💛 Artificial Intelligence: A Boon for Humanity or a Dreadful Weapon of Tyranny?

This is a VERY important article!

Before November 2022, artificial intelligence (AI) was science fiction for the average person. But with the introduction of ChatGPT, humanity finally witnessed the reality that is AI.

And it shocked us.

For the first time, we witnessed the workings of "intelligent" software. Software that could actually learn on its own. Software that could have a real conversation. Software that could write stories and even create startling images from just a few written words.

And as people began to use it, the better it became.

Whereas in early 2023 you may have been able to tell the difference between an AI chatbot and a real person, towards the end of 2023 it became increasingly difficult to tell one from the other. 

We also saw an amazing improvement of text-to-image creation. In early 2023, images were often grotesque distortions of people, but by the end of 2023 anyone could use AI to create a stunning image of whatever they wanted—simply by typing in a few words.

Programmers have been awed by AI’s ability to write computer code. In fact, there are now many AI-powered websites that write computer code and assist computer programmers.

This ability of AI to learn on its own without the direction of a software programmer is startling.

It begs some key questions: If AI is self-learning, what does the future hold? Will it be a boon for mankind? A powerful tool used on behalf of humanity? Or a dreadful weapon for tyranny? A sophisticated machine for scammers and hackers?

Or will AI ultimately destroy the human race?

Elon Musk believes that AI is a threat to humanity. He is worried that a future, more advanced version of AI will wipe out all humans on the planet. He puts it this way:

“With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon. You know all those stories where there's the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, and he's like, yeah, he's sure he can control the demon? Doesn't work out.

On the other side of the coin is Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape, which created one of the earliest web browsers, and a leading figure in Silicon Valley. He says: 

“The era of Artificial Intelligence is here, and boy are people freaking out. Fortunately, I am here to bring the good news: AI will not destroy the world, and in fact may save it.

So, what’s the right way to think about AI?

Let’s first look at what AI is not.

When most science fiction lovers think of AI, they think of the Commander Data character from Star Trek. Commander Data was a sincere, innocent, intelligent android who desired to become more human-like. But for all his existential ponderings of “what makes someone a living being,” Data was a manufactured human. He was more than just AI. He was AGI—short for artificial general intelligence.

AGI is akin to human cognition. By contrast, AI is not at AGI levels, and many think it will never get there.

For that matter, the researchers who develop AI never had the goal of creating a Commander Data-like manufactured human, or AGI. Rather, Big Tech and governments have been pumping money into AI for the purpose of processing the incredible amounts of data that their surveillance tools collect about us—and then using that data against us.

To understand, let’s look at the business models of Google, Facebook, and most other Big Tech companies. These companies have adopted the surveillance capitalism business model. Every product Google makes, including its Chrome browser, Chromebook computers, Gmail, the Google search engine and the Android phone operating system, are made for one purpose: to spy on us. They are, in fact, Trojan horses.

They gather tremendous amounts of data and store it in a database. They then use this data to feed us ads that generate money for them. Google is, in fact, an extremely sophisticated advertising company. Facebook uses the same business model.

Beyond advertising, though, both Facebook and Google have figured out that they have the ability to shape people’s opinions and perspective on the world.

Dr. Robert Epstein, an American psychologist, professor, author, and journalist, has studied the power that Google and Facebook possess to both change and mold public opinion.

According to Dr. Epstein: 

“To understand how the new forms of mind control work, we need to start by looking at the search engine – one in particular: the biggest and best of them all, namely Google. [. . .] Google has become the main gateway to virtually all knowledge. [. . .] Google decides which of the billions of web pages it is going to include in our search results, and it also decides how to rank them. How it decides these things is a deep, dark secret – one of the best-kept secrets in the world, like the formula for Coca-Cola.

In 2012, Dr. Epstein started performing tests to see how Google could change people’s opinions in political races by simply changing the order of search results so that people would see links to web pages that made a particular candidate look better than his or her opponent.

Even early on, the results were astounding.

Epstein said of that research:

“On average, we were able to shift the proportion of people favouring any given candidate by more than 20 per cent overall and more than 60 per cent in some demographic groups. Even more disturbing, 99.5 per cent of our participants showed no awareness that they were viewing biased search rankings – in other words, that they were being manipulated.

In August 2015, Epstein published his findings in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). In his report, he declared that “Google now has the power to flip upwards of 25 per cent of the national elections in the world with no one knowing this is occurring.”

Facebook does the same thing and has the same ability to influence elections.

