Live data from Hacker News

How the terrorist group Boko Haram uses frontier AI

casp.ac

91–100 of 224 posts

Re: How the terrorist group Boko Haram uses frontier AI

#91
post #3

> We saw in a movie how motorcycles can jump over bridges. We used AI to learn how to do this. We gave it information, like what motorcycles we use and the distance we need to jump and so on and it gave us steps on what we have to do. We practiced a lot and kept asking questions. We dug holes and filled them with broken glass and fire to practice. 18 of us died in the process. Eight of us managed to do it. The next t…

> We dug holes and filled them with broken glass and fire to practice. 18 of us died in the process. Is it providing material aid to terrorists to point out that maybe a hole filled with water would have been a better practice environment?

I suddenly feel so much more comfortable with the US "warfighters" using LLMs for everything.

Re: How the terrorist group Boko Haram uses frontier AI

#92
post #72
post #4

I would be more interested about terrorists organization like Al-Shabaab that at least control many towns. Does Boko Haram and ISWAP even control a single town or they just control a few villages in Lake Chad and in the Sambisa forest? Also reading the report they seem quite clueless.

Doesn't Boko Haram control basically all of northern Nigeria? Yes, it's incredibly rural (even deserted) but it's still half a country.

Hardly. Northern Nigeria is majority Muslim. Most Muslims are not under Boko Haram control.

I believe this map shows the maximum area they controlled - and it was over a decade ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wilayat_al_Sudan_al_Gharb...

Re: How the terrorist group Boko Haram uses frontier AI

#93

I agree with other commenters that the claims made in the report are strange. > We used to rely on our traditional methods. We sent 200 fighters because we had a lot of strength, but then 60 got killed. With the help of AI, we learned that it sometimes makes sense to only send 20. We learned more about well-coordinated attacks and deployment of smaller units. The other quotes and use cases could make sense in terms o…

Why is it a strange claim? > We used to rely on our traditional methods. We sent 200 fighters because we had a lot of strength, but then 60 got killed. They used to try to overpower people. We have 600 and that guard post has 400. We should be able to win. That type of logic. > With the help of AI, we learned that it sometimes makes sense to only send 20. We learned more about well-coordinated attacks and deployment…

> Better coordinating the attacks let them use less people and lose less people while still achieving the objective

and that has to be in the first chapter of every first year battle strategy/tactic book on the planet. They would learn more tactics much faster by just playing bf6 as a team and going through the tutorials.

Re: How the terrorist group Boko Haram uses frontier AI

#96
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The regulation is not for Westen Africa, it's for USA. American companies could maybe keep OFAC regulations for AI? If the fintech sector can do it, AI can too. I'm pretty sure most of the western african terrorists are blocked from using coinbase, so why not chatgpt?

And why would americans use regulated AI software when they could just buy it unregulated from china instead? > If the fintech sector can do it, AI can too. Fintech requires turning the number on a screen into something you can use to make a transaction. Good luck regulating... text. For that matter, why would anyone want to live in a country where honest citizens have to use crippled software while criminals have fu…

AI providers like openAI or Anthropic are already on the hook for OFAC compliance, so if any terrorist group is proven to access their APIs they can face huge fines.

The same game played out in the crypto space. Local models like local wallets can't be regulated.

Accessing foreign services can't be controlled.

But regulated companies are fully liable for any use of their tools by terrorist organizations.

This is not about the citizens, it's about the companies protecting themselves.

Re: How the terrorist group Boko Haram uses frontier AI

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> His videos of making them were on YouTube for years, publicly. So? That doesn't make something legal.

You didn't read what I said. Try reading the law instead, or even the charge. It's for being in the business of manufacturing explosives without a license. A license isn't needed to manufacture explosives. One is needed to manufacture them as a business venture. They are claiming since he got a little money from Youtube or viewers he was in the business and that was illegal. This failed when they tried it with FPSRus…

> If you read it then you know you maliciously selectively quoted it then.

No. I quoted one part that was just deeply goofy logic.

The presence of a video on YouTube is, quite simply, not evidence of the behavior in it being legal. YouTube is full of illegal shit.

Re: How the terrorist group Boko Haram uses frontier AI

#98
post #3

> We saw in a movie how motorcycles can jump over bridges. We used AI to learn how to do this. We gave it information, like what motorcycles we use and the distance we need to jump and so on and it gave us steps on what we have to do. We practiced a lot and kept asking questions. We dug holes and filled them with broken glass and fire to practice. 18 of us died in the process. Eight of us managed to do it. The next t…

> We dug holes and filled them with broken glass and fire to practice. 18 of us died in the process. Is it providing material aid to terrorists to point out that maybe a hole filled with water would have been a better practice environment?

US Congressman Scott Perry said that USA has financed Boko Haram and other similar groups (remember how Pentagon and CIA independently backed different terrorist groups in Syria, that even fought each other?)

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/worl...

Re: How the terrorist group Boko Haram uses frontier AI

#99
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> am skeptical of any claim that they are providing some material embargoed knowledge that isn’t available elsewhere, in a way that either improves efficiency or effectiveness of their activities, This will sound like a hot take, but consider that terrorists are for the most part, stupid idiots. All the information they need is in books and old patents and what-not, but they absolutely will not have as much success i…

> This will sound like a hot take, but consider that terrorists are for the most part, stupid idiots. What even is a terrorist? If your definition of terrorist is "person on the news involved in some FBI entrapment scheme", then yeah they're probably not that bright. But more generally, terrorists are probably pretty hard to define (one persons terrorist is another persons freedom fighter, etc), and I would imagine i…

Boko Haram is not a mentally disabled person tricked by the FBI they are real terrorists who attack schools to stop children from learning. They're the epitome of stupid and backwards.

Re: How the terrorist group Boko Haram uses frontier AI

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We dug holes and filled them with broken glass and fire to practice. 18 of us died in the process. Is it providing material aid to terrorists to point out that maybe a hole filled with water would have been a better practice environment?

US Congressman Scott Perry said that USA has financed Boko Haram and other similar groups (remember how Pentagon and CIA independently backed different terrorist groups in Syria, that even fought each other?) https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/worl...

Scott Perry didn't present any evidence for those claims. Ideologically he is opposed to the humanitarian work USAID does around the world, and he cheered as Elon Musk dismantled the agency.

Perry was also one of the key figures in the criminal conspiracy trying to overturn the result of the 2020 election and overthrow the US government to install Donald Trump as a dictator based on a series of outrageous lies. If Trump hadn't been elected again in 2024, interrupting the relevant investigations, there's a decent chance Perry would be either on trial or perhaps even already convicted for his crimes (conscious of his guilt, he directly asked Trump for a pardon).

I wouldn't consider any claims he makes credible without some corroborating evidence.

Post reply on HN