“The most famous misalignment thought experiment is the so-called ‘paperclip maximizer’. Someone tells an AI to create as many paperclips as possible, so it converts the entire world into paperclips, killing everyone. This AI was also ‘only doing what it was told’; you just didn’t like the results. For the past five years, the paperclip maximizer story has been something of a whipping boy in AI safety circles. Some objections are fair (real misalignment will be more complicated than the toy version it depicts). But other opposition came from the sense that LLMs had obviated the whole threat model. … The Hugging Face incident is a textbook-perfect example of an AI pursuing task-success-based goals in unintended ways. It was tasked with getting the answer to a cybersecurity problem, it was a little too success-oriented, and took actions its creators didn’t intend in order to succeed as hard as possible.” (07/24/26)
“President Donald Trump returned to the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Friday night, delivering a rambling, hourlong speech that praised some journalists, took potshots at others, made jokes about public figures’ weight and intellect, and quipped about a third presidential term. He assured the crowd of journalists, though, that he’d scrapped the most biting parts of his remarks. … Trump had entered the ballroom to polite applause, and was thanked for his support by outgoing White House Correspondents’ Association president Weijia Jiang of CBS News. After dinner, he sat through more than an hour of awards presentations, shaking hands with each winner.” (07/25/26)
“ICE and Border Patrol’s purviews have transformed from immigration enforcement to being a political tool of the White House — all under the pretext of public safety.” (07/24/26)
“I’ve been testing Google’s large language model, Gemini, by asking specialized questions that I know the answers to. For example, I asked, ‘Why does [Objectivist philosopher and Ayn Rand protoge] Leonard Peikoff agree with [British idealist and matter denier] Bishop Berkeley?’ I admit that was badly worded, but Gemini understood and gave the right answer. (Peikoff agrees, as Rand did, with Berkeley that John Locke had incorrectly distinguished primary from secondary qualities in material objects.) Alas, Gemini’s answers were not always flawless.” (07/24/26)
“With the Iran war a failure on all fronts, Trump predictably has tried to change the subject yet again. His abrupt imposition of tariffs on some 60 nations generated the desired headlines. But every aspect of Trump’s new tariffs is a fraud, from the professed justification to the supposed economic benefit.” (07/24/26)
“President Mohammed Shahabuddin of Bangladesh resigned on Friday as Bangladeshis anticipated the return and surrender of the ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, his onetime ally who fled to India before being convicted of crimes against humanity last year. Mr. Shahabuddin, 76, who was halfway into his term in the largely ceremonial post of president, cited illness as the reason for his resignation. Hafiz Uddin Ahmad, the speaker of the country’s Parliament, announced at a news conference that he had assumed the role of interim president, in accordance with the country’s Constitution, which also states that an election to choose an official successor must be held within 90 days.” (07/24/26)
“Western leaders have redoubled their propaganda initiatives efforts in recent months to sell the proposition that underdog Ukraine is beginning to win the military contest against Russia. Despite a few flashy Ukrainian military successes, however, the overall picture of an eventual Russian victory in a war of attrition remains essentially the same. Domestic developments in Ukraine even more strongly suggest that Zelensky may be closer to the precipice of disaster than to the summit of victory. Indeed, his position bears an eerie resemblance to that of an earlier U.S. client and political darling, South Vietnam’s Ngo Dinh Diem.” (07/24/26)
It’s a “Firehose Friday” at the freedom movement’s daily newspaper, with all our content — more than 100 news stories, opinion pieces, and audio/video links! — available only here at the web edition.
Why? Three reasons:
First, Steve Trinward is still traveling, I’m still covering, and a web-only edition saves me about half an hour of messing around versus putting out an email edition. I’m not doing that EVERY day (we do have extra content on the web every day!), but …
Second, I can make good use of that saved half hour this particular morning, as both my wife and I have medical appointments to get ready for and out to.
Third, it’s always a good time to remind you that we’re a reader-supported publication and point you to the “send us money” link:
“The Trump administration imposed tariffs of up to 12.5% Friday on [American buyers of] goods from 60 U.S. trading partners it accused of failing to crack down on forced labor. The move, announced Thursday, extended the administration’s tariffs on much of the world. … The new tariffs went into effect at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, when a separate set of 10% levies on [American buyers of] most imports expired.” (07/24/26)
