This 'College Protester' Isn't Real. It's an AI-Powered Undercover Bot for Cops

That's what I worded it the way I did. At least theoretically the humans have some judgement that could limit who they go after or how far they push and can't propagate infinitely. The issue with AI is the even greater lack of accountability and the potential for its messaging to more easily hit a critical mass. So far, the human version tends to focus on very small groups or subgroups. The scaling seems like a much bigger threat with different possible societal effects.

Yeah, that's fair. Without oversight and just doing it on Reddit for example you could get broad radical bases.

On the other hand, more people to arrest or crack down on? And then they can't vote, so that's parsimonious for some actors.

>“Supervisor [Cavanaugh] ultimately voted for the agreement because Massive Blue is alleged to be in pursuit of human trafficking, a noble goal,” a representative from Cavanaugh’s office told 404 Media in an email. “A major concern regarding the use of the application, is that the government should not be monitoring each and every citizen. To his knowledge, no arrests have been made to date as a result of the use of the application. If Overwatch is used to bring about arrests of human traffickers, then the program should continue. However, if it is just being used to collect surveillance on law-abiding citizens and is not leading to any arrests, then the program needs to be discontinued.”

It's a direct ultimatum: radicalize/encourage the targets, or lose the contract.

At least the government spokesperson is focusing on the actual crime, and not the "we'll report on political opponents" service.

> At least theoretically the humans have some judgement that could limit who they go after or how far they push and can't propagate infinitely.

While the scale is certainly limited, the judgement is not. Cops have been known to use convicted sex criminals, and even medically diagnosed psychopaths to either entrap, provocateur or as foreign agents. There is a famous case in Iceland where the FBI used a convicted sex felon and a known psychopath Siggi Hakkari as a foreign agent to spy in the Icelandic Parliament. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigurdur_Thordarson)

With cops we can safely assume a complete lack of morality and judgement.

>potential for its messaging to more easily hit a critical mass.

Like that time we funded a minor regional insurgency that went on to a) kick out the Russians b) run their own country c) attack us d) kick us out e) run their own country.

The feds losing control of their assets has been a meme ever since Kennedy ate a bullet.

They use "bad people" because the rest of the system is predisposed ignore them when they say "the cops made me do X and I have the text messages to prove it".

>>The feds losing control of their assets has been a meme ever since Kennedy ate a bullet.

Hey, that's not fair. The problem of governments running authoritarian operations that have wider reaching consequences as they spiral out of State control is MUCH older than that...

So the thing about "crime" is that everyone is doing it daily, and just not knowing/being caught. The whole "we'll report on political opponents" is absolutely the value of the software, it's just not reporting anything they can use in court, so it's just boring spying.

The cynical take is that the whole "law-abiding citizens" differentiation is just a way to say "I want this focused on out-group, not targeting in-group bad guys we're not interested in prosecuting". Think about who runs around saying "true Americans" or "patriots" to mean "my coalition" as opposed to a more objective definition.

>wider reaching consequences as they spiral out of State control is MUCH older than that.

Alea iacta est

You saying Caesar was a spook?

It was just an example of the state losing control of an instrument they had built up to increase their own power.

Compromised individuals become assets because they are easiest to coerce. No one volunteers to do this stuff out the goodness of their heart.