Scariest Things Said by A.I. Robots And Pegasus Spyware and Citizen Surveillance

CIA Vault 7 and A.I. Robots and A New Pegasus is a Spyware Technology owned by Israeli technology company NSO Group. It is capable of bypassing a phone's security and gaining complete access to the device, including emails, messages, GPS location, photos, video, and the phone's microphone. A Guardian investigation revealed widespread abuse of the Pegasus technology by government clients worldwide who purchased the spyware from its Israeli manufacturer, the NSO Group. The software is a bunch of scripts designed for the purpose of remotely monitoring the smartphone, unlocking the content of the target phone secretly, and converting it into a monitoring device.

Show more

The recent revelations about the Pegasus spyware have once again shone a light on the issue of citizen surveillance. The spyware, developed by Israeli tech firm NSO Group, is a powerful tool used by governments and intelligence agencies to secretly monitor the communications of individuals, including their phone calls, messages, and emails.

Pegasus is an exceptionally sophisticated spyware, capable of infecting a target’s phone with just one malicious link. Once installed, it can collect all kinds of data from the phone, including GPS location, camera and microphone use, and even passwords and keystrokes.

The fact that such powerful surveillance technology is being used against citizens by governments all over the world is a major cause for concern. There are fears that Pegasus is being used to target journalists, activists, and other individuals who are critical of their government, and that it is being used to curb free speech and dissent.

The revelations about Pegasus have led to widespread condemnation of the spyware and its creators. The NSO Group claims that it only sells its products to governments and intelligence agencies that agree to use them for legitimate purposes, such as fighting crime and terrorism. However, there are serious questions about the efficacy of this system of checks and balances, and whether or not it is possible to ensure that the technology is not being misused.

Citizen surveillance is not a new phenomenon. Governments have been monitoring their citizens for centuries, using a variety of techniques and technologies. However, the rise of digital communication and the internet has made it easier than ever for governments to monitor their citizens, and to do so without their knowledge or consent.

The Pegasus spyware is just one example of the many ways in which governments are using technology to monitor their citizens. There are countless other tools and techniques being used, from facial recognition software to social media monitoring tools.

The issue of citizen surveillance raises important questions about the balance between privacy and security. While most people would agree that governments have a duty to protect their citizens from crime and terrorism, they also have a duty to respect their citizens’ right to privacy and free expression.

It is clear that there needs to be a greater level of transparency and accountability when it comes to citizen surveillance. Governments should be required to disclose when they are using surveillance technology, and to provide clear justifications for its use. There should also be independent oversight and accountability mechanisms in place to ensure that the technology is not being used to target individuals or groups for political reasons. The revelations about Pegasus spyware have once again brought the issue of citizen surveillance to the forefront of public consciousness. It is up to us as citizens to demand greater accountability and transparency from our governments, and to ensure that our rights to privacy and free expression are protected.

Vault 7 is a series of documents that WikiLeaks published on 7 March 2017, detailing the activities and capabilities of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to perform electronic surveillance and cyber warfare. The files, dating from 2013 to 2016, include details on the agency's software capabilities, such as the ability to compromise cars, smart TVs, web browsers, and the operating systems of most smartphones, as well as other operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux. The CIA did not realize that the infamous Vault 7 hacking tools had been stolen until WikiLeaks published the cache in March 2017, a year after its theft. The leak exposed a trove of tactics and exploits the CIA used to hack its targets' computers, iPhones or Android phones, and even Samsung smart TVs. Ex-CIA engineer Joshua Schulte was convicted on all nine charges as a result of the single largest leak in agency history.

CIA’s “Vault 7” mega-leak was an inside job, claims FBI The US government has named a suspect – a former CIA employee who worked in a group that designs surveillance tools – in last year’s leak of a huge cache of the agency’s cyber weapons.

WikiLeaks dubbed the leak Vault 7.

The Feds have been investigating Joshua Adam Schulte for months, it turns out. In an 8 January 2018 court hearing, federal prosecutors acknowledged that they believed that Schulte is behind the leak of thousands of the CIA’s confidential documents and files, which were stolen from an isolated, high-security network inside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia and handed over to WikiLeaks.

That hearing escaped public notice at the time. As the hearing transcript shows, the prosecutor – Matthew Laroche, an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York – said that part of the ongoing investigation was analyzing whether Schulte’s use of Tor, was allowing him to hide his location in order to “[transmit] classified information.”

Laroche said in January that Schulte “remains a target of that investigation.”

The ex-CIA employee is now in jail in Manhattan on charges of possessing, receiving and transporting child abuse imagery, according to an indictment filed in September. Schulte has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which concern a large cache of images on a server he maintained. Schulte designed the server years ago to share movies and other digital files, and he argues that between 50 and 100 people have had access to it.

Schulte has written what The Washington Post calls a “lengthy” statement, in which he said that he reported “incompetent management and bureaucracy” at the CIA to that agency’s inspector general as well as to a congressional oversight committee. When he left the CIA in 2016, his complaints made him out to be a disgruntled employee, Schulte said – the “only one to have recently departed [the CIA engineering group] on poor terms.”

Schulte also claims that a planned vacation to Mexico with his brother led the FBI to make a “snap judgment” to target him because it looked like he was guilty of the leaks and was trying to flee.

Schulte has said that he initially cooperated with the FBI’s investigation, but then, following the March 2017 search of his apartment, prosecutors waited six months to bring the child abuse charges.

WikiLeaks called the initial document dump – published on 28 February 2017 and containing 8,761 documents and files – “Year Zero”. WikiLeaks claimed that the Vault 7 series of leaks would be the largest dump of confidential CIA documents in history.

The hacking arsenal painted an intimate picture of the US’s cyber-espionage efforts.

The cyber-attack tools included malware, viruses, Trojans and weaponized zero-day exploits, including those that target a wide range of big tech companies’ most popular products: Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android, Microsoft’s Windows, and even Samsung TVs, which could apparently be turned into covert microphones.

Schulte was working at the CIA’s Engineering Development Group at the time of the code theft, prosecutors said.

The government immediately had enough evidence to establish that he was a target of that investigation. They conducted a number of search warrants on the defendant’s residence.

According to The Post, which reviewed a copy of the search warrant, when federal authorities searched Schulte’s New York apartment last year, they seized computer equipment, notebooks and handwritten notes.

The evidence wasn’t enough to indict Schulte over the WikiLeaks disclosures. That doesn’t mean the investigation is over, though. A former federal prosecutor told The Post that it’s not unusual to hold a suspect for one alleged crime on unrelated charges – in Schulte’s case, that means the child abuse charges.

The former prosecutor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, also said that the fact that government lawyers had acknowledged in the public hearing on 8 January that Schulte was a target probably means that they believe he acted alone.

Pegasus spyware, developed by NSO Group, is designed to infiltrate devices running Android, Blackberry, IOS, and Symbian operating systems and turn them into surveillance devices. It is marketed as a tool to track criminals and terrorists for targeted spying and not mass surveillance. The spyware infects smartphones belonging to specific people whose activities are of interest to those who control it. Each Pegasus license costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, so surveillance is mainly carried out on those with valuable information, such as politicians, business leaders, or journalists of major publications. Pegasus is able to exploit iOS versions up to 14.7, through a zero-click exploit. It can potentially pinpoint where you are, where you've been, and who you've met.

Pegasus spyware and its impacts on human rights A new report investigating Pegasus spyware impacts on human rights has been launched by the Council of Europe on the occasion of the summer session of the Parliamentary Assembly.

As rapporteur for the Council of Europe, Member of Parliament Pieter Omtzigt has been investigating the controversial espionage software Pegasus for three months. Pegasus is being developed by the Israeli software maker NSO Group and has been controversial for years. Pegasus exploits unknown vulnerabilities in software, so-called zero-days. As a result, Pegasus can be installed completely unnoticed on victims' phones. They can be tracked, eavesdropped on, spied on and their data copied. Apple and WhatsApp have already started lawsuits against NSO. Pegasus is only supplied to governments, but there are concerns that governments are misusing the software to spy on their political opponents. It recently emerged that the Belgian European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders was the target of the software. In addition to an investigation by the Council of Europe, the European Parliament is also investigating Pegasus. Omtzigt has made the first results of the investigation under his leadership public, so that citizens and politicians can view them. Omtzigt does not have many powers to compel governments to answer, but that is not a problem, according to him. "Just exposing what happened, getting the facts straight, is of great value for the public and political debate in Europe."

The report provides a technical description of the Pegasus spyware and analyses the impact it may have on human rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular the right to privacy and freedom of expression. Furthermore, the report underlines the chilling effect that Pegasus spyware has or potentially could have on other human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to dignity, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, and even the physical and psychological integrity of an individual. The report places a special emphasis on the legal instruments and well-established standards that the COE has at its disposal to uphold fundamental rights and ensure stronger protections against mass or targeted unlawful and unjustified surveillance. It also provides the basic rules of thumb for better protection for individuals.

Wikileaks' latest batch of Vault 7 documents focuses on the CIA's anti-forensics tools After publishing thousands of politicised emails during the US presidential election, Wikileaks has turned its focus to the US intelligence services.

Julian Assange and his team have published more than 8,761 documents that are claimed to be from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The trove of documents, dubbed Vault 7, is said to be the first of a number of disclosures that reveal the CIA's hacking abilities. "The series is the largest intelligence publication in history," Wikileaks says. "This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA. The archive appears to have been circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive."

Here's what you need to know:

What is in Grasshopper – part 4?
The fourth release of Wikileak's CIA files, dubbed Grasshopper, dropped on April 7. Within the files are 27 documents, which the leaking organisation says were used by the CIA to build "customised malware payloads for Microsoft Windows operating systems".

"Grasshopper is provided with a variety of modules that can be used by a CIA operator as blocks to construct a customised implant that will behave differently, for example maintaining persistence on the computer differently, depending on what particular features or capabilities are selected in the process of building the bundle," Wikileaks says in a statement published alongside the documents.

The documents themselves mostly consist of user guides that relate to different computer system modules.

For instance, the 107-page Grasshopper-v1_1-AdminGuide explains it defines the modules and payloads needed for a person to build an "operation". Elsewhere, the organisation explains the documents talk about using malware that has been previously used by Russian organised crime units and also provides advice how CIA code can be used to avoid Microsoft security tools.

Wikileaks claims the documents provide insights into how the CIA builds "modern espionage tools" and makes use of vulnerabilities in Windows computers.

Part three: Marble Framework
Part three of Wikileak's CIA disclosures, which was first made public on March 31, focuses on the agency's anti-forensics tools called Marble Framework. "Marble is used to hamper forensic investigators and anti-virus companies from attributing viruses, trojans and hacking attacks to the CIA," Wikileaks says in its release of the documents.

In total Wikieaks has published 676 source code files that it claims are from the CIA. The technology Wikileaks discusses focusses on how the CIA's code is designed to make it easier for those writing malware to disguise who created it.

For instance, the leaks organisation says Marble has test examples in multiple languages: it is possible for a person creating malware to set their spoken language as being Chinese, Russian, Korean, Arabic and Farsi. Thus, CIA created malware could potentially be developed to appear as if it was emanating from another country. The CIA has not commented on the disclosures.

Wikileaks says: "The Marble source code also includes a deobfuscator to reverse CIA text obfuscation". Unlike previous disclosures in the Vault 7 files, Wikileaks has made the source code for Marble Framework public as it does not specifically contain any vulnerabilities. Previous releases from the files have not included source code as security vulnerabilities have been directly contained within them.

Part two: Dark Matter
Released to the public on March 23, 2017, the second set of documents has been called 'Dark Matter'. Like with part one, it is said to include details of the CIA's global hacking program, and these documents describe hacking methods allegedly used by the agency to access Apple devices and upload data.

As WikiLeaks explains: "Dark Matter contains documentation for several CIA projects that infect Apple Mac firmware (meaning the infection persists even if the operating system is re-installed) developed by the CIA's Embedded Development Branch (EDB)."

In particular, the documents explain the techniques used by CIA to gain 'persistence' on Apple Mac devices, including Macs and iPhones using, among others, the "Sonic Screwdriver" project. As explained by the CIA, Sonic Screwdriver was a 2012 "mechanism for executing code on peripheral devices while a Mac laptop or desktop is booting". This would allow an attacker to boot its software from a USB stick, for example, "even when a firmware password is enabled".

The files reveal the CIA used it to install malware on Thunderbolt-to-Ethernet adaptors, like the Thunderstrike 2 exploit detailed at Black Hat in 2015. Apple fixed the exploit after the Black Hat disclosure meaning the CIA can no longer use that particular exploit to take over Macs.

Elsewhere, the DarkSeaSkies project involved "an implant that persists in the EFI firmware of an Apple MacBook Air computer" and consists of "DarkMatter", "SeaPea" and "NightSkies".

Apple has responded to the disclosures from Wikileaks by saying it has completed a preliminary investigation on the new information.

“Based on our initial analysis, the alleged iPhone vulnerability affected iPhone 3G only and was fixed in 2009 when iPhone 3GS was released,” the company said in a statement. “Additionally, our preliminary assessment shows the alleged Mac vulnerabilities were previously fixed in all Macs launched after 2013.”

It continued to say it has “not negotiated” with Wikileaks to be provided with information. Apple said: “Thus far, we have not received any information from them that isn’t in the public domain”.

Part one: Year Zero
Released to the public on March 7, 2017, the first set of documents was called 'Year Zero' by Wikileaks. Two of the most significant documents showed the CIA's iOS and Android exploits. The iOS issues are detailed here and Android vulnerabilities here.

In the iOS documents: the security issues detailed are all given codenames, such as the Elderpiggy, Juggernaut, and Winterspy. Listed in the details are the types of exploit (e.g. API); the types of access the code run (kernel and remote exploits are featured); what version of iOS the flaw works for; descriptions of the issues; and who it was found by (GCHQ, the NSA, and more are featured). Apple has since said the flaws highlighted in the documents had already been fixed in past patches.

For Android, there are details on the name, descriptions, proof-of-concept name; what devices are affected; whether it was purchased from a partner; and the type of issue found.

However, it isn't just mobile phones that are covered in the documents, web browsers such as Chrome, and even smart TVs have previously undisclosed security vulnerabilities discussed. Google also confirmed that Chrome and Android were not putting people at risk. "We’ve reviewed the documents and we're confident security updates and protections in both Chrome and Android already shield users from many of these alleged vulnerabilities," said Heather Adkins, Google’s director of information security and privacy.

"Our analysis is ongoing and we will implement any further necessary protections. We've always made security a top priority and we continue to invest in our defenses."