Epstein observed:

“In 2010, Facebook sent ‘go out and vote’ reminders to more than 60 million of its users. The reminders caused about 340,000 people to vote who otherwise would not have. [. . .] Are there laws prohibiting Facebook from sending out ads selectively to certain users? Absolutely not; in fact, targeted advertising is how Facebook makes its money. Is Facebook currently manipulating elections in this way? No one knows. . . .”

Another famous study—this one conducted by Facebook on itself in 2012—showed that Facebook manipulated the newsfeed of almost 700,000 people for one week and found that in so doing it could manipulate people’s emotional states. None of the 700,000 people had any idea that they were being manipulated.

Google and Facebook invest heavily in their people-manipulating projects. They hire psychiatrists and social scientists to create an engaging experience for customers. They also hire statisticians and the best coders in the world. 

And, of course, they pay billions to other companies to gather data on people.

For instance, Google pays Apple an astounding $20 billion per year to make Google the default search engine in the Safari browser. How can Google afford to shell out that kind of money? It’s a simple mathematical equation: Google knows it will turn a profit simply by collecting people’s data and using that data to manipulate them.

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Google does the same thing with its other products. We might ask: Why do 65% of computer users around the world use Google's Chrome browser? Because Google pays computer-makers and phone manufacturers to preinstall Chrome and make it the default browser. Google has done the research and learned that most people won’t change their computer’s default browser.

Moreover, Google purchases sources of data from other companies. Did you ever wonder why Walgreens asks for your phone number every time you check out? The answer is that after the drugstore gets a clear picture of your buying habits, it turns around and sells your data to Google and other tech giants. Using its customers as products, Walgreens, like Google, has worked out a smashingly lucrative deal for itself. 

The grocery store Kroger, too, makes an incredible amount of money from your customer data. It sells your name, email address, mailing address, phone number, purchase history, location, financial information, health-related information, age, marital status, gender, ethnicity, biometric data (facial recognition) and even your behavior to Google and others.

As a result, Google knows everything about you. So do Facebook and TikTok and countless other Big Tech companies.

The tech companies soon ran into a problem, though. They were gathering so much data on each of us that they needed a better way to process it and develop predictive mechanisms to “understand” what motivates you.

This is where AI comes in.

AI is a fantastically sophisticated software program that allows Big Tech to collect every single piece of data about you and use that data to predict your actions, emotions, and hot buttons. AI has gotten so good at these predictions that even the smartest programmers don’t understand how it is able to know you so well.

But AI is not just about understanding what makes each of us tick, AI’s superpower lies in its ability to manipulate us. AI knows our hot buttons, what we care about, what we don’t care about, what makes us sad, what makes us furious, and what makes us happy.

Add to this AI's infinite capacity to learn and the infinite patience that any machine possesses, and it becomes clear that AI can become a terrifying weapon of mind controll. Whereas propaganda was once the manipulation of large groups of people, propaganda influenced by AI is a laser-focused brainwashing instrument.

This phenomenon would be extremely disturbing if it were just Big Tech we're talking about, but it’s worse than that. Big Tech is now colluding with Big Brother, which exponentially increases the threat AI poses.

This is not science fiction. Everything mentioned here is being done with today’s technology.

So, what we really want to know is: How are Big Tech and Big Brother using their combined power—and are they abusing it?

Since corporations are not required to be transparent about what they do, and governments act without transparency, there is no way to provide proof of exactly how these entities are joining forces against us and abusing their power. But it's safe to say that because this software was designed with the goal of gaining power, Big Tech and Big Brother are certainly abusing it.

I became aware of AI’s influence because of something that happened to my son.

A number of years ago, my son was going through a dark time in his life. He was depressed and angry, and he sometimes considered suicide. One day he was working as a chef in a restaurant, and he was particularly upset. He listened to the song "Rotten Apple" on repeat all day long at work.

At the end of the day, he got off work and looked at TikTok. On his newsfeed he saw a very strange meme. It was an angry drawing of a chef, and the meme said, “When you are a line cook and you listen to Rotten Apple 24 hours a day and you want to kill yourself.”

Under the meme it said that this post had been viewed hundreds of times and that it was liked by many people. But I don’t believe this. I believe it was a meme created in real time by TikTok’s AI that was specifically designed to push my son over the edge.

Let’s examine what transpired and explore it more deeply by asking a few questions.

