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Watch: RFK Jr. Blasts Public Health Agencies for Endorsing Mass Lockdowns
Speaking during a town hall style interview Tuesday, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. slammed public heath agencies for going along with the government in implementing mass lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
RFK Jr. told the crowd that the actions were completely antithetical to the established course of action that should be taken during such an event.
“What they were doing violated all of the orthodoxy,” Kennedy noted, adding “We’ve had the WHO [World Health Organization], CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], the DHS [U.S. Department of Homeland Security], and all the three-letter agencies have thought about pandemics for a hundred years. And they’ve worked on very, very carefully on pandemic preparedness protocols. And all of those protocols said you never lock down a population.”
“You cannot stop a respiratory virus with lockdowns. You’re going to actually amplify it, because they spread indoors,” Kennedy continued, citing historic medical papers that long ago criticized lockdown measures as a means of mitigating the spread of viruses.
“And what all the orthodox protocols said is that you quarantine the sick, you protect the vulnerable, and then you let the population continue. Because, when you shut down businesses, that kills people. Unemployment kills people,” RFK Jr. further urged.
Parents Are Using AirTags to Track Kids Too Young for a Phone
Stephanie Chin can always find her daughter. Between school, activities and friends, her 8-year-old’s busy schedule takes her to various locations away from the family’s Virginia home. At any time, Chin and her husband can open their smartphones to see their child’s recent location on a map. They’re getting it from two Apple AirTags tucked deep in her backpack.
Chin is one of many parents and caregivers using tracking devices to keep tabs on children old enough to wander away but too young for a phone.
Adults are putting trackers in backpacks, on bikes or directly on kids for extra accuracy. Online, companies sell hundreds of colorful tracker holders for children including wristbands, keychains, lanyards and pins. Some caregivers sew them into jackets or tie them to shoes to protect them from their chaotic hosts.
When Apple released AirTags in 2021, the company clearly stated that they were not to be used for children or pets, only inanimate objects. The small print isn’t stopping people. In addition to children, caregivers are using them for people with dementia or Alzheimer’s, and pet owners are putting them in custom cat and dog collars.
However it’s done, tracking kids is a sensitive subject. Is it surveillance-culture gone overboard, a smart hack for managing a busy family, or a way to claw back some of the freedom previous generations had that’s missing?
Pentagon-Funded Study Uses AI to Detect ‘Violations of Social Norms’ in Text
New research funded by the Pentagon suggests that artificial intelligence (AI) can scan and analyze blocks of text to discern whether the humans who wrote it have done something wrong or not.
The paper, written by two researchers at Ben-Gurion University, leverages predictive models that can analyze messages for what they call “social norm violations.”
To do this, researchers used GPT-3 (a programmable large language model created by OpenAI that can automate content creation and analysis), along with a method of data parsing known as zero-shot text classification, to identify broad categories of “norm violations” in text messages.
In essence, the research seems to be yet another form of sentiment analysis — an already fairly well-traversed area of the surveillance industrial complex. It’s also yet another sign that AI will inexorably be used to broaden the U.S. defense community’s powers, with decidedly alarming results.
AI at Some Subway Stations to Track When and How Fare Evaders Are Getting Through
The next time you walk through the turnstile at a New York City subway station, artificial intelligence (AI) might be watching you.
The city’s subway system is now using AI surveillance technology to track fare evasion. The AI integrates with existing camera infrastructure in stations to monitor video feeds in real time, providing 24/7 data on when and how people are getting onto the subway without paying.
Though the technology is currently only in use at seven stations across the city, NYC’s Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) plans to expand its use to two dozen more stations by the end of the year.
An MTA spokesperson declined to tell Insider which stations the technology is in use at or those that it plans on expanding to.
Even OpenAI Can’t Tell the Difference Between Original Content and AI-Generated Content — and That’s Worrying
Did a bot write this article? We’ll never know!
Open AI, the creator of the incredibly popular AI chatbot ChatGPT, has officially shut down the tool it had developed for detecting content created by AI and not humans. ‘AI Classifier’ has been scrapped just six months after its launch – apparently due to a ‘low rate of accuracy’, says OpenAI in a blog post.
ChatGPT has exploded in popularity this year, worming its way into every aspect of our digital lives, with a slew of rival services and copycats.
Of course, the flood of AI-generated content does bring up concerns from multiple groups surrounding inaccurate, inhuman content pervading our social media and newsfeeds.
Educators in particular are troubled by the different ways ChatGPT has been used to write essays and assignments that are passed off as original work.
UNESCO Is Calling for a Global Ban on Smartphones in Schools
Smartphones are doing more harm than good, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) believes.
UNESCO believes smartphones should be banned from schools, as they distract students and don’t really contribute to the learning process.
The UN’s educational organization has launched a global new report on technology in education, calling for governments around the world to regulate its use.
Called, “Technology in education: A tool on whose terms?” the report argues that when used in excess, or without the presence of a qualified teacher, any benefits technology in the classroom might have — disappear.
“The digital revolution holds immeasurable potential but, just as warnings have been voiced for how it should be regulated in society, similar attention must be paid to the way it is used in education. Its use must be for enhanced learning experiences and for the well-being of students and teachers, not to their detriment,” warns Audrey Azoulay, Director General of UNESCO.
The Vast Surveillance Network That Traps Thousands of Disabled Medicaid Recipients
Technology is perpetuating discrimination.
In Arkansas, the Guardian reported on a disabled Medicaid recipient who depleted his savings to pay for a smartphone for his Medicaid-covered caregiver — and then had to pay even more to cover caregiver wages that were withheld due to technical glitches.
In Ohio, the Mighty reported on someone who placed the electronic device meant to certify his caregiver’s activities in the refrigerator when not in use because he was concerned about privacy.
And throughout the U.S., other outlets have reported on disabled people who have been forced to share photographs and biometric data with third-party apps if they want to continue receiving government support to pay for their in-home care.