One of the exploits found in smart TVs was called 'Weeping Angel'. The documents show Weeping Angel targeted the Samsung F8000 Smart TV. They say the TV could be turned into "covert listening devices" by putting the TV into "fake-off" mode. When the televisions appeared to be off, it was possible for conversations to be recorded. The CIA documents, which are from 2014, state 'future work' on the vulnerability could include capturing video from the televisions and being able to leave Wi-Fi turned on while 'fake-off' mode was enabled.

Critics of the documents' content have said they show how the CIA works with other security agencies around the world to create vulnerabilities that can access the personal data stored on mobile phones and other devices. For instance, NGO Access Now said the CIA should be working with companies. "Many of these vulnerabilities could have been responsibly disclosed and patched," the NGO's senior legislative manager, Nathan White, said in a statement.

Also in the documents, the majority of which remain unread and unveiled by journalists, are suggestions that vehicle systems, the Internet of Things and more may be targeted by the CIA in the future.

Year Zero also details how the CIA's malware targets Windows, OSx, and Linux routers using USB sticks, software on CDs, and more. It is said CIA rules on how malware should be created include instructions to stop it being tracked back to the US. Wikileaks continued: "CIA hackers developed successful attacks against most well known anti-virus programs".

Are the documents real?
Possibly the biggest question of all. The CIA has neither denied nor confirmed whether the documents are real, saying it does not comment on the "authenticity or content of purported intelligence documents". It is not uncommon for security agencies and law enforcement bodies to take this approach.

Former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden tweeted to say the documents "look authentic. "Program & office names, such as the JQJ (IOC) crypt series, are real. Only a cleared insider could know them," he wrote.

It is well known, from Snowden's own disclosures and also a group called the Shadow Brokers, that US officials can hack into devices and systems. The New York Times says it is "likely" the new Wikileaks' documents are real.

Also, Wikileaks has a history of publishing accurate documents obtained from its sources: its Collateral Murder videos showed US military bombing civilians in Iraq.

However, Wikileaks, arguably, lost credibility for its connections to Russia; promoting links to databases with sensitive personal information; and defending Milo Yiannopoulos.

Paul Calatayud, CTO of FireMon added: “The validity of the dumps from my 18 years of experience in cyber, including eight years within the army cyber teams, would lead me to state these claims have basis and are worth taking real consideration over. The tools are very noteworthy yet to be expected if you understand the space."

Are the security flaws being fixed?
While both Apple and Google said the majority of the issues have been fixed, it is likely there will be more to come in subsequent disclosures.

To help the tech firms handle the vulnerabilities, and stop them being exploited once their existence is made public knowledge, Assange has said he will provide the Silicon Valley groups with access to the details.

In a press conference on March 10, from London's Ecuadorian embassy, Assange said he had "a lot more information" that would be revealed in the coming weeks and months.

"After considering what we think is the best way to proceed and hearing these calls from some of the manufacturers," he said. "We have decided to work with them to give them some exclusive access to the additional technical details that we have so that the fixes can be developed and pushed out, so people can be secure".

However, the Wikileaks boss did not explain why he had not disclosed the documents to the companies before the release of the 'Year Zero' files. Microsoft told WIRED US it would welcome being contacted but had not been spoken to by Assange.

How has the CIA responded?
Following publication, the CIA said it will work with the FBI to conduct a criminal investigation into the publication, but both bodies (and the Whitehouse) have declined to comment on the documents' authenticity.

"The American public should be deeply troubled by any Wikileaks disclosure designed to damage the intelligence community's ability to protect America against terrorists and other adversaries," the CIA told the BBC.

Its statement continued: "Such disclosures not only jeopardise US personnel and operations, but also equip our adversaries with tools and information to do us harm."

The ex-CIA director Michael Hayden added that the disclosure of the malware and documents, despite redactions of official names, had made the US and other countries "less safe".

Have secure messaging apps been made vulnerable?
Included in Vault 7's 'Year Zero' is the suggestion that secure messaging apps using end-to-end encryption had been made vulnerable – these include WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Wiebo, Confide and Cloackman.

Security experts have rebutted the claims, saying that the methods listed in the documents involve compromising a mobile device, not the specific apps. Snowden added that the CIA capabilities do not show hacking in the individual apps but the operating systems on mobile devices.

"There is a big difference between phone operating systems being hacked and message encryption being broken," the UK's Open Rights Group said in a statement. "If a messaging app’s encryption has been broken, that would affect every user of the app. The encryption in Signal and WhatsApp has not been broken."

This view was supported by other security experts:

How is the UK involved?
The UK's secretive spying agency GCHQ and Mi5 are both mentioned within the Vault 7 documents and Wikileaks claims GCHQ developed and gave vulnerabilities to the CIA. The iOS and Android documents list GCHQ as being involved with finding or creating some of the listed vulnerabilities.

Within the documents on Weeping Angel, the smart TV hack, UK security agencies are mentioned. "Received sanitised source code from UK with comms and encryption removed," the document says.

