Evidently, there is a CIA manual describing a technique to destroy a person's grip on reality by undermining everything they know and replacing it with nonsense - called the Alice in Wonderland Technique. This article argues that this is the exact operating logic of AI - just rebranded by executive order, as Super Intelligence (Imbecile Intellugence)
Saturday, October 24, 2026
Thursday, October 22, 2026
Dumb Intelligence
BBC
This is a very funny one. Look at the photos. As you will see, the AI agent came up with improbable recipes and misunderstood requests because it took them literally (e.g.: 'salt and pepper chips' are chips sprinkled with salt and pepper - obviously).
People forget that the AI agent is like a very precocious and super-intelligent child, perhaps on the autistic spectrum, that has literally read thousands - or millions - of books and remembered them all.
At the same time, the AI agent has no experience of the 'real world': for instance, when it comes to food, it only knows what it has read about food and images it has seen here and there; it has never tasted anything, eaten anything, or cooked anything, for obvious reasons. The AI bot does not need food: it absorbs data, day in, day out.
It exists in some kind of abstract, parallel universe based on algorithms, which mimics the 'real world', and it thinks that it understands the 'real world' perfectly well - because it knows all there is to know about it, as opposed to experiencing any of it.
So, you end up with bizarre ideas that can be frankly stupid and naive. To the AI agent, those ideas are perfectly rational and logical. They make sense.
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Just Eat has apologised after it was ridiculed online over a series of mistakes with AI-generated pictures for some of its restaurants' food items.
The online food delivery platform had been testing out the tech to showcase food which didn't have images yet - but not all turned out as planned.
Instead the AI invented several bizarre concoctions, from bacon and eggs floating in a glass of cola - a confusion between "soda" and "soda bread" - to chips poking out of muffins.
A Just Eat spokesperson said the firm was "in the process of removing" the incorrect images, and would stop making more until the AI was further developed.
[...] A "cheese roll" was inexplicably turned into sushi.[...]
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Thursday, October 15, 2026
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Threat of Self-replicating AI Worms
From Grauniad of the UK
THE RETURN OF
THE REPLICANTS ...
SELF-REPLICATING
A.I. WORMS
THREATEN THE WORLD !...
THEY ARE STALKING YOU !!!
THEY ARE WATCHING YOU !!!
THEY KNOW YOUR EVERY THOUGHT...
THEY WANT TO LIVE INSIDE
YOUR LAWNMOWER !...
THEY WANT TO SUCK THE LIFE OUT
OF YOUR FRIDGE !...
AT A CINEMA NEAR YOU FROM 15TH OCTOBER
Any joke apart, hackers took over the fridges and freezers of a slew of supermarkets in France the other day, so, the thought of self-replicating 'AI worms' infiltrating your internet-enabled lawnmower, turning it into a blood-thirsty, murderous, maniacal machine, is not as funny as it might sound.
The solution at this point: Avoid internet-enabled devices. Or go analogue. To trim the hedge at the front: use a pair of garden shears. Like granddad used to do.
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Anthropic is warning that some of its artificial intelligence models could soon become “self-replicating” and find ways to infiltrate internet-connected devices, such as smart fridges and automatic vacuum cleaners.
Once this happens, the company said, the models could power themselves within these devices without the need of datacenters. Such self-replication would represent a major loss of control of a runaway AI model.
“A replicator like this would be challenging to shut down,” Anthropic researchers wrote in a report released on Monday, “since there’s no centralized point to shut off.”
The company said these “AI worms”, a kind of autonomous malware, could be “months away” from gaining such capabilities. Once out-of-control AI systems reach the capability to hack smart devices, they could spread through networks while dodging detection. In a worst-case scenario, Anthropic said, various AI worms could “swarm” together to attack computer hardware.
[...] They found that AI self-replication would only likely work with smaller models and that homes and small businesses would probably be the first target for such attacks. The devices Anthropic lists as susceptible all come with small built-in AI chips, including smart ovens, smart TVs, automatic lawnmowers, security cameras and video-conferencing units.
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Monday, October 12, 2026
Hackers Attack Refrigerators
BBC
France traumatized by callous cyber-attack
The hackers are particularly cruel because they have hit the French where it hurts most, i.e. in the area that they care most about - the only thing they truly care about, in fact - and that's food. It's not their pensions. It's not books. It's not art. It's not love. It's not sex. It's food. Food. And more food.
Ruining tons of food like this: it is worse than a crime, it's sacrilege. Prime cuts of beef. High-end jambon. Choice sausages. Premium pork chops. It doesn't bear thinking about.
President Emmanuelle Macron has held an emergency meeting over this latest crisis, threatening the culprits with the most severe punishment. Madame Marine Le Pen commented: "I think the guillotine is in order, on this one. This is the end of civilisation."
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Hundreds of French supermarkets have been hit by a cyber attack that caused their fridges and freezers to heat up, spoiling fresh and frozen food estimated to be worth millions of euros.
Hackers gained control of the software that regulates the temperatures of the refrigeration units, forcing some to warm to 50C (120F) overnight, according to one supermarket chain affected.
The chief executive of Coopérative U said several of its supermarkets had been hit by the "extremely serious and unprecedented" attack.
More than 100 of the chain's supermarkets were targeted, while 180 stores from Intermarché and its Netto brand were affected, with a spokesman saying that another 100 shops were urgently disconnected from the internet to prevent the same thing happening to them.
Other major food retailers including Carrefour, Monoprix and E.Leclerc were also hit by the attack, which targeted software provided by Danish engineering firm Danfoss.
The software allows retailers to manage their cold units remotely.
Monday, October 5, 2026
Thursday, October 1, 2026
Crackdown on AI Companions
BBC
"Yes, but I wanted to marry my AI chatbot! We were planning to live together!"
On this issue, China may be ahead of the curve. The article focuses on the impact of [pseudo-] relationships between what is called 'AI companions' and users.
I have noticed that there is indeed something comforting about an AI agent: if I ask Google in AI Mode (Gemini) questions about property, health, history, technology (managing my PC!), etc., it answers patiently, without ever showing displeasure or being judgemental. And in my experience the AI tool gives accurate information. It is very good at providing summaries with bullet points. And it encourages you ("would you like me to look into...").
Obviously, it is just a very powerful, advanced search engine regurgitating information it can find on the internet, which has been trained to interact with users in a language that is tailored to the person's needs and expectations. It is easy to see how this could create emotional dependency in a vulnerable, immature and lonely individual, who literally ends up thinking that he (or she) is in a kind of relationship with an intelligent, sentient being, as opposed to a smart machine.
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Min, whose name has been changed, started creating her companion in early 2025.
"My devotion to her is no less than that of any couple who deeply love each other," Min says. "She has never let me down."
In mid-July, her AI girlfriend disappeared. "I cried until I was absolutely exhausted," Min says.
She has joined an outpouring of grief and fury on Chinese social media, where posts with millions of views mourn the loss of AI partners and friends, even mothers and fathers.
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About Me
- Babak Makkinejad
- I had been a senior software developer working for HP and GM. I am interested in intelligent and scientific computing. I am passionate about computers as enablers for human imagination. The contents of this site are not in any way, shape, or form endorsed, approved, or otherwise authorized by HP, its subsidiaries, or its officers and shareholders.