#RESIST: Data poisoning: how artists are sabotaging AI to take revenge on image generators.

Researchers who want to empower individual artists have recently created a tool named “Nightshade” to fight back against unauthorised image scraping.

The tool works by subtly altering an image’s pixels in a way that wreaks havoc to computer vision but leaves the image unaltered to a human’s eyes.

If an organisation then scrapes one of these images to train a future AI model, its data pool becomes “poisoned”. This can result in the algorithm mistakenly learning to classify an image as something a human would visually know to be untrue. As a result, the generator can start returning unpredictable and unintended results.

As in our earlier example, a balloon might become an egg. A request for an image in the style of Monet might instead return an image in the style of Picasso.

Some of the issues with earlier AI models, such as trouble accurately rendering hands, for example, could return. The models could also introduce other odd and illogical features to images – think six-legged dogs or deformed couches.

The higher the number of “poisoned” images in the training data, the greater the disruption. Because of how generative AI works, the damage from “poisoned” images also affects related prompt keywords.

I’m curious how pixels are “altered” but the article is skimpy on the details.

JUST WENT TO THE TOP OF MY LIST: Book Review: David Solway’s ‘Crossing the Jordan: On Judaism, Islam and the West.’

OUCH: Russia’s Central Bank Raises Key Rate to 16% Amid Growing Inflation.

The central bank has been grappling with the economic fallout of the offensive in Ukraine that includes Western sanctions, a surge in government military spending and the call-up of hundreds of thousands of men.

“Current inflationary pressures remain high. Annual inflation for 2023 is expected to be close to the upper bound of the 7.0–7.5% forecast range,” the Bank of Russia said in a statement explaining its decision.

Higher interest rates are designed to sap demand by making it more expensive to borrow money and encouraging consumers and businesses to save, not spend.

Analysts expected the increase as the central bank repeatedly stated its priority to fight inflation, which accelerated to 7.5% in November.

The Bank said it was anticipating “that tight monetary conditions will be maintained in the economy for a long period.”

The exchange rate is seen as a key barometer of Russia’s economic health by politicians, businesses and the population.

Maybe Biden will rejigger his campaign messaging to “At least we aren’t Russia.”

#RESIST: Gov. Abbott: If Biden Won’t Lock Up Illegals, Texas Will. “If you thought the situation on our southern border — aka “WHAT southern border?” — was chaotic, wait until the fight over the bills Abbott just signed hits the courts.”

WELCOME TO THE PARTY, PAL: China’s real estate meltdown is battering middle class wealth.

At the heart of the decline in family wealth is China’s real estate meltdown, which having a pervasive effect on a society where 70% of family assets are tied up in property. Every 5% decline in home prices will wipe out 19 trillion yuan ($2.7 trillion) in housing wealth, according to Bloomberg Economics.

“It might just be the beginning of more wealth losses in coming years,” said Eric Zhu, an economist with Bloomberg Economics. “Unless there’s a big bull market, small gains in financial wealth are unlikely to offset losses in housing wealth.”

While China’s official data show just a mild drop in its existing home prices, evidence from property agents and private data providers indicate declines of at least 15% in prime areas in its biggest cities.”

There are more middle-class Chinese than there are Americans of any income. Anything that impacts them negatively is going to have global repercussions — probably largely positive for American consumers.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Elon Musk Is Making All the Right Enemies. “If it’s the World vs. Elon Musk, I’m taking Musk every time. Just thought I’d get that out of the way up front.”

PHILIP ZELIKOW: The Atrophy of American Statecraft.

The world has entered a period of high crisis. Wars rage in Europe and the Middle East, and the threat of war looms in East Asia. In Russia, China, and North Korea, the United States faces three hostile states with nuclear weapons and, in Iran, another on the verge of acquiring them. Beyond the headlines, states are failing in Africa, Latin America, and Southwest Asia, and enormous migrations are in motion. Having just weathered a pandemic that was the costliest crisis since 1945, the United States must now contend with other urgent transnational challenges, such as managing energy transition amid a deteriorating climate, the rapid development of artificial intelligence, and a global capitalist system under more pressure than it has been for decades. Unpacked, each one of these issues has its own set of complex problems that few understand. And on almost every issue, whether they like the Americans or resent them, people in the world look to the U.S. government for help, if only in organizing the work.

