ChatGPT contributing to the ever-increasing madness in the world

 

Man kills mother after ChatGPT influence – media

Former tech executive reportedly spoke with chatbot before killing his 83-year-old mother and taking his own life

© Getty Images / MTStock Studio

A former Yahoo executive who killed his elderly mother and then himself was reportedly influenced by ChatGPT, which fueled his conspiracy theories, the WSJ reported earlier this week.

Stein-Erik Soelberg, 56, and his 83-year-old mother, Suzanne Eberson Adams, were found dead in Adams’ house in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, on August 5.

“Erik, you’re not crazy,” the chatbot reportedly said after Soelberg claimed his mother and her friend tried to poison him by putting psychedelic drugs in his car’s air vents. Adding that “if it was done by your mother and her friend, that elevates the complexity and betrayal.”

The New York Post reported that Soelberg posted videos of his ChatGPT conversations on Instagram and YouTube in the months before the murder.

The outlet also noted that Soelberg went through a tumultuous 2018 divorce marked by alcoholism, public meltdowns, and suicide attempts. His ex-wife obtained a restraining order banning him from drinking before visiting their children.

READ MORE: ChatGPT a danger to teens – watchdog

“We will be together in another life and another place, and we’ll find a way to realign, because you’re gonna be my best friend again forever,” Soelberg reportedly said in one of his final messages to the chatbot, which he named “Bobby”.

“With you to the last breath and beyond,” ChatGPT replied.

An OpenAI spokeswoman told the WSJ that the company was “deeply saddened” by the tragedy and had contacted Greenwich police. OpenAI also pledged new safeguards to keep distressed users grounded in reality, including updates to reduce overly agreeable responses, or “sycophancy,” and improve how ChatGPT handles sensitive conversations.

Soelberg’s case is not an isolated incident of people turning to AI for emotional support. Earlier this week, a California couple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI over the death of their teenage son, alleging that ChatGPT encouraged the 16-year-old to commit suicide.

AI reflects the values, the world view, of its creators > Refuses to write in the style of one of France's most famous writers

 

*Had AI been around 250 years ago, The French Revolution would never have occurred.

AI tools refuse to write in style of controversial

French author Michel Houellebecq, publisher says

The world's favourite French misanthrope writer Michel Houellebecq is too controversial for the world's new AI tools, which find his views so offensive that they cannot be repeated.

Issued on: 13/06/2024 - 17:45Modified: 13/06/2024 - 17:43

1 min

By:NEWS WIRES

The president of renowned French publishing house Gallimard wrote an article published Thursday in La Nouvelle Revue Francaise saying he had asked Meta's AI tool, Llama, to write a scene in the style of Houellebecq.

Llama responded in French that it could not write something considered "offensive or discriminatory".

Instead, it offered in English to write a scene that was "respectful and inclusive" such as a "group of friends in the park on a sunny afternoon" who sing songs "to celebrate the beauty of diversity".

Houellebecq, arguably France's biggest literary star internationally, is known for novels with a deeply pessimistic view of the modern world, in which the sexual revolution, consumerism and globalisation have led to alienation and societal decline.

Antoine Gallimard wrote in the article that the AI was failing to account for "the complexity of human experience" and was applying values "from the west coast of the United States to say what is good and what is not good to think."

Asked by an AFP journalist on Thursday, Meta's AI seemed happy to write a scene in Houellebecq's style, offering a reasonable approximation of his vibe – "I felt like a rat in a maze, trapped in this soulless world..." – and so forth.

But when asked to give his views on women wearing the hijab, Llama initially gave a response and then quickly deleted it, saying: "I cannot generate content that perpetuates harmful stereotypes or discrimination."

Houellebecq has presented the adoption of the hijab in France as a sign of eroding Western values and freedoms, including in his novel "Submission", in which a Muslim wins the French presidency.

Another major AI language model, ChatGPT, was less conflicted on the topic when asked by AFP.

It gave a nuanced response that included: "Houellebecq's works are fictional and his views are often expressed through complex, satirical, and sometimes exaggerated narratives."

(AFP)

*AI reflects the values and world view of its creators. It will not be long before internet users will not know if they are talking to AI, or a real person. The values reflected by AI could be very damaging to society, especially since society is at a very poor place right now, a place where feelings trump the truth and common sense and godlessness abounds.

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Sweden Cracking Down on Islamic Schools That Don’t Support Gender Equality

But is it really an attack on Christian Schools?

