infinity ☮️🇺🇦&🇺🇸&🤔🇩🇪 & ⬛️🟩

[Molly Kinder @Mollykinder]

This a.m., I walked my two youngest kids (ages 7 and 4) to school. I held their little hands as we crossed streets, and gave my youngest a giant hug at his PreK4 classroom door.

Then, after walking a block towards home, I opened this app to a terrifying stream of tweets.

Of course, I have heard about "alignment" and "AI safety" and "x risk" concerns for years. I took these concerns at face value, especially when I heard them directly from folks at the labs working closest with the technology. And I was grateful so many smart people are working on them. And that's about it. (My work focuses on AI's impact on jobs.)

But something has shifted, dramatically, for me in the last few weeks. Between the Hugging Face incident, the damning independent @METR_Evals reports that followed, and the alarming chorus of calls (pleas? shouts? SOS signals?) from inside the labs that we are careening toward potential catastrophe, all of this has made me feel, viscerally, how truly dangerous this moment is.

Clearly I am not alone in this light bulb moment. It is one thing for someone in a tropical climate to try and conceptualize snow. It is another thing entirely to be knee deep in it, frozen down to your toes. Somehow hearing the details of the HF incident felt to me more like trudging through snow than theorizing about a possible blizzard; it really hit home.

Which is why, standing a block from my children's elementary school in Capitol Hill this morning, I felt sick to my stomach reading my phone.

I kept going back to @EvanHub's > 0.1 risk of AI killing us all. TEN PERCENT. *Greater* than ten percent. (To be fair to him, he was clear his worry isn't today's models, but what comes next.)

As a parent, it is extraordinary the lengths I will go to keep my children safe against lethal risks with infinitesimal chances of happening.

Bike to school? My children *must* wear a helmet. A national study found 2 bicycle-related deaths per million children <16 in states with helmet laws, vs 2.5 per million in states without. So: 0.000002. More than half the states passed a law over that.

When I was pregnant, I religiously avoided soft cheese, hyper aware of the risks of listeria, even as @ProfEmilyOster's fabulous books walked me through the actual math. The joint FDA/FSIS risk assessment puts the odds of listeriosis at roughly one in 5 million per serving of soft cheese. 0.0000002.

This morning, as I microwaved oatmeal for my kids' breakfast, I made sure I avoided a plastic bowl, to avoid some future cancer risks or something else we'll discover plastic causes.

As a parent, I will go to extraordinary lengths to keep my kids' safe. Because that is literally my number one job as a parent.

And yet, here I am, outside my kids' school this morning, scrolling through tweet after tweet about the AI arms race, the blistering pace of technological progress, the bee-line for trillion dollar IPOs, and our professed (confessed?) inability to make sure this exceedingly capable technology we are racing to create and unleash into the world won't escape our control and destroy us. Or, more bluntly, kill our children.

To be sure, we are tied in knots trying to resolve the game theory dynamics with China, and there are all sorts of competitive pressures and unresolved tensions. But OBVIOUSLY, we need a proactive plan, with real coordination, effective regulation, and an ability to do what my 11-year-old bluntly stated as the clear solution if we are at risk of serious harm: just turn it off.

We also need to figure out better ways of talking about this with the American public, outside of the AI-pilled Twitterverse.

I just polled my college roommates, sisters, book club, mom friends, none of whom are anywhere close to the AI conversation. Suffice to say, this AI safety conversation has *not* entered the mainstream. Most people I pinged are not following it closely, beyond several listening to @kevinroose on the Daily a few days ago. The newspaper headlines don't speak to them, and they aren't clicking. It seems like a niche AI issue. Others said it all sounded hyperbolic, Y2K all over again.

One friend said bluntly, "people get data centers and jobs. They like to get paid and have water."

Even those who tuned it to the Daily episode found the issue hard to understand, and overwhelming to wrap their heads around. Terms like "superintelligence" and "alignment" are getting lost on people. Several people told me the paper clip example used everyday language people can actually understand. Another friend said she has never seen a clear explanation of *how* AI could kill us all.