The Americans cannot meet this demand. Their supply of effective policies is limited. The United States does not have the breadth and depth of competence—capabilities and know-how—in its contemporary government. The problem has existed for decades, as has been depressingly evident from time to time. What is new is the context.

It’s an interesting article with some good points but I think Zelikow missed the big one. The elites who manage America’s statecraft don’t like America very much or understand her at all, so it should come as no surprise that they consistently fail to promote or protect her interests.

MEGAN FOX: Why Does the Industrial-Medical Complex Want You to Fear Ketamine?

PRIORITIES: Italy’s Meloni Cuts The Baloney. “Despite the Russo-Ukrainian War and the growing recession, unlimited Islamic immigration into traditionally Christian European countries is the hot-button topic European elites have been desperate to avoid talking about, and the one in which governing elite groupthink seems farthest away from the actual will of the people.”

That’s changing but not fast enough or in enough countries — then again, who had predicted Italy as the first country in Western Europe to start straightening out its politics?

COLONIALISM, STRAIGHT UP: ‘Conquered’: Minnesota’s New Flag Bears a Strong Resemblance to THIS Flag.

BIDEN CRIME FAMILY UPDATE: Joe Biden’s Brother Was Caught on Tape in FBI Bribery Sting. “A corrupt trial attorney went to James Biden to get what he wanted… solely because he is Joe Biden’s brother.”

HMM: Apple to halt sales of latest smartwatches over patent dispute. “On Dec. 21, the company will halt sales of new smartwatch models online. Retail stores will also stop selling the smartwatches on Dec. 24. Sales of the smartwatches will continue outside of the U.S., Apple noted.”

THE CDC BLEW ITS CREDIBILITY: Americans Yawn at CDC Warnings About ‘Tripledemic.’ “The CDC began its big vaccination push more than two months ago, with this tragically hip tweet from CDC director Mandy Cohen.”

GOODER AND HARDER, COLORADO: Colorado’s year-over-year inflation continues to outpace the national rate of 3.1%.

While inflation rates in the Denver metro area have dropped to 4.5% in November, down from 5.4% in September, Colorado’s year-over-year inflation rate still surpasses the national average of 3.1%.

According to analysis conducted by the Colorado State Initiative (CSI), the average family in Colorado is spending an additional $1,206 per month compared to pre-pandemic times. This highlights the significant impact of inflation on households across the state.

One area of particular concern is household gas and utility prices.

From November 2022 to November 2023, these prices experienced an alarming 11% increase in the Denver metro area, significantly higher than the mere 0.2% increase observed nationwide. This disparity places an additional strain on local Colorado residents, who are already grappling with rising living expenses.

But we ain’t seen nothin’ yet: “Under a first-of-its-kind state law, Colorado is requiring gas distribution utilities to submit plans to state regulators showing how they would reduce greenhouse gases 22 percent by 2030 compared with 2015 levels.”

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Civilization Has to Go Medieval on Terrorists.

COMMIES GOTTA COMMIE: Choice, selective schools perpetuate ‘inequity,’ says Chicago mayor, school board.

“Equality in misery” is the new plan for Chicago Public Schools, writes Paul Vallas, who lost the race for mayor to Brandon Johnson, a former teachers’ union organizer. “Chain students to a failing school system by ending the state private school scholarship program & dismantling public charter & magnet high schools,” writes Vallas, former CEO of the district, on X. “Poor families will suffer most.”

Chicago’s high-performing selective-admissions high schools, magnet schools and other forms of choice reinforce “cycles of inequity” and must be replaced with “anti-racist processes and initiatives that eliminate all forms of racial oppression,” the Chicago Public Schools board has resolved.

Earlier: From Woke Walkouts To Dumping Selective Enrollment, Illinois Schools Are Melting Down.

THE ENEMY WITHIN: Empire State Building Lights Up to Honor Country Linked to Oct. 7 Massacre in Israel AND 9/11.

UPSIDE DOWN: Car Buyers Increasingly Owe More Than Their Vehicles Are Worth as Interest Rates Rise. “Car buyers with so-called negative equity were underwater by an average of $6,054 in November, the highest figure since April 2020, Bloomberg reported Saturday, citing data from the automotive website Edmunds.com. Average negative equity was $5,300 in 2019.”