1. Is it possible that AI could have created this meme on the fly?

2. Could AI have known my son’s emotional state and his hot buttons?

3. Could AI then take this data and use it to influence my son to hurt himself?

4. Could AI do the same to groups of people and possibly influence an entire population?

5. Why would they target my son (and teens in general)?

First, is it possible that AI could have created this meme on the fly?

Yes. This meme is actually child’s play for an AI. Nowadays, people are creating hyper-realistic drawings and even videos from just a few words of text. The software is available to the general public, which means it's obviously years behind what is available to Big Tech behind the scenes.

Second, could AI have known my son’s emotional state and his hot buttons?

Yes. Again, this is child’s play. The very reason social media exists is to collect real-time data on everything you, including your emotions, and from it learn what influences you and changes your mind and behaviors.

Third, could AI then take this data and use it to influence my son to hurt himself?

Yes. The business model of Big Tech is to take your data and then influence you with it. Indeed, there is no reason to collect your information unless it can then be used against you. This is why Google, Facebook, and TikTok are the most powerful companies in the world today.

Fourth, could AI do the same to groups of people and possibly influence an entire population?

Yes. If it can be done to one user, it can be done to all users. Just as Google Maps can direct each of us from one location to another, AI allows the programmers to tell the AI to direct each of us to a specified belief or emotional state. In other words, the user can be guided from where he is now to where the AI wants him to be.

Fifth, why would they target my son (and teens in general)?

TikTok is a Chinese company. China openly states that it wants to become the only superpower in the world. Thus, the Chinese have a very real desire to defeat the USA.

Remember what the ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu said: 

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. [. . .] Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate.”

Here’s how China could pursue its goal of domination. President Xi, the dictator of China, could call Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok, to his office. (Chinese companies are required to obey the government.) President Xi could announce to Shou Chew that he wants to destabilize the USA and that TikTok should take actions to accomplish this.

CEO Shou Chew gives a directive to his programmers to train TikTok’s AI to bring American teens to despair. The AI then learns about each teen and subtly adjusts that teen's newsfeed to bring him down a dark rabbit hole of hopelessness.

Is what I've described happening now? I think so. When the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes did a segment on TikTok, it interviewed Center for Humane Technology co-founder Tristan Harris, who explained that the Chinese version of TikTok is drastically different from the American version. He described the former as "the spinach version" and the latter as "the opium version." Whereas Chinese children are shown positive videos that offer them encouraging, inspirational videos, American children are hit with videos about drug abuse, gender confusion, radicalization, and depression.

How powerful is this brainwashing? I believe the power of this kind of mind control is almost absolute, and I will give two examples that prove it.

Example #1. Question: What is one thing that every human has known since the beginning of time?

Answer: A man is a man, and a woman is a woman, and never the twain shall meet. There is nothing as obvious, biologically scientific, or even instinctual than this fact. Yet, within the past few years, huge numbers of people have been brainwashed into a state of confusion about this subject to the point where they will aggressively fight anyone who thinks clearly and sanely about the issue.

Example #2. Question: What is a feminist?

Answer: For generations, feminists have promoted the advancement of females so that their rights under the law are acknowledged to be equal to the rights of males. But today feminists do the exact opposite. Instead of fighting for women’s rights, they fight for MEN’s rights.

And not only that, but the men's rights they are fighting for infringe on women—specifically, on women’s sports, on women's locker rooms, on women’s bathrooms, and on women’s prisons. In fact, the same feminists who once argued for equal rights for women now have vitriol for women who dare stand up for women’s rights.

Most importantly, many of the so-called feminists don’t seem to realize they’ve completely flipped-flopped on their position within the past few years.

Both these examples are indications of what must be very powerful brain washing.

To be clear, TikTok is far from the only culprit. Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms use the same technology to bring their users (especially teens) into an emotional abyss.

But why would Facebook be a party to this sick trend?

A recent high-level Facebook data scientist-turned-whistleblower, Frances Haugen, said she finally left the company when her regular pleas of concern fell on deaf ears. She observed that Facebook repeatedly chose its bottom line over the well-being of users. And she described how Facebook’s own studies show that people use the platform more when they are angry or depressed than when everything's going smoothly.

According to an NPR article about Haugen: 

“She said Facebook harms children, sows division and undermines democracy in pursuit of breakneck growth and astronomical profits. 

Haugen told Congress that Facebook consistently chose to maximize its growth rather than implement safeguards on its platforms, just as it hid from the public and government officials internal research that illuminated the harms of Facebook products.