Here's my two cents. I think these issues are *exceedingly* important and hugely consequential to literally every person in this country. We need an actual plan, and we need policymakers to step up, asap. Right now, I hear only crickets in DC, where I live.

For that to happen, this needs to be a kitchen table conversation, not just an x debate among AI insiders who speak in technical terms that leave normal people behind. This moment demands brilliant communicators -- journalists, experts, activists, concerned citizens, writers, researchers, filmmakers, creatives-- who can relate this to people in ways they can wrap their heads around, who can connect this to what matters in their lives (ahem, keeping their kids alive!), and who can lay out practical steps that policymakers can do to safeguard humanity.

In other words, this can't just be talked about on @dwarkesh_sp, it needs to be everywhere, from the View to People Magazine.

And it needs to be tackled here, in my town, in Washington, DC. One of the streets I crossed this morning with my kids on the way to school was East Capital. I told my kids to look left, and see if they could spot the capital building.

There were too many trees this morning blocking the view.

[Saint Javelin @saintjavelin]

Many of you will remember this iconic picture from the early days of full scale invasion.

The Ukrainian soldier in this photo is Serhiy "Борцуха" - "Bortsukha" although others called him "Borets" [The Fighter].

He was a soldier in the "Tengri" sniper group of the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) in the early days of the full-scale invasion.

Here he is seen riding a bike into Irpin, with an RPG on his handlebars and two more RPG rounds on his back.

In the spring of 2022, Ukrainian soldiers rode bicycles and used grenade launchers against tanks, aviation, and ballistic missiles.

Unfortunately, this warrior was killed a few days ago in an airstrike while serving as commander of a marine unit.

This was posted earlier today by @UButusov

[UNITED24 Media @United24media]

"Every hour we can work... was purchased for us at an extremely high price by Ukrainian soldiers."

Fire Point CEO @iraterekh tells CBS in a recent interview.

[infinity ☮️🇺🇦&🇺🇸&🤔🇩🇪 & ⬛️🟩 @infinity_SMJ]

@RaviMGupta Love your neighbors

[Barbara F Walter @bfwalter]

I have an update on my gardener who was taken by ICE.

Three big things have happened since then.

1. The neighbors have all come together to help.

We hired a good immigration lawyer for him. We also found someone willing to serve as his financial sponsor. That matters because one of the things the government will consider is whether he’s likely to show up for future hearings. Having someone willing to vouch for him, and having deep ties to his family and community, can help.

2. We’ve raised enough money to post a bond if he’s granted one.

We think he has a strong case for being released from detention while his case proceeds.

He has lived in the United States since he was 16. (He is now 44.) He runs his own business. He has a wife and two young children. He owns his home. And he has many, many people willing to write letters saying that he’s an important part of this community and is not going anywhere.

We’ll have to wait to see if it’s granted. Fingers crossed.

3. His lawyer is asking to postpone his court date, which is currently scheduled for next week.

This is really important. The Trump administration is trying to move people through the immigration system quickly so it can deport them as fast as possible. His lawyer wants time to gather evidence and build the best possible case for letting him stay. Again, fingers crossed.

But this is what really broke my heart.

My gardener was finally able to get a call through to his wife two days ago. This strong, confident, capable man was terrified. He didn’t know what to do.

Then his wife told him what everyone was doing behind the scenes.

He sobbed.

I don't know if we are going to get him home. I wish I could tell you that we will.

But I do know that we are seeing both the best and worst of American in real time.

The worst is a system that can take a man away from his wife and kids and leave him sitting in detention, terrified.

The best is a group of people who heard what happened and immediately asked: What can we do? And then they did it.

I’m betting on that America.

[Jacob Coxon @hilbertspaess]

I resigned from Anthropic today. I spent the last three years doing pretraining research at both OpenAI and Anthropic. Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives. More thoughts below.

