When I said these guys were the enemy, you thought I was exaggerating.
Maybe you’ll recognise them now when they’re in uniform.
This is all ramping up, real quick.
The U.S. Army’s new #Detachment201 initiative, which involves bringing in tech leaders from companies like #Meta, #OpenAI and #Palantir, raises so many ethical questions around dual-use technology, lack of transparency, and the blurring of lines between civilian and military organizations. In fact, this is how Israel functions: academia and the private sector serve the military.
We are withnessing the devastating consequences in the genocide in #Gaza, particularly the alarming number of civilian casualties resulting from the reckless use of crude #AI driven mass killing systems, disregarding international laws and evading moral dilemmas by letting machines do the dirty work.
H/t @aral and comments
@oatmeal @aral @palestine @israel I've post about it before, but when I expressed alarm to a colleague about some moves in the education sector under GW Bush, a Japanese colleague shrugged and said, "Eventually the best research will be coming out of the military academies. That's what happened here [under the pre-War military regime]."
@oatmeal @aral calling it "Dual Use" when it's explicitly #Cyberfacist #Govware is like calling a Guillotine an "Industrial-Grade fruit Slicer"…
@aral This goes both ways. It's much harder for these clowns to quit the Army than it is to switch companies. And the supreme commander can now force them to do things, even if they think it's a stupid idea.
Good luck to these assholes.
@aral I have concerns that the current "freeing LA" nonsense is a bit of shock doctrine to lead the way to the Techno States ( https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/13/end-times-fascism-far-right-trump-musk )
Their (some DOGE guys) earlier involvement in releasing dam water felt weird and off. The current escalation seems related. Especially since there are constant rumblings online about how California should leave (which feels bot driven as well as organically parroted).
Feels like priming people to accept tech oligarchs swooping in.
@aral I just really hope that #california wakes up to the deeper dangers of what's happening and doesn't accept any further trojan horses from these folks (tech oligarchs).
Like, we're already here so things are worst case scenario. But, its clear that the gravity of it is unclear to many. Its not just this administration, its a whole philosophy and vision for the state (and others) to be remade by people who have been trying for sometime to make this happen.
@aral
They may not see it yet, but to me this looks like the techbros are surrendering to the other forces behind Trump.
As already pointed out, they will now be subject to orders from the US forces hierarchy, so ultimately from whoever is running the White House.
The products of those companies where these guys have majority control will be used to further the aims of the US government the same way as happens for similar organisations in China and Russia.