How the terrorist group Boko Haram uses frontier AI • Hacker News Board

Re: How the terrorist group Boko Haram uses frontier AI

#201

Post by scarecrowbob » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 3:45 PM UTC

ifwinterco wrote: post #198

ozlikethewizard wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USAF were using amphetamines as recently as Afghanistan, it's hard to find concrete info on but appears from the little research I've done that theres been a switch to other stimulants like modafinil. Stimulant use by soldiers has been pretty standard since the turn of the 20th century. Edit: From 2012, official approval of Modafinil: https://web.archive.org/web/20140611124025/http://static.e-p...

There's a difference between using stimulants on long missions to stay awake (especially if, for example, you're flying an aeroplane) and getting cranked on speed before a battle purely because you're rather fight high than sober. The German army in WW2 famously experimented with the latter during the invasion of France, but they seem to have reigned it in after that, mainly because while it might be initially effect…

Its fun for me to read these comments as a person who hates the US military.

Because I know the pipe hitters working for JSOC are really just as fucked up and superstitious as any boko haram nutjobs, and the magic that the "operators" believe in is just as idealistic and disconnected from material reality evn if it's stated "rationally" and scientistically as you've done here.

The "difference" that you're stating is purely imaginary, hoss. Those assholes are getting cranked up because it's easier to kill folks, and that's the same deal weather you're team "deus vult" or whatever odd stuff the Boko Haram folks are into- yall are all just into killing people at the end of the day.

"It's different because we have science"... get out of here with that LOL

Re: How the terrorist group Boko Haram uses frontier AI

#202

Post by tptacek » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 4:42 PM UTC

solumunus wrote: post #185

Legend2440 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly this sounds so outlandish that it makes me skeptical of the whole thing. They didn't stop after the first guy died? Or the tenth? Guy #11 just looked at the pile of corpses and was like, hell yeah I'm gonna try next? And where's the video? Terrorist groups love propaganda footage, if they were doing motorcycle stