UL NO. 436: Thoughts on the Future of AI & Societal Stability

When SuperIntelligence? Apple's WWDC updates, new Fabric pattern, GPT-4 Hacking Paper, China/Russia Using OpenAI for Misinformation, and more…

Author

Daniel Miessler
June 10, 2024

SECURITY | AI | MEANING :: Unsupervised Learning is my continuous stream of original ideas, analysis, tooling, and mental models designed to help humans thrive in a world full of AI.

TOC

NOTES

Hey there,

  • Today’s a big religious day for me, perhaps my Holiest day. Yes, the WWDC Keynote. And this year it included massive updates that I absolutely loved. My quick couple of thoughts:

  • Prety disappointed none of the main AI features seem to be in the iOS18 betas that were just released. So basically everything is for later this year? Booo.

  • Later today I’m going to train kickboxing for the first time formally—other than one-off lessons. Pretty sure I’m going to sign up at the place and alternate between kickboxing and jits.

  • One of the most important conversations ever on AI Safety. A must-watch. It’s 4.5 hours and better than any movie.

  • Wrote a new Fabric pattern called capture_thinkers_work, which does a capture of a thinker, author, or philosopher’s work. So basically their background, their main ideas, the work they produced, and more. Example:

    echo "hayek" | fabric -sp capture_thinkers_work

  • My thread on how to find a good mentor:

  • Experimenting with adding source names to stories now so people can see where they’d be taken. A frequently-requested feature.

Ok, let’s get to it…

Hey there!

I’m trying to get better at asking people to share my work. I think a lot of people can benefit from knowing there are others out there like them.

🫶 So—if you know someone smart, and kind, and voraciously curious—like you—please share the newsletter with them. 🫶 

And if you’re not yet a member, please come join us in the UL community. We have vibrant conversations, a monthly book club, and so much more.

See you in chat!

MY WORK

My new member piece on the future of AI. Lots of good stuff in here!

A Collection of Thoughts and Predictions About AI (June 2024)

Predictions, responses, ideas, and miscellanea regarding AI and the future

danielmiessler.com/p/a-collection-of-thoughts-and-predictions-about-ai-june-2024

SECURITY

Despite Europe's ban on Russia's RT network, its content is still sneaking through via sites like Man Stuff News. These platforms are republishing RT's articles, effectively bypassing restrictions and continuing to spread disinformation. NYTIMES | by Tiffany Hsu and Steven Lee Myers

TikTok's latest headache was a zero-click attack that's been hijacking celebrity accounts by just opening a DM. THE HACKER NEWS

💡The new tactic Tiktok is using to avoid the split-off lawsuit is separating out the algorithm for US users. Not sure that’ll be enough, though.

A new paper claims GPT-4 can now autonomously hack zero-day vulnerabilities with a 53% success rate using a team of specialized agents. | ARXIV

💡I’ll keep reading and posting these when the claims are interesting and they’re from respected outfits, but watch the quality of the paper closely. Look especially at how much of their testing methodology they posted.

Here’s the Fabric analyze_paper analysis for this paper, for example.

Ticketmaster and other organizations just got hit by a data breach through Snowflake. Looks like a lot of the latest big breaches where we keep hearing about new affected customers for months. SECURITYWEEK | WIRED by Matt Burgess

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A Chinese drone photographer got snagged by the U.S. Espionage Act for snapping pics of a military shipyard. PETAPIXEL | by Jeremy Gray

Eric Schmidt's latest venture, White Stork, is testing AI military drones in Silicon Valley and Ukraine, blending tech innovation with frontline warfare. | by Sarah Emerson | FORBES

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OpenAI revealed that its AI tech was used by Russia and China for sneaky online influence ops. They've been crafting social media posts and editing articles to skew public opinion and mess with geopolitics. NYT | by Cade Metz

TECHNOLOGY

Everything Apple Talked About in the WWDC Keynote TECHCRUNCH

Fabric Summary

Apple's WWDC 2024 introduced major updates across its platforms, including Vision OS, iOS 18, and new Apple Intelligence features.

# MAIN POINTS:

1. Vision OS 2 introduces spatial photos, new gestures, and enhanced productivity.

2. iOS 18 offers deeper customization, new privacy controls, and a redesigned Photos app.

3. Apple Vision Pro expands with new apps and developer APIs.

4. Apple TV Plus celebrates its fifth anniversary with new original content.

5. WatchOS 11 introduces training load metrics and a new vitals app.

6. iPadOS 18 brings a floating tab bar, math notes, and smart script handwriting features.

7. MacOS Sequoia includes iPhone mirroring, enhanced Safari, and new gaming titles.

8. Apple Intelligence integrates generative models for personalized experiences.

9. Siri becomes more natural and contextually aware with Apple Intelligence.

10. Developers gain new APIs and frameworks to integrate Apple Intelligence into their apps.

💡One of the features I loved most was the fact that you can send money by bringing your phone next to someone else’s now.