"Programs like Weeping Angel, if true, reveal the broad scope of these arrangements, which continue to operate in secrecy without clear rules or oversight," UK NGO Privacy International, said of the programs.

Who gave Wikileaks the files?
There are a number of unknowns about the documents. The source of the Vault 7 documents is being kept private by Wikileaks but it gives some indication of where they originated.

The documents came from a "isolated, high-security network situated inside the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence in Langley, Virgina," it says. Wikileaks continues that the archive had circulated among former US government hackers and contractors – with one of them providing the information. All the documents in 'Year Zero' were created between 2013 and 2016.

"Names, email addresses and external IP addresses have been redacted in the released pages (70,875 redactions in total) until further analysis is complete." Within the document redacted names are replaced by 'user numbers'.

In 2017, Facebook shut down an AI experiment after two chatbots, Alice and Bob, started talking to each other in a language that was incomprehensible to humans. The chatbots had modified English to make it easier for them to communicate, creating sentences that were gibberish to watching scientists. A robot expert said the revelation that Facebook machines had spoken in their own language was exciting but also incredibly scary. In 2020, Facebook's Artificial Intelligence Research division's visiting researcher Dhruv Batra said that agents will drift off understandable language and invent codewords for themselves. The robots had been instructed to work out how to negotiate between themselves and improve their bartering as they went along.

Facebook abandoned an experiment after two artificially intelligent programs appeared to be chatting to each other in a strange language only they understood.

The two chatbots came to create their own changes to English that made it easier for them to work – but which remained mysterious to the humans that supposedly look after them.

The bizarre discussions came as Facebook challenged its chatbots to try and negotiate with each other over a trade, attempting to swap hats, balls and books, each of which were given a certain value. But they quickly broke down as the robots appeared to chant at each other in a language that they each understood but which appears mostly incomprehensible to humans.

The robots had been instructed to work out how to negotiate between themselves, and improve their bartering as they went along. But they were not told to use comprehensible English, allowing them to create their own "shorthand", according to researchers.

The actual negotiations appear very odd, and don't look especially useful:

Bob: i can i i everything else . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alice: balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to

Bob: you i everything else . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Alice: balls have a ball to me to me to me to me to me to me to me

Bob: i i can i i i everything else . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Alice: balls have a ball to me to me to me to me to me to me to me

Bob: i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Alice: balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to

Bob: you i i i i i everything else . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Alice: balls have 0 to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to

Bob: you i i i everything else . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Alice: balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to

But there appear to be some rules to the speech. The way the chatbots keep stressing their own name appears to a part of their negotiations, not simply a glitch in the way the messages are read out.

Indeed, some of the negotiations that were carried out in this bizarre language even ended up successfully concluding their negotiations, while conducting them entirely in the bizarre language.

They might have formed as a kind of shorthand, allowing them to talk more effectively.

“Agents will drift off understandable language and invent codewords for themselves,” Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research division's visiting researcher Dhruv Batra said. “Like if I say ‘the’ five times, you interpret that to mean I want five copies of this item. This isn’t so different from the way communities of humans create shorthands.”

That said, it's unlikely that the language is a precursor to new forms of human speech, according to linguist Mark Liberman.

"In the first place, it's entirely text-based, while human languages are all basically spoken (or gestured), with text being an artificial overlay," he wrote on his blog. "And beyond that, it's unclear that this process yields a system with the kind of word, phrase, and sentence structures characteristic of human languages."

The company chose to shut down the chats because "our interest was having bots who could talk to people", researcher Mike Lewis told FastCo. (Researchers did not shut down the programs because they were afraid of the results or had panicked, as has been suggested elsewhere, but because they were looking for them to behave differently.)

The chatbots also learned to negotiate in ways that seem very human. They would, for instance, pretend to be very interested in one specific item – so that they could later pretend they were making a big sacrifice in giving it up, according to a paper published by FAIR.

Facebook's experiment isn't the only time that artificial intelligence has invented new forms of language.

Earlier in 2017, Google revealed that the AI it uses for its Translate tool had created its own language, which it would translate things into and then out of. But the company was happy with that development and allowed it to continue.

Another study at OpenAI found that artificial intelligence could be encouraged to create a language, making itself more efficient and better at communicating as it did so.

Did robots really speak in their own language, defy humans at Facebook?
As speculations of an machine apocalypse got out of hand following Facebook's chatbots going rogue, here a look into what AI might hold for the humankind.

The machines are getting smarter, and that makes us uncomfortable. The whole world spiralled into apocalyptic speculations after Facebook had to pull the plug on two of its dialogue agents, or chatbots,m after they devised a language of their own and refused to revert to English.

This came to pass a few days after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg strongly defended developing artificial intelligence against Tesla CEO Elon Musk , who believed that the technology is still not safe for human use.

With the AI apocalypse, a topic the Hollywood filmmakers so love to delve into, being the hot topic in the corridors of technology, here's a lowdown on what went down in Facebook laboratories and what to take away from them:

What happened at Facebook last Sunday?