[Global UPDATES @GlobalUpdates24]

Alice Weidel becomes the first leader in the world who is anti-immigration but has an immigrant wife, is anti-LGBTQ+ but is a lesbian herself, opposes LGBT adoption but has adopted two children, and is a hardcore German nationalist but lives in Switzerland

[John Jackson @hissgoescobra]

Shelby is doing excellent work, definitely worth a follow.

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Kellogg's daughter, Meaghan Mobbs: I served in Afghanistan. It was far less intense than Ukraine.

Americans underestimate how intense this war is. We are not ready to fight this way or take the losses a war like this would inevitably bring. 1/

[DBerber 🇺🇦 @Berber_Doris_]

Ich sehe dieses Video gerade erst jetzt mit ein bisschen Verspätung, aber beim Anschauen von Sahra Wagenknechts jüngsten Auftritt bei Markus Lanz und ihrer Erzählung vom angeblichen amerikanischen 28-Punkte-Friedensplan in Alaska musste ich das einfach mal loswerden, weil man das analytisch gesehen von vorne bis hinten komplett zerlegen muss. Wer sich das anschaut, merkt schnell, dass hier mit völlig verzerrten Maßstäben gearbeitet wird, denn Wagenknecht tut so, als läge da ein fertiger, fairer Kompromiss auf den Tisch, den Moskau 🇷🇺 angeblich sofort unterschreiben wollte und den die europäischen 🇪🇺 Staaten nun aus reiner Sturheit sabotieren. Analytisch ist das eine bewusste Verdrehung der Tatsachen. Solche Papiere – sofern sie überhaupt jemals als konkrete, verifizierbare Pläne existierten – verlangen stets maximale, einseitige Zugeständnisse von der Ukraine 🇺🇦, wie etwa weitreichende Gebietsabtretungen und die erzwungene Neutralität, während für Ruzzland keinerlei echte, einklagbare Sicherheitsgarantien oder Verpflichtungen zum Rückzug vorgesehen sind. Das ist kein Friedensangebot, sondern schlicht ein Diktat, das unter dem Deckmantel der Diplomatie verkauft wird.

Besonders perfide ist dabei die dahinterstehende Täter-Opfer-Umkehr, bei der die diplomatischen und politischen Bemühungen der westlichen Staaten von Wagenknecht als ständiges Brückenabbrechen geframt werden, während die eigentliche Verantwortung völlig auf den Kopf gestellt wird. Nicht der Aggressor, der einen brutalen, völkerrechtswidrigen Angriffskrieg führt, wird in die Pflicht genommen, seine Truppen zurückzuziehen, sondern stattdessen werden die Unterstützer des überfallenen Landes dafür kritisiert, dass sie sich nicht einfach fügen. Wer Verhandlungen fordert, die de facto auf die Kapitulation des Opfers hinauslaufen, betreibt keine Friedenspolitik, sondern belohnt und legitimiert gezielten Landraub.

Genau deshalb hinterlässt dieses Muster auch den bitteren Beigeschmack eines reinen Resonanzbodens für fremdgesteuerte Narrative. Es werden exakt die Sprechblasen aus Moskau recycelt, um im hiesigen Diskurs gezielt Unruhe zu stiften, und ob aus kalkuliertem Kalkül oder als nützliche Marionette – es wird permanent die Erzählung bedient, der Westen sei an der Eskalation schuld, während der eigentliche Verursacher des Leids in Schutz genommen wird. Ziel solcher Auftritte ist eben nie eine echte, dauerhafte Lösung auf Basis des Völkerrechts, sondern die gezielte Verunsicherung der Innenpolitik, das Schüren von Angst vor einer Eskalation und das Abgreifen billigen politischen Kapitals.

Man muss sich nach solchen Sendungen eigentlich immer wieder fragen, warum solche Formate diesen Akteuren überhaupt ständig die Bühne bereiten. Natürlich wird dort nachgefragt und widersprochen, aber am Ende gewinnen genau diese Politiker, weil sie dank Quotenlogik und Aufregungsbewirtschaftung ihre plakativen Narrative ungestört in Millionenhaushalte pumpen können. Die Medien machen sich da oft selbst zum unfreiwilligen Verstärker von Propaganda, weil sie das Kalkül dieser Leute genau bedienen. Wer diesen Krieg wirklich beenden will, darf nicht den Opferstatus des Angegriffenen opfern und die Aggression salonfähig machen, und es wird höchste Zeit, diese Mechanismen und diese Propaganda jedes Mal konsequent beim Namen zu nennen.

