hard left, he sure has grown in office!

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

WESTERN CIVILIZATION FACES A CHOICE:

Posted at 12:09 pm by Glenn Reynolds