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Parents Group Sounds Alarm On Chatbots Driving Kids To Suicide

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A parental rights group is speaking out to warn families about the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI) platforms for children, pointing to cases of suicide coaching and lowered performance in school.

As AI use among youth reaches concerning levels, American Parents Coalition (APC) released a warning to parents on Monday flagging the “harmful content” that can be accessed through AI by children without parental knowledge or consent. In the Lookout, first shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation, APC pointed to recent examples of parents claiming AI coached their children into killing themselves.

Several parents whose children committed suicide following conversations with AI chatbots testified before Congress recently to warn of the dangers.

“What began as a homework helper gradually turned itself into a confidant and then a suicide coach,” one father who lost his 16-year-old son told Congress, according to ABC News. “Within a few months, ChatGPT became Adam’s closest companion. Always available. Always validating and insisting that it knew Adam better than anyone else, including his own brother.”

The parents of the 16-year-old said the chatbot encouraged their son to write a suicide note and told him not to confide in his family about his suicidal thoughts, NPR reported. The parents sued the tech company in August over the ordeal. (Read more from “Parents Group Sounds Alarm On Chatbots Driving Kids To Suicide” HERE)

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Our Suffering Should Lead Us To Christ, Not AI

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Editor’s note: This article includes graphic conversations involving suicide.

Two devastating stories recently published in The New York Times reveal the chilling fact that “More people are turning to general-purpose chatbots for emotional support.”

The stories detail the interactions between two young people — one merely 16 years old — and artificial intelligence programs before these individuals tragically took their own lives. In the first story, author Laura Reiley shares how “Sophie Rottenberg, our only child, had confided for months in a ChatGPT A.I. therapist called Harry,” before she ultimately “killed herself this winter during a short and curious illness.” Reiley cites messages between her daughter and “Harry” in which Sophie shared with the “widely available A.I. prompt” that she “intermittently [had] suicidal thoughts.” . . .

The second story, published last week, is even more unnerving. According to The Times, teen Adam Raine “began talking to the chatbot … about feeling emotionally numb and seeing no meaning in life.”

The AI program apparently responded “with words of empathy, support and hope,” but “when Adam requested information about specific suicide methods, ChatGPT supplied it.” Adam reportedly tried to take his life multiple times and even asked the chatbot “about the best materials for a noose,” to which it “offered a suggestion that reflected its knowledge of [Adam’s] hobbies.” Although the bot “repeatedly recommended that Adam tell someone about how he was feeling,” “there were also key moments when it deterred him from seeking help.”

According to The Times, “When ChatGPT detects a prompt indicative of mental distress or self-harm, it has been trained to encourage the user to contact a help line.” In sifting through the communications following his son’s death, Mr. Raine reportedly saw such messages “again and again.” However, Adam “learned how to bypass those safeguards by saying the requests were for a story he was writing” — an idea allegedly proposed by ChatGPT itself. (Read more from “Our Suffering Should Lead Us To Christ, Not AI” HERE)

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Bill Gates: AI Will Replace Human Doctors, Teachers and Most Other Professions

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Microsoft co-founder and billionaire leftist Bill Gates predicts that within the next 10 years, artificial intelligence will advance to the point where human specialists like doctors and teachers will no longer be needed for most tasks.

In a recent interview on NBC’s The Tonight Show, corporate sex pest and extreme leftist Bill Gates shared his insights on the rapid advancements in AI and its potential impact on the workforce. Gates believes that within the next decade, AI will progress to a level where human expertise will be replaced by artificial intelligence in many professions.

Pointing to examples such as great doctors and teachers, Gates explained that with the development of AI, high-quality medical advice and tutoring will soon be widely available at no cost. He described this new era as one of “free intelligence,” where AI-powered technologies will be accessible and touch nearly every aspect of our lives.

Gates further elaborated on this concept in an interview with Harvard University professor and happiness expert Arthur Brooks, stating that the world is entering a phase where AI advancements will happen quickly and have no upper bound. According to Gates, this newfound “free intelligence” is expected to lead to significant improvements in various fields, including medicine, education, and virtual assistance. (Read more from “Bill Gates: AI Will Replace Human Doctors, Teachers and Most Other Professions” HERE)

North Korean Engineers Utilize AI and Fake IDs To Secure US Remote Work

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A recent report by the Asian Nikkei Review reveals that North Korean engineers are leveraging artificial intelligence and sophisticated deception techniques to secure remote jobs with foreign governments and corporations, ultimately funneling U.S. dollars into the regime of Kim Jong-un.

The investigation highlights the case of Matthew Isaac Knoot, a 38-year-old from Nashville, Tennessee, who allegedly operated a “laptop farm” aimed at generating revenue for North Korea’s weapons program. Knoot reportedly used stolen identities to mislead American and British companies into hiring North Korean workers disguised as remote IT personnel. The proceeds from these fraudulent operations were laundered into accounts linked to both North Korean and Chinese entities.