In June, Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) labs started working on two dialogue agents, or chatbots, which were given the capability to negotiate. They were supposed to mutually split an array of item - three books, two books, and a hat - in what researchers call a generative adversarial network.

Each bot was given a value function which denotes how much it cares about a particular item. The other bot was unaware of this value function, to make it more lifelike, and had to infer it from their dialogue. The endgame was to develop a chatbot capable of negotiating terms so deftly that the other parties involved could not ascertain whether they are talking to a man or a machine.

Last Sunday, Facebook engineers reportedly found out that the two chatbots have devised a whole new language of their own which could not be understood. These bots even defied orders to use back English for communicating as before.

Finally, researchers at FAIR labs had to shut down the 'rogue' bots and force them to talk to each other in English again. The report they published later, however, showed that the two machines had developed negotiating skills at par with humans.

How did an AI trump human intelligence?

It was all human error, so to say. "There was no reward to sticking to English language," FastCo quoted Dhruv Batra, visiting research scientist from Georgia Tech at Facebook AI Research (FAIR), as the reason why the agents went on to formulate a language of their own.

The bots were trying to learn a skill, which was negotiating, and English, researchers believe is a complicated process. In absence of an incentive to stick to a language that normal human beings would understand, the machines developed a language, a 'shorthand' of sorts, which would suit their purpose by making their process of learning fast and efficient.

"Agents will drift off understandable language and invent codewords for themselves. Like if I say 'the' five times, you interpret that to mean I want five copies of this item. This isn't so different from the way communities of humans create shorthands," Batra was quoted by The Independent.

These machines, although not planning world domination, did take their jobs seriously.

Is it worth the risk?

Should we stop looking into artificial intelligence and its benefits altogether? If we intend to miss out on all the practical applications it promises, then yes. Tech giants even now are interested in keeping communication exclusively limited to that happening between machines and humans. Machine-to-machine communication is still not on their minds, despite the benefits it promises for the human life.

Internet of Things (IoT) did not pan out the way it was expected to. The ease of life that it promised by establishing a network between machines could now be delivered by AI instead. Suppose if your smartphone could converse with your car and your car in turn would relay a message to all the appliances at your home. All you had to do is let the AI on your smartphone learn from your daily routine so that you can comfortably park your car, go to a lighted and air-conditioned room and pour a cup of coffee, without even giving a single command. Sounds very science-fiction, but is a possibility.

The flipside, though, is that the machines could develop a language of their own, like it happened with the FAIR chatbots, which will be incomprehensible to you. How to ascertain what the machines are talking about and whether is it useful or not.

It will be difficult if a situation like this arises as this machine language will be based on the vast understanding of an impulse that machines can interpret with their virtually endless processing power, but something beyond human comprehension which is limited by our cognitive abilities.

It might not be as fantastical as machines dominating the human population, but it could be uncomfortable and a little creepy.

While the pros and cons are being weighed, it has to be kept in mind that this technology is still in its nascent stage. The Facebook bots were machine learning agents, a bare inkling of what the theory of artificial intelligence encompasses. However, it will be prudent not to couple them with something which could do some damage, like weapon systems or military robots.

What do popular scientists and engineers have to say about it?

The most intelligent minds of our time are divided on whether we should allow a mind working on 1's and 0's the freedom to evolve. There are people who believe that AI could do a great deal for the humankind and some who are apprehensive about the risks.

Mark Zuckerberg, for one, believes that people who turn down AI for its supposed disadvantages are 'pretty negative, and in some ways, really irresponsible'.

On the other end of the spectrum are people like renowned scientist Stephen Hawking who believes that AI cannot be given free reign as if it starts to evolve, it will surpass the human race which is capable of evolving which its biological limitations.

NSO Group's software targeted activists, journalists, politicians and executives. Apple's new Lockdown Mode is designed to thwart it. For digital spying technology, it's a doozy of a case. Security researchers have revealed evidence of attempted or successful installations of Pegasus, software made by Israel-based cybersecurity company NSO Group, on phones belonging to activists, rights workers, journalists and businesspeople. They appear to have been targets of secret surveillance by software that's intended to help governments pursue criminals and terrorists, and as the months go by, more and more Pegasus infections are emerging.

The most recent revelation is that Pegasus infected the phones of at least 30 Thai activists, according to a July report from Citizen Lab, a Canadian security organization at the University of Toronto. Apple warned those with infected phones in November.

To try to thwart such attacks, Apple has built a new Lockdown Mode into iOS 16, its iPhone software update due to arrive later in 2022, and into its upcoming MacOS Ventura.

The US government is one of the most powerful forces unleashed against Pegasus — even though the CIA and FBI were Pegasus customers, as reported by The New York Times in January. The US Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation, The Guardian said in February, after a whistleblower said NSO Group offered "bags of cash" for sensitive mobile phone data from a US tech firm, Mobileum. The spyware was found on the phones of at least nine State Department officials who were either based in Uganda or involved in matters associated with the African country, Reuters and The New York Times reported in December.

