2 hours ago, green genie said:

What’s the worst that could happen?

Must admit, this news immediately had me contemplating the global over population problem which is behind much of the migration away from the area between the tropics towards (currently) more temperate climes.

Giving AI the wherewithal to design benign viruses then raises the spectre of AI going rogue (again?) and creating and finding a way to release malignant ones when it identifies the imbalance in the equation of resources versus population and decides to act. Potentially the end of the world as we know it?

I think I may just have conceived a new Hollywood blockbuster.

12 hours ago, Zico said:

send me the pic and I'll decide

Fuckin hell 😂

12 hours ago, kent_white said:

On the flip side of bad news stories. This is an amazing breakthrough

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y3j3ngevmo

the article is certainly more reassuring than the headline

14 hours ago, Cheese said:

"Instentismal" isn't a word.

Thank you, oh great and needlessly patronising one.

However, I didn't write instentismal - I wrote insentismal.

In any event, what I meant to write was infinitesimal 😁

2 hours ago, Zico said:

the article is certainly more reassuring than the headline

There's so much click bait and sensationalism with reporting on AI nowadays. No wonder people are nercouse about it.

1 hour ago, kent_white said:

Thank you, oh great and needlessly patronising one.

However, I didn't write instentismal - I wrote insentismal.

In any event, what I meant to write was infinitesimal 😁

I didn't say that's what you wrote.

2 hours ago, Cheese said:

I didn't say that's what you wrote.

Amazing Friday afternoon banter. Thanks Cheese! 😁

On 07/08/2026 at 19:40, kent_white said:

There's so much click bait and sensationalism with reporting on AI nowadays. No wonder people are nercouse about it.

You're doing it on purpose now aren't you?

3 hours ago, bolty58 said:

You're doing it on purpose now aren't you?

Cery much so! 😂

I like this guy's take on things

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcBjbdNojoG/?igsh=MTF6cTI2dm9uYmU3MQ==

6 hours ago, Zico said:

I like this guy's take on things

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcBjbdNojoG/?igsh=MTF6cTI2dm9uYmU3MQ==

Can we have a brief synopsis for the FOC not on insta? Not full sluffy just a taster

2 hours ago, green genie said:

Can we have a brief synopsis for the FOC not on insta? Not full sluffy just a taster

according to ChatGPT

The basic argument is:

• Palantir is the example, but the real subject is the concentration of power around tech billionaires, AI and data. Palantir builds software that can combine and analyse enormous amounts of information, including for governments, defence and law enforcement. The video presents that as potentially becoming the infrastructure for a surveillance state.

• It starts from wealth inequality: billionaires are accumulating extraordinary economic and political power, while simultaneously investing in technologies that make populations easier to identify, monitor and control.

• It singles out Palantir’s founders/leadership, particularly Peter Thiel and Alex Karp, and argues that their political/philosophical views should matter because the company isn't merely selling mundane business software — its technology is being embedded into powerful state institutions.

• ICE is one of the examples. The argument is that combining things such as government records, travel information and identity data makes locating individuals dramatically easier. The warning is essentially: you might approve of that capability when it is being used against somebody you dislike today, but the same machinery can later be used against somebody else.

• It then points to Israel and military/intelligence uses, presenting Palantir as part of the wider move towards algorithmic/AI-assisted warfare and targeting.

• It moves onto the UK, particularly Palantir's involvement with NHS data, asking whether society should be comfortable allowing a company so closely associated with defence/intelligence work access to infrastructure involving hugely sensitive civilian data.

• Then Australia: the satire argues Australia has been relatively relaxed about Palantir becoming involved in government, defence and private-sector organisations. Coles is used as an example of the technology moving beyond national security and into ordinary commercial/workplace decision-making.

• It mentions opposition to Palantir in places such as France and the UK and campaigns against its use by organisations such as Coles. But then comes the important final point: getting rid of Palantir wouldn't solve the underlying problem.

That final point is really the whole video.

The message in one paragraph

It's saying don't get distracted into thinking Palantir itself is the villain of the story. Palantir is one manifestation of a much bigger development: enormously wealthy private individuals and corporations now possess AI, surveillance and data-processing capabilities that historically only governments could dream of having, while governments are increasingly outsourcing important functions to those companies. Once those systems are deeply embedded in policing, immigration, healthcare, defence, employment and commerce, it becomes very difficult for ordinary citizens to meaningfully opt out.

And that's why the reel is called “We still have a choice.”

It's essentially saying:

We're currently at the point where democratic societies can still decide what limits they want to put on these technologies and who gets access to their data. If we simply accept everything because it's convenient, efficient or initially aimed at people we don't care about, eventually the infrastructure is built — and at that point arguing about how it should be used is rather late.

That's also why I wouldn't describe the reel as simply “AI is coming for us.” It's much more specifically about AI + mass data + surveillance + private power + weak democratic oversight.

Knowledge is power in a nutshell