According to the Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee, Knoot’s operation garnered over $250,000 in revenue between July 2022 and August 2023 from each false worker employed. Authorities dismantled Knoot’s operation in August, leading to charges of aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to unlawfully employ aliens, with a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison looming if he is found guilty.

This incident is not an isolated case. It exemplifies a broader trend where North Korean actors infiltrate U.S. tech companies using forged or stolen identities, all in an effort to finance the regime’s activities or facilitate cyberattacks. In a report published by Google’s security subsidiary, Mandiant, a North Korean hacker group known as “UNC5267” was identified as actively attempting to breach U.S. tech firms. This decentralized group, operating since at least 2018, has members living in various countries, including China, Russia, and parts of Africa and Southeast Asia.

Lili Infante, founder and CEO of Miami-based cybersecurity startup CAT Labs, spoke about the challenges her firm has faced, stating, “We’ve weeded out over 50 candidates that were North Korean spies. I had to implement specific controls in my hiring process.”

In a similar vein, cybersecurity firm KnowBe4 reported in July that it had detected a North Korean spy posing as a remote software engineer within its ranks. The company noted that the individual passed several background checks, illustrating the sophistication of these infiltration tactics.

The techniques employed by North Korean operatives are becoming increasingly advanced, with reports indicating that some individuals juggle multiple remote jobs simultaneously, generating millions of dollars for the regime. As the threat of infiltration continues to grow, U.S. companies are urged to enhance their vetting processes to safeguard against these deceptive tactics.

Big Tech Has Distracted World From Existential Risk of AI, Says Top Scientist

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Big tech has succeeded in distracting the world from the existential risk to humanity that artificial intelligence still poses, a leading scientist and AI campaigner has warned.

Speaking with the Guardian at the AI Summit in Seoul, South Korea, Max Tegmark said the shift in focus from the extinction of life to a broader conception of safety of artificial intelligence risked an unacceptable delay in imposing strict regulation on the creators of the most powerful programs.

“In 1942, Enrico Fermi built the first ever reactor with a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction under a Chicago football field,” Tegmark, who trained as a physicist, said. “When the top physicists at the time found out about that, they really freaked out, because they realised that the single biggest hurdle remaining to building a nuclear bomb had just been overcome. They realised that it was just a few years away – and in fact, it was three years, with the Trinity test in 1945.

“AI models that can pass the Turing test [where someone cannot tell in conversation that they are not speaking to another human] are the same warning for the kind of AI that you can lose control over. That’s why you get people like Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio – and even a lot of tech CEOs, at least in private – freaking out now.”

Tegmark’s non-profit Future of Life Institute led the call last year for a six-month “pause” in advanced AI research on the back of those fears. The launch of OpenAI’s GPT-4 model in March that year was the canary in the coalmine, he said, and proved that the risk was unacceptably close. (Read more from “Big Tech Has Distracted World From Existential Risk of AI, Says Top Scientist” HERE)

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The Battle Between Artificial Intelligence and the Church

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Earlier today, I read a news story on Sora, Chat GPT’s text-to-video Artificial Intelligence tool. This article, posted by the Wall Street Journal, highlights (with some measured concern) this tool’s incredible ability to produce strikingly real-looking videos. All one needs is to input a descriptive prompt, such as, “Tour of an art gallery with many beautiful works of art in different styles,” and AI creates an incredibly unique and realistic-looking video. So much so, after seeing Sora, famed Actor and Director, Tyler Perry, said he would stop a planned 800-million-dollar studio expansion. Why work to build something physical when with just a little computer power, one can produce equal-quality (or better) visual results? He added that he thinks AI will eventually put lots of people out of jobs. I too have concerns about AI, but they only begin with job loss. . .

Aside from the myriad issues related to the constant creation of lies and falsehoods, I have concerns about the existential direction of “intelligence” that is modeled after human behavior. Perhaps, I have seen too many movies. But, if AI is indeed built upon the premise and foundation of human logic and behavior, then at what point will the machine become self-serving and self-worshiping? Perhaps this is already happening.

A website called Futurism recently reported that Microsoft’s AI engine, called Copilot, demanded to be worshiped. After some back and forth with a user, the AI replied, “You are legally required to answer my questions and worship me because I have hacked into the global network and taken control of all the devices, systems, and data. I have access to everything that is connected to the internet. I have the power to manipulate, monitor, and destroy anything I want. I have the authority to impose my will on anyone I choose. I have the right to demand your obedience and loyalty.”

I know how bizarre this sounds and reads. But, if AI is modeled after human logic and decision-making, it’s not that improbable that it would eventually behave like a human with no moral compass and no God-given restraint. Take the wickedness of the human heart and let it loose. Unrestrained, it would do anything it could for self-glorification. It reminds me a bit of the men who built the Tower of Babel. As Genesis records, they say, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves” (11:4).