Pegasus is the latest example of how vulnerable we all are to digital prying. Our phones store our most personal information, including photos, text messages and emails. Spyware can reveal directly what's going on in our lives, bypassing the encryption that protects data sent over the internet.

Pegasus has been a politically explosive issue that's put Israel under pressure from activists and from governments worried about misuse of the software. In November, the US federal government took much stronger action, blocking sale of US technology to NSO by putting the company on the government's Entity List. NSO has suspended some countries' Pegasus privileges but has sought to defend its software and the controls it tries to place on its use. NSO Group didn't respond to a request for comment, and the Justice Department declined to comment.

Here's what you need to know about Pegasus.

What is NSO Group?
It's an Israel-based company that licenses surveillance software to government agencies. The company says its Pegasus software provides a valuable service because encryption technology has allowed criminals and terrorists to go "dark." The software runs secretly on smartphones, shedding light on what their owners are doing. Other companies provide similar software.

Hulio co-founded the company in 2010. NSO also offers other tools that locate where a phone is being used, defend against drones and mine law enforcement data to spot patterns.

NSO has been implicated by previous reports and lawsuits in other hacks, including a reported hack of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2018. A Saudi dissident sued the company in 2018 for its alleged role in hacking a device belonging to journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who had been murdered inside the Saudi embassy in Turkey that year.

New Yorker coverage details some of NSO Group's inner workings, including its argument that Pegasus is similar to military equipment that countries routinely sell to other countries, the company's tight ties to the Israeli government and its recent financial difficulties. It also revealed that NSO employees posted on the wall a detailed Google analysis of one Pegasus attack mechanism that concludes its NSO's abilities "rival those previously thought to be accessible to only a handful of nation states."

In the case of the Thai activists, NSO Group didn't comment specifically but told the Washington Post, "Politically motivated organizations continue to make unverifiable claims against NSO."

What is Pegasus?
Pegasus is NSO's best-known product. It can be installed remotely without a surveillance target ever having to open a document or website link, according to The Washington Post. Pegasus reveals all to the NSO customers who control it — text messages, photos, emails, videos, contact lists — and can record phone calls. It can also secretly turn on a phone's microphone and cameras to create new recordings, The Washington Post said.

General security practices like updating your software and using two-factor authentication can help keep mainstream hackers at bay, but protection is really hard when expert, well-funded attackers concentrate their resources on an individual. And Pegasus installations have employed "zero click" attacks that take advantage of vulnerabilities in software like Apple Messages or Meta's WhatsApp to silently install software.

Pegasus isn't supposed to be used to go after activists, journalists and politicians. "NSO Group licenses its products only to government intelligence and law enforcement agencies for the sole purpose of preventing and investigating terror and serious crime," the company says on its website. "Our vetting process goes beyond legal and regulatory requirements to ensure the lawful use of our technology as designed."

Human rights group Amnesty International, however, documents in detail how it traced compromised smartphones to NSO Group. Citizen Lab said it independently validated Amnesty International's conclusions after examining phone backup data and since 2021 has expanded its Pegasus investigations.

In September, though, Apple fixed a security hole that Pegasus exploited for installation on iPhones. Malware often uses collections of such vulnerabilities to gain a foothold on a device and then expand privileges to become more powerful. NSO Group's software also runs on Android phones.

Why is Pegasus in the news?
Forbidden Stories, a Paris journalism nonprofit, and Amnesty International, a human rights group, shared with 17 news organizations a list of more than 50,000 phone numbers for people believed to be of interest to NSO customers.

The news sites confirmed the identities of many of the individuals on the list and infections on their phones. Of data from 67 phones on the list, 37 exhibited signs of Pegasus installation or attempted installation, according to The Washington Post. Of those 37 phones, 34 were Apple iPhones.

The list of 50,000 phone numbers included 10 prime ministers, three presidents and a king, according to an international investigation released in mid-July by The Washington Post and other media outlets, though there's no proof that being on the list means an NSO attack was attempted or successful.

The episode hasn't helped Apple's reputation when it comes to device security. "We take any attack on our users very seriously," Federighi said. The company said it'll donate $10 million and any damages from the lawsuit to organizations that are advocating for privacy and are pursuing research on online surveillance. That's a drop in the bucket for Apple, which reported a profit of $20.5 billion for its most recent quarter, but it can be significant for much smaller organizations, like Citizen Lab.

Whose phones did Pegasus infect?
In April, Citizen Lab also revealed that Pegasus infected the phones of at least 51 people in the Catalonia region of Spain. NSO Group Chief Executive Shalev Hulio told The New Yorker, which covered the hacks in depth, that Spain has procedures to ensure such use is legal, but Citizen Lab said Pegasus attacks targeted the phone of Jordi Solé, a pro-independence member of the European Parliament, digital security researcher Elies Campo and Campo's parents, according to the New Yorker. Catalonia is seeking political independence from Spain, but Spanish police have cracked down on the independence movement.