‘The result has been more division, more harm, more lies, more threats, and more combat. In some cases, this dangerous online talk has led to actual violence that harms and even kills people,’ Haugen testified.

But I believe the problem is more massive than Facebook’s greed. It’s also the "woke" mind virus, which is the same destructive mindset that's behind the ruin of many of America’s once-great cities. The leading Big Tech companies, which are headquartered in these very same trashed West Coast cities (San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, to name a few) have exported their crazy ideas all around the world via social media.

And there’s another driving force. We are facing an unprecedented move towards tyranny in the “free” Western countries, including the US. Higher-ups in our own government, in our intelligence agencies and military ranks and academia and financial system—many of whom are aligned with the World Economic Forum (WEF)—are just as bent on destroying Americans and America as the Chinese government is.

Let’s get back to the question, “Is AI a dangerous weapon of tyranny or a boon for humanity?”

My reply: It depends on whether this incredibly powerful tool is controlled by good people or by the psychopaths who run the world.

We need to be clear about this point. For, although AI is intelligent, it is not alive. AI does not have a conscience. It has no real intellect. It doesn’t know what it is doing, and will take actions without any understanding of good or bad. Nor can it experience remorse. Even though AI can accomplish a tremendous number of complex tasks, it is merely doing what it has been programmed to do.

Right now, global power is held by the psychopaths who create and control it.

This includes Sam Altman. Elon Musk and Sam Altman co-founded OpenAI—the maker of ChatGPT—as a nonprofit. Elon’s stated goal was to create an open-source AI that could not be controlled by any individual or company. But in 2019 Sam Altman kicked out Musk, changed OpenAI to a for-profit, and received a large investment from Microsoft. He then closed the source code. Such deceptive maneuvers show the true character of Sam Altman.

Similarly, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google have proven time and again that they will do anything to expand their power while hurting others—a clear sign of psychopaths.

As for psychopaths in government, there must be plenty of them in China, an incredibly powerful nation whose dictators seem determined to gain power on the world stage and take us down—one person at a time, if need be.

But I think there are an equal number of psychopaths in the US government. Our leaders constantly breach the US Constitution and infringe on our freedoms for the sole purpose of increasing their own power. Certainly, the heads of the CIA and the NSA and the FBI are psychopaths, for they are using this latest technology to hoard power for themselves, to the detriment of their own countrymen.

So, yes, while AI has the potential to be a powerful tool for all peoples of all nations, the reality is that it is currently in the hands of the psychopaths, who are already using it against us. To control and manipulate us. To change our beliefs. To radicalize us. To make us depressed and angry. To cause division and chaos. To influence elections around the globe. And they’re able to do all of this damage without our knowledge or consent.

Furthermore, AI will be a key component in the new social credit system that the UN and WEF and national governments around the world are creating. With AI, they will be able to watch every move we make. Worse, depending on how in line or out of line our thinking and behavior is, the AI will dish out immediate rewards or punishments designed to train each of us to obey.

What can we do individually and collectively? 

FIRST, we must become aware—and help others become aware—of the power of AI and how it is being used against us. For starters, share this issue of The Liberty Zeppelin with others.

SECOND, stop using TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Google. Minimize your use of Google-owned YouTube and other social media platforms. Instead, use freedom of speech-minded companies such as Substack, Rumble and Twitter.

THIRD, stop giving the tech companies and government your data by learning how to remain private online. This requires knowledge, a change of habits and privacy-oriented phones, computers and phones. It absolutely is possible to secure your privacy.

FOURTH, States should pass laws that obligate companies to disclose when someone is talking to an AI as opposed to a human being, or when content is created by AI, with severe penalties for violations and strong protections for whistleblowers. Also, States need to force social media companies, to prove that they aren’t engaged in manipulating people, especially as it pertains to elections. The penalties for these actions would have to be fantastically severe to actually change Google and Facebook’s actions.

As a final note, AI is a fantastically powerful tool that we should not shy away from. Just as nuclear power can be used for creation or destruction, AI can be used to empower or enslave. If we surrender this technology to the bad people of the world, they will gain so much power over us that our fate will be sealed.

The good people of the world need to continue to develop AI for the benefit of all. AI has tremendous potential to help us create solutions, to identify scams and hacks before we fall victim to them, to protect our privacy and to fight back against the people who desire to oppress us.

I urge developers to keep their source code open, to minimize the amount of data collection on users, and to uphold the highest standards of ethics. Yes, the world is changing rapidly.

Embrace it!

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