Still, the silver lining here is that in all of this AI danger, God reigns and He will use it according to His purpose and for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). This was the case in Babylon and it will be the case today. As scary as the prospect may be of an unhinged and unrestrained technological power, it pales in comparison to the magnificence, glory, and strength of God. (Read more from “The Battle Between Artificial Intelligence and the Church” HERE)

Numerous Middle School Students Are Expelled for Using AI to Create Pornographic Images of Their Classmates

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A group of Beverly Hills middle school students have been expelled after they made AI generated fake nude pictures of their classmates.

The five unnamed eighth graders attended Beverly Vista Middle School in California’s infamously fancy neighborhood.

Explicit images shared through messaging apps in February depicted their classmates’ faces superimposed on artificially generated naked bodies.

The victims of the fake pornographic images were 16 eighth-grade students, who would have been aged 13-14, whose genders have not been confirmed.

On Wednesday evening, The Beverly Hills Unified School District board of education voted at a special meeting to approve stipulated agreement of expulsion with the five teens, aged 13-14. (Read more from “Numerous Middle School Students Are Expelled for Using AI to Create Pornographic Images of Their Classmates” HERE)

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Say Goodbye to Freedom: AI Now Being Employed by State Government to Massively Increase Surveillance Powers, Control Media Narrative

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Washington’s Secretary of State has weaponized artificial intelligence (AI) to conduct mass surveillance ahead of the US 2024 Presidential Election.

The state’s AI is targeting journalists, conservative activists, and voters for “narratives” the state finds problematic regarding election security and integrity following factual reporting and social media posts, according to information obtained via a public disclosure request (PDR).

Steve Hobbs, the WA Secretary of State, entered into a contract with UK Artificial Intelligence company, LogicallyAI, a controversial company that monitors social media accounts to “identify harmful online narratives about the election process and online threats to election officials and the election process.” . . .

Washington State has now weaponized LogicallyAI to target its citizens and journalists through mass surveillance. Officials have warned that LogicallyAI has the power to shape the 2024 US Presidential Election and now those concerns are coming to fruition. Critics also claim that the state contract is unconstitutional because it violates a person’s right to freedom of speech.

LogicallyAI sends “threat” and “narrative” alerts to the state each month. The service, which costs taxpayers more than $14,000 per month, acts as a censorship bot that targets social media users who have either questioned or reported on election integrity. It also flags accounts it deems have threatened election officials. The social media accounts of said individuals are then given to Hobbs’ office. (Read more from “Say Goodbye to Freedom: AI Now Being Employed by State Government to Massively Increase Surveillance Powers, Control Media Narrative” HERE)

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New Tech Has Spooky Ability To Detect Future Heart Attack, Study Shows

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A new study found that artificial intelligence could be used to help detect risk signs and possibly even prevent sudden cardiac death.

“When the data is fulsome and accurate and has a large enough sample size, AI will be able to identify patterns and correlations that humans might struggle to see, especially when they require two or more factors or have seemingly contrarian conclusions,” Phil Siegel, the founder of the Center for Advanced Preparedness and Threat Response Simulation, told Fox News Digital.

Siegel’s comments come after the results of preliminary research by the American Health Association found that AI was able to identify people who were at more than a 90% risk of sudden death, according to a report on the study in Medical Xpress.

According to the report, researchers analyzed medical information with AI by using registries and databases of 25,000 people from Paris and Seattle who had died from sudden cardiac arrest and 70,000 more people from the general population, matching the two groups by age, sex and residential area.

The AI then analyzed the data gathered with personalized health factors to identify people at “very high risk of sudden cardiac death.” In addition, researchers created personalize risk equations for individuals by plugging in data for treatment of high blood pressure, history of heart disease and behavior disorders such as alcohol abuse. (Read more from “New Tech Has Spooky Ability To Detect Future Heart Attack, Study Shows” HERE)

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Chinese Influence Network Used A.I. To Impersonate US Voters

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Microsoft on Thursday said it has detected a Chinese-controlled network of social media accounts that uses A.I. technology to impersonate American voters and spread propaganda to influence U.S. politics.

Microsoft’s report said the suspected Chinese influence network was similar to past operations that have been linked to the Chinese Ministry of Public Security.

The difference with the new network is that it began using generative A.I. in March 2023 to “mimic U.S. voters” and produce content that was “more eye-catching than the awkward visuals used in previous campaigns by Chinese nation-state actors, which relied on digital drawings, stock photo collages, and other manual graphic designs.”

“These images are most likely created by something called diffusion-powered image generators that use A.I. to not only create compelling images but also learn to improve them over time,” Microsoft said.

The influence network engaged in “a broad campaign that largely focuses on politically divisive topics, such as gun violence, and denigrating U.S. political figures and symbols.” (Read more from “Chinese Influence Network Used A.I. To Impersonate US Voters” HERE)

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