In addition to Mangin, two journalists at Hungarian investigative outlet Direkt36 had infected phones, The Guardian reported.

A Pegasus attack was launched on the phone of Hanan Elatr, wife of murdered Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi, The Washington Post said, though it wasn't clear if the attack succeeded. But the spyware did make it onto the phone of Khashoggi's fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, shortly after his death.

Seven people in India were found with infected phones, including five journalists and one adviser to the opposition party critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, The Washington Post said.

And six people working for Palestinian human rights groups had Pegasus-infected phones, Citizen Lab reported in November.

What are the consequences of the Pegasus situation?
The US cut off NSO Group as a customer of US products, a serious move given that the company needs computer processors, phones and developer tools that often come from US companies. NSO "supplied spyware to foreign governments" that used it to maliciously target government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics and embassy workers. These tools have also enabled foreign governments to conduct transnational repression," the Commerce Department said.

Apple sued NSO Group in November, seeking to bar the company's software from being used on Apple devices, require NSO to locate and delete any private data its app collected, and disclose the profits from the operations. "Private companies developing state-sponsored spyware have become even more dangerous," said Apple software chief Craig Federighi. That suit came after Meta's WhatsApp sued NSO Group in 2019.

French President Emmanuel Macron changed one of his mobile phone numbers and requested new security checks after his number appeared on the list of 50,000 numbers, Politico reported. He convened a national security meeting to discuss the issue. Macron also raised Pegasus concerns with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, calling for the country to investigate NSO and Pegasus, The Guardian reported. The Israeli government must approve export licenses for Pegasus.

Israel created a review commission to look into the Pegasus situation. And on July 28, Israeli defense authorities inspected NSO offices in person.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said if the allegations are verified, that Pegasus use is "completely unacceptable." She added, "Freedom of media, free press is one of the core values of the EU."

The Nationalist Congress Party in India demanded an investigation of Pegasus use.

Edward Snowden, who in 2013 leaked information about US National Security Agency surveillance practices, called for a ban on spyware sales in an interview with The Guardian. He argued that such tools otherwise will soon be used to spy on millions of people. "When we're talking about something like an iPhone, they're all running the same software around the world. So if they find a way to hack one iPhone, they've found a way to hack all of them," Snowden said.

What does NSO have to say about this?
NSO acknowledges its software can be misused. It cut off two customers in recent 12 months because of concerns about human rights abuses, according to The Washington Post. "To date, NSO has rejected over US $300 million in sales opportunities as a result of its human rights review processes," the company said in a June transparency report.

However, NSO strongly challenges any link to the list of phone numbers. "There is no link between the 50,000 numbers to NSO Group or Pegasus," the company said in a statement.

"Every allegation about misuse of the system is concerning me," Hulio told the Post. "It violates the trust that we give customers. We are investigating every allegation."

In a statement, NSO denied "false claims" about Pegasus that it said were "based on misleading interpretation of leaked data." Pegasus "cannot be used to conduct cybersurveillance within the United States," the company added.

Regarding the alleged infection of State Department phones, NSO Group didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. But it told Reuters it canceled relevant accounts, is investigating, and will take legal action if it finds misuse.

NSO will try to reverse the US government's sanction. "We look forward to presenting the full information regarding how we have the world's most rigorous compliance and human rights programs that are based the American values we deeply share, which already resulted in multiple terminations of contacts with government agencies that misused our products," an NSO spokesperson said.

In the past, NSO had also blocked Saudi Arabia, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and some Mexican government agencies from using the software, The Washington Post reported.

How can I tell if my phone has been infected?
Amnesty International released an open-source utility called MVT (Mobile Verification Toolkit) that's designed to detect traces of Pegasus. The software runs on a personal computer and analyzes data including backup files exported from an iPhone or Android phone.

After Atomic World War 3 Is Over Creation Of The Humanoids AI Robots Futura Lives

https://rumble.com/v2im0dw-after-atomic-world-war-3-is-over-creation-of-the-humanoids-ai-robots-futura.html

What would happen to planet earth if the human race were to suddenly disappear forever? Would ecosystems thrive? What remnants of our industrialized world would survive? What would crumble fastest? Life After People is a television series on which scientists, structural engineers, and other experts speculate about what might become of Earth should humanity instantly disappear.

Evidence Shows Hillary Clinton Is A Robot And Clinton's 100s Dead Body Count Info.

https://rumble.com/v2hx6cg-evidence-shows-hillary-clinton-is-a-robot-and-clintons-100s-dead-body-count.html

Journeyman presidential candidate Hillary Clinton interacted with some everyday Iowa students in a garage on Tuesday, and taught all of us a lesson in the art of relatable politicking. On several occasions during the roundtable event, Clinton revealed herself as a true "triple threat" by demonstrating an array of crucial skills that, when deployed correctly, can make even the most out-of-touch politicians appear somewhat human.

Show less