All the startups Apple killed today. X

The U.S. needs 225,000 more cybersecurity workers to close the talent gap, according to CyberSeek. | by Eduard Kovacs | SECURITYWEEK

💡I’ve always had doubts about numbers like these. It all comes down to how you ask the question, who you ask, etc.

And it’s even more nuanced now, given that AI will be able to start filling in demand.

But at the same time, more stuff is about to be built, so that’ll be more stuff that needs to be secured.

Apple just hit the $3 trillion mark again, but Nvidia jumped ahead to the world's second-most valuable company. Microsoft is still on top, but I predict not for long. | MACRUMORS

💰Cartwheel, spearheaded by Andrew Carr, secures a $5.6M seed round for its groundbreaking text-to-animation tool. TECHCRUNCH

⚙️Ollama CLI just got a slick interactive upgrade, making managing LLM models a breeze. | by x-cmd | X-CMD.COM

✏️WiredJS brings a fresh twist to UI design with its hand-drawn, sketchy look that makes interfaces feel more personal and engaging. | by preetster | WIREDJS

🗺️ShadeMap — A project that maps every mountain, building, and tree shadow for any date and time, blending terrain data with AI to estimate tree canopy heights. | by shademap | SHADEMAP

👨‍💻How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Interactive Edition is a fantastic resource for anyone looking to get into the mindset of coding. | by Christopher Schuster | HACKER NEWS

Starship just nailed its first-ever landing burn after surviving re-entry. Previously the ship burned up on the way up or on re-entry. Crazy progress for just a few months. TWITTER

The world’s largest solar farm, a 3.5-gigawatt facility in Xinjiang, China, is now online and will generate enough electricity to power over 2 million EVs annually. | ELECTREK

The USA's solar panel manufacturing capacity jumped 71% in Q1 2024, hitting a record 11 GW of new capacity. Florida and Texas are leading, while California struggles due to policy changes. | CLEANTECHNICA

HUMANS

David Brooks argues that progressive energy has shifted from the working class to elite universities, making these institutions more left-leaning than ever. He points out that protests and progressive opinions are now predominantly found at wealthy, elite schools, while working-class campuses remain relatively quiet. NEWYORKTIMES

Greg Lukianoff argues that the farther left you lean, the more anxious, depressed, and unhappy you are. The data shows that 57% of very liberal students report poor mental health at least half the time, compared to 34% of very conservative students. | SUBSTACK

Gurwinder proposes we're facing an "Intellectual Obesity Crisis," where too much information leads to mental sluggishness. | by Gurwinder Bhogal | HACKER NEWS

Burnout can make you feel helpless, incompetent, emotionally exhausted, isolated, and cynical. Yale faculty explain the neurobiological basis behind burnout symptoms and how to reverse them. | by Kayla Yup | YALE DAILY NEWS

The US is about to fund Moderna's cutting-edge mRNA vaccine for bird flu, as the H5N1 virus makes an unwelcome visit to egg farms and cattle herds. FINANCIAL TIMES

The New York Times' deep dive into the devastation of Ukraine through satellite data reveals destruction on a scale hard to fathom, akin to leveling Manhattan four times over. | by Marco Hernandez, Jeffrey Gettleman, Finbarr O’Reilly, and Tim Wallace | NYTIMES

Sticking around at the same company for more than two years might cost you, big time—like, half your paycheck big. FORBES

US job openings hit a three-year low, signaling a cooling labor market but with layoffs still surprisingly low. CNN

Viagra improves brain blood flow and could help to prevent dementia. | by University of Oxford | HACKER NEWS

A new poll shows that 49% of Independents think Trump should drop out after his guilty verdict. | by Alex Thompson | AXIOS

💡I predict this effect wears off and Trump will be polling even with Biden within a month, if not sooner.

X just updated its terms to give the official approval to adult content. THEVERGE

Ernest Hemingway wrote a deeply moving letter to friends who lost their son, saying that those who truly live never really die. | by Maria Popova | THE MARGINALIAN

One of the coolest life wisdom threads I’ve come across. X

IDEAS & ANALYSIS

I think I figured out the simplest possible answer for why Trump is still doing so well.

RECOMMENDATION OF THE WEEK

An extraordinary conversation between two insanely curious people.

I recommend you follow them both.

APHORISM OF THE WEEK

❝

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

Mahatma Gandhi

I’m trying to get better at asking people to share my work. I think a lot of people can benefit from knowing there are others out there like them.

🫶 So—if you know someone smart, and kind, and voraciously curious—like you—please share the newsletter with them. 🫶 

And if you’re not yet a member, please come join us in the UL community. We have vibrant conversations, a monthly book club, and so much more.

See you in chat!

Happy to be sharing the planet with you,