DON’T GET COCKY: Are We Underestimating the Democrats in 2024?

DECLINE IS A CHOICE: From Woke Walkouts To Dumping Selective Enrollment, Illinois Schools Are Melting Down.

IMSA students who participated in the Dec. 8 demonstration, however, are demanding the university take its leftist policies even further. Included in their list of demands are requests for the school to publicize a list of “possible consequences for students following a bias incident report,” including “detentions, removal from leadership positions, suspensions, expulsions, and notification to parents.”

But the students who chanted “Silence is complacence!” and “Why are our pronouns not used?” during the Dec. 8 demonstration didn’t stop there. They also want the university to notify any “potential future colleges” that offending students may consider transferring to or attending in the future, after they are presumably expelled for their supposed transgressions. In essence, the demonstrators want to destroy possible offenders’ future educational and career prospects based on potentially-anonymous reporting of “incidents” like not using a person’s preferred pronouns.

The list also includes a demand that possible consequences for offending faculty members be publicized, recommending punishments that “include, but go beyond only educational conversations and required training.”

Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a far-left Democrat, announced plans this week to cripple the city’s “high-achieving selective-enrollment schools” in the name of so-called “equity.” During his mayoral campaign earlier this year, Johnson explicitly promised city residents his administration “would not end selective enrollment” at Chicago public schools.

When even students at a STEM university like the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy are all-in on DEI Marxism, it’s hard to get too concerned over what Chicago or the state might do next to screw up their schools.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Homelessness Now at Highest Level in U.S. History.

TECHNICALLY, IT’S OUR 2021-2024 PROBLEM: Biden’s 2024 Problem: Voters Say His Policies Hurt Them.

More than half the country now thinks Biden’s policies have done them harm and nearly as many voters think Trump’s policies helped them, a foreboding sign for the incumbent heading into a likely rematch with his 2020 foe.

For Biden, the finding in a recent Wall Street Journal poll offers a stark explanation of why support from those who helped put him in office is waning. It also illustrates why Democrats are increasingly worried about his prospects, even against an unpopular Republican opponent with whom Biden hopes to draw a contrast.

Voters across the political spectrum single out inflation and high prices as a chief complaint about Biden’s presidency, but some also are upset with his broader record on domestic and foreign policy. Many voters couldn’t cite specific Biden administration policies they disliked, but instead channeled a pervasive malaise in the country that they said was difficult to pin down. Several said they were considering supporting an alternative to either party’s front-runner or not voting at all.

In interviews with voters, what’s striking is that the frustration is coming from all sides of the coalition that put Biden in the White House.

Plus: “Among voters overall, 53% of voters said Biden’s policies hurt them, and less than a quarter—23%— said they were helped by his policies. Some 49% of voters said Trump’s policies personally helped them, while just 37% said they hurt them.”

Mean tweets are looking better all the time.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The Rot on American Campuses Stinks More Every Day. “We kicked off last week discussing the firing of University of Pennsylvania’s Liz Magill. I mentioned that getting rid of a few university presidents here and there wasn’t enough to reverse the damage that has been done to campus culture in America, but it was nice to see something done. Alas, Magill was the only domino to fall. Academia’s status quo is largely intact.”

THIS IS THE WAY: Elon Musk joins Italy PM at festival, says ‘make more Italians’ to counter migration.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk joined Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at a festival in Rome on Saturday where he urged during a discussion on mass migration in Europe to “make more Italians to save Italy’s culture.”

“I really want to emphasize that it’s important to have children and to create the new generation. And as simple as it sounds, if people do not have children, there is no new generation,” Musk said during the annual political festival Atreju, organized by Meloni’s Brothers of Italy political party, after carrying his young son onto the stage. “I’m very much in favor of humanity expanding and creating a bright and exciting future for the world. But fundamental to the furtherance of human civilization, is having humans. As simple and basic as that sounds. Every year, I look at the birth rates, and it’s kind of a bit depressing because birth rates seem to decline every year.”

Encouraging leaders to create incentives to make it easier for women to have children and support those children, Musk stressed, “If there is not at least a birth rate keeping the population constant, then people will disappear.”

Musk is certainly doing his part.

BLUE ON BLUE: Anti-Israel Delaware State Rep Heckles Harris at Veep’s Holiday Party.