The Militarized AI Risk That’s Bigger Than “Killer Robots” | Drones and Port Security in Brownsville | Multiple Hacks of U.S. Water Utilities, and more

Jewish groups are suing over policies enacted by at least 23 Berkeley Law student groups that exclude students from joining or bar guest speakers from presenting if they do not agree to disavow Israel or if they identify as Zionists. They argue that anti-Zionism is a form of antisemitism and say that the policies violate the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause, the First Amendment right to freedom of religion, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and more.

Ken Buck Blasts His Party’s Hardliners for ‘Lying to America’  (Kelly Garrity, Politico)
Republican Rep. Ken Buck laid into his own party Sunday, blasting those who continue to propagate the lie that the 2020 election was stolen for “lying to America.”
“Everybody who thinks that the election was stolen or talks about the election being stolen is lying to America,” the Colorado Republican said during an interview in CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Buck didn’t stop there.
“Everyone who makes the argument that January 6 was, you know, an unguided tour of the Capitol is lying to America. Everyone who says that the prisoners who are being prosecuted right now for their involvement in January 6, that they are somehow political prisoners or that they didn’t commit crimes, those folks are lying to America.”

The Militarized AI Risk That’s Bigger Than “Killer Robots”  (Jeffrey Lewis, Vox)
After the summit between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Biden, in his remarks to the press, explained that “we’re going to get our experts together to discuss risk and safety issues associated with artificial intelligence.”
US and Chinese officials were short on details about which experts would be involved or which risk and safety issues would be discussed. There is, of course, plenty for the two sides to talk about. Those discussions could range from the so-called “catastrophic” risk of AI systems that aren’t aligned with human values — think Skynet from the Terminator movies — to the increasingly commonplace use of lethal autonomous weapons systems, which activists sometimes call “killer robots.” And then there is the scenario somewhere in between the two: the potential for the use of AI in deciding to use nuclear weapons, ordering a nuclear strike, and executing one.
A ban, though, is unlikely to come up — for at least two key reasons. The first issue is definitional. There is no neat and tidy definition that divides the kind of artificial intelligence that is already integrated into everyday life around us and the kind we worry about in the future. Artificial intelligence already wins all the time at chess, Go, and other games. It drives cars. It sorts through massive amounts of data — which brings me to the second reason no one wants to ban AI in military systems: It’s much too useful. The things AI is already so good at doing in civilian settings are also useful in war, and it’s already been adopted for those purposes. As artificial intelligence becomes more and more intelligent, the US, China, and others are racing to integrate these advances into their respective military systems, not looking for ways to ban it. There is, in many ways, a burgeoning arms race in the field of artificial intelligence.

Drones and Port Security in Brownsville: A Case Study on the Gulf  (Dr. John P. Sullivan, HSToday)
Drones are increasingly recognized as a feature of the contemporary operational environment. Indeed, drones—of all types: aerial, waterborne (maritime), and ground (surface and subsurface) are increasingly present in military operations demonstrating their potential future influence in criminal and terrorist activities. Indeed, drones, including consumer or commercial off-the-shelf, aerial drones (unmanned aerial systems or UAS) have become a significant presence in the Ukraine War, with drones of all types currently active in the Gaza conflict. This brief report summarizes the findings of recent research on drone threats at ports. Specifically, this article discusses a threat assessment of the Port of Brownsville sponsored by the Institute of Homeland Security at Sam Houston State University.