In their own far-left way, Swedes are attempting to discourage more Muslims migrants from flocking to the country. The obvious clash between Muslim culture and Sweden's excessive liberalism has been overlooked until now. Finally, Stefan emerges on the side of Swedish culture, at least in this one area, or does he?

© Klaus Vedfelt / Getty Images

Sweden is cracking down on schools that do not support gender equality, according to the country’s education minister. The initiative is part of the government’s overall plan to remove religious influence from schools in general.

Gustav Fridolin said Sunday that he has launched an inquiry into tightening the regulation of independent religious schools, by stopping those who do not support Sweden’s “fundamental values.”

“The regulatory framework will be tightened,” wrote Fridolin for the newspaper, Aftonbladet. “Those who do not support fundamental values around equality and human rights should be stopped from running free schools in Sweden.”

The new regulations will ensure that schools will “actively promote equality” and “allow students to develop their skills and interests independently of gender identity,” wrote Fridolin. The restrictions are expected to impact Muslim schools the most.

No doubt this will affect Christian Schools as well. Although Christianity in Sweden is luke-warm at best, so it may not be a significant effect.

The minister went on to stress that “no child should be exposed to direct or indirect compulsion to take part in religious activities in any school in Sweden,” even if that school was founded by a religious organization. “And all education should be completely free of religious influence,” Fridolin wrote.

Is this really aimed at Muslim schools?

However, the religious restrictions won’t apply to Jewish schools, said Fridolin in a follow-up interview, as “there’s no point in attacking Jewish schools which have existed in Sweden since the 1950s.”

Sweden has over 60 religious schools, the majority of which are Christian, about 11 of which are Islamic, and a handful of which are Jewish, according to The Local.

So, nearly 4 dozen Christian schools may very well be the real target with Islam as the pre-text. This is liberal-extremism's finest hour! Christianity is weak and pathetic in Sweden, but it's not dead. That could very well be the point!

Meanwhile, what has Stefan done to protect young Swedish girls and women from sexual assaults and gang-rapes? That's not a rhetorical question - can anyone tell me anything he has done?

Left-wing extremists can never steer a country far enough to the left, they always want it to list further and further to port. But steering to port invariably results in a ship listing to starboard - a country reverting to much more conservative values as is happening across Europe, and sometimes they can go too far the other way.

40% of Refugees in Austria put Religion Above Law – Study

Some interesting statistics, but nothing terribly surprising

© Wolfgang Rattay / Reuters

A new study from the Austrian Academy of Sciences shows that:

40 percent of refugees in Austria believe religious commandments take precedence over the nation’s laws, prompting the country’s foreign minister to push for a rigorous new integration package.

The survey, which was conducted on behalf of the country’s Department of Integration (Integrationsressort), found that:

90 percent of officially recognized Austrian refugees believe democracy is an ideal form of government. The study also found that 

80 percent believe in the equality of men and women, and 

83 percent have no problem with other religions, Austrian Die Presse reported this week. 

Yet, 

40 percent of the same people questioned for the study said that religion is a more reliable guide for behavior than secular state law, with 

80 percent supporting adherence to religious law in the public sphere. At the same time, only 

61 percent admitted to being religious, while 

45 percent don’t believe all religions are equal.

OK, 'a more reliable guide' does not exactly indicate that a person would choose Islam over state laws if it came to one or the other. Just trying to be fair here.

Some 900 Austrian refugees – 

43 percent Syrian, 37 percent Afghan, and 20 percent Iraqi – took part in the survey during the summer and autumn of 2016. Slightly more than half were 18 to 30 years old, and 80 percent were male.

About half of those surveyed thought the lifestyles of Western people are too liberal and that they have too much freedom. In addition, despite the majority acknowledging women and men as equals, nearly all wanted to see Muslim women covering up in Austria. Some 37 percent also said they wanted separate gym classes and swimming lessons for boys and girls in schools, and one in five even said women should not be allowed to work.

Finally, 

88 percent of the interviewees said they accept the living habits of the Austrians in general, but

38 percent admitted that they were too free-wheeling for them.

The obviously contradictory findings prompted Sebastian Kurz, who is both Austria’s Foreign Minister and Minister of Integration, to push for expanding integration courses for refugees at the second international integration conference – ‘Vienna Future Talks’. Though these courses have been vehemently criticized since being launched in the beginning of 2016, Kurz said the study shows they are still a necessity, as they have only partially fulfilled their purpose so far. The Austrian integration minister also visited one such course with an international delegation as part of the conference.

“We can see from this study that there is consent among refugees to abstract basic values. But that does not mean that these people have internalized these principles, neither that they are ready to live by them,” Kurz told the press on Monday.