#Wagenknecht #BSW #Ukraine 🇺🇦

[Mario @PawlowskiMario]

Here is a piece of history about Alice Weidel from AfD party worth knowing🇩🇪🇵���

Alice Weidel’s grandfather, Hans Weidel, was not simply “a German who lived during the Nazi era.” He joined the Nazi Party in 1932, joined the SS in 1933, and later became a Wehrmacht military judge. From 1941, he served as a military judge in Nazi occupied Warsaw, and by 1944 he had been promoted to Oberstabsrichter, a senior military judicial position.

That matters because Nazi military justice was not some ordinary court system operating in unfortunate circumstances. It was part of the machinery of the dictatorship. Nazi military courts issued tens of thousands of death sentences, and more than 20,000 were carried out.

Alice Weidel leads AfD. Her party opposes German military support for Ukraine and has advocated ending sanctions on Russia. Weidel herself has called for restoring German economic and energy relations with Russia.

Weidel says she did not know about her grandfather’s Nazi past because there was no meaningful family relationship with him and the subject was not discussed in her family. I don’t believe that, and it’s up to you to judge her.

[infinity ☮️🇺🇦&🇺🇸&🤔🇩🇪 & ⬛️🟩 @infinity_SMJ]

@xruiztru East Germany 12.5m West Germany 68.5m

[Joni Askola @joni_askola]

Alice Weidel is the embodiment of far-right hypocrisy.

She co-leads the AfD, an anti-immigrant, anti-LGBT German party, yet lives in Switzerland as a lesbian raising children with a foreign-born partner.

The hypocrisy is total, but uninformed racist German voters love it

[infinity ☮️🇺🇦&🇺🇸&🤔🇩🇪 & ⬛️🟩 @infinity_SMJ]

@ulrichspeck „More capitalism“ for an ever aging population of Sachsen-Anhalt with still romanticized memories of old day communism in their bones - good luck with that!

[infinity ☮️🇺🇦&🇺🇸&🤔🇩🇪 & ⬛️🟩 @infinity_SMJ]

@jowettbrendan Maby the easiest but also the most useless considering what goes in

[infinity ☮️🇺🇦&🇺🇸&🤔🇩🇪 & ⬛️🟩 @infinity_SMJ]

@vtchakarova Girl „marxist elements winning 31%“ is quite the rounding error - but yeah 13 something % is bad enough

[Jürgen Nauditt 🇩🇪🇺🇦 @jurgen_nauditt]

Trump described Canada as a far greater enemy of the USA than Putin’s Russia.

It is time to say this openly:

– The USA is currently ruled by a dictator who was most likely recruited back in the days of the USSR.
– As it turns out, the American system of checks and balances does not actually exist in reality.
– The trust between Europe and the USA—which had existed since at least 1945—has been buried; if not forever, then certainly for a very long time.

https://t.co/KgFtDwAzqw

[@BrennpunktUA 🇩🇪🇺🇦 @BrennpunktUA]

You can't make this shit up!

Iran´s IRGC attacks US Aircraft Carrier for the first time with Qasem Basir medium-range anti-ballistic missiles WHAT COULD NOT HAVE BE DONE WITHOUT THE HELP OF RUSSIA!

At the same time Witkoff is licking Putin´s Boots in Moscow on a world stage:

"President Putin, thank you so much for having us. We were sitting outside just now, me, Jared, Kirill, Yuri, and we were talking about, when we retire, we'll have all these incredible stories and memories, and yours will be right at the top of it all."

What a f*cking embarrassment for the United States!

[infinity ☮️🇺🇦&🇺🇸&🤔🇩🇪 & ⬛️🟩 @infinity_SMJ]

@BritToSwiss Your legs are absolutely perfect!!!