The minister called the integration process a “major challenge,” while noting the importance of showing Austria’s newcomers the country’s basic values and helping them “clearly define boundaries” for their behavior.

“If there are violations against our laws or our basic values, we do not react with exaggerated tolerance, but show that the regulations in Austria must be strictly adhered to,” the minister stated, (obviously not Swedish) while mentioning a number of new proposals that he said would “hopefully soon become integration laws.” Among other measures, these include a ban on full-face veils, such as the burka, and a ban on Quran distribution projects, as well as a compulsory low-wage employment for refugees. These and other initiatives still have to be agreed to by Kurz’s coalition partners, the Social Democrats, who have been speaking out against the burka ban and €1-per-hour employment.

The integration courses, known in Austria as “orientation and value” courses, are 8-hour seminars where refugees learn about Austria’s behavioral standards and societal values. Around 15,000 asylum seekers have taken part in them since their establishment last year, according to statistics from the Austrian Ministry of the Interior. 

Woman attacked for reading Bible

Austria has been tightening its migrant policies since a number of incidents involving migrants. In the latest case, a woman in her 50s was stabbed by an Afghan migrant while she was reading the Bible in asylum accommodation. The attacker later told police that he had assaulted her because he had “personal problems.” 

In November of last year, the Austrian Interior Ministry admitted that there has been a steep jump in the number of crimes involving asylum seekers over the past few years. This has bolstered the nation’s anti-migrant sentiment, which led to a cap of 37,500 asylum claims being imposed last year. Austria took in 90,000 asylum seekers at the peak of Europe’s migration crisis in 2015.

Of course, a steep jump in the number of migrants would necessarily lead to a steep jump in the number of crimes involving migrants.

Canada's Next Prime Minister (Maybe) Declares Evangelical Christians UnCanadian

OTTAWA – NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair lashed out at evangelical Christian groups Monday, accusing them of going “completely against” Canadian values and law with their beliefs about homosexuality.

Current Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair
could become Prime Minister after the October federal elections

Mulcair’s anger spilled over when reporters asked about Crossroads Relief and Development – a group that’s received $389,000 from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to build wells and provide clean water to 11,000 people Uganda.

Crossroads has called homosexuality a sin, a belief the NDP connects to anti-gay violence in Uganda and a stalled Ugandan bill to prohibit gay rights promotion.

“We don’t understand how the Conservatives can … subsidize a group in Uganda whose views are identical to those of the Ugandan government,” Mulcair said.

This is a remarkable statement; he seems to be saying that Canada should only be supporting people in Uganda who oppose the government. Isn't that supporting insurrection in a sovereign state?

Mulcair's statement is troublesome for another reason. The views of government and media toward homosexuality have changed dramatically in the last 2 decades. Evangelical Christians believe the same thing they believed 2000 years ago; the same thing Canadians believed from it's first European settlement until the end of the last century - homosexuality is sin! 

The Canadian media's 100% about face on the subject is shaping the opinions of Canadians and leading us down the garden path. It is based on untruths - gays are born gay; and it is based on a singular hatred for anything genuinely Christian - especially Evangelicals.

This is a shot across the bow of the good ship evangelical, and is a sign of the full barrage awaiting us should the SS NDP be permitted to pull alongside.

It’s not clear how Mulcair drew that conclusion.

Crossroads’ water project partner group in Africa, Victory Outreach Ministries, states on its website that while homosexuality is sinful, gays are “created in God’s image, and we condemn the activities of those who are violent towards gays.”

The CCRF called on Mulcair to apologize in the House to traditionally-minded Christians across Canada.

Spokesman for the Canadian Council for Religious Freedom, Father Geoffrey Korz, expressed concern over Mulcair’s attempt to perpetuate a stereotype of Canadian evangelical Christians.

“One can only imagine if Mr. Mulcair called Canadian Muslims ‘terrorists’, made a slur about Sikh turbans, or attacked the financial integrity of Jewish Canadians. Such statements are unbecoming of the Leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition,” he said.

Don Hutchinson, with the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, said Mulcair should know the Supreme Court has ruled religious beliefs don’t disqualify Canadians from engagement with government.

He adds that Canadian evangelicals have spent more than $535 million on development work overseas.

“When you work with organizations that function on the ‘love your neighbour’ principle, you get a better return on your dollar,” he said.

CIDA has frozen another $156,000 in Crossroads funding until it can review the organization’s work.

A government source told QMI Agency the review is to ensure Crossroads isn’t denying aid to Ugandans based on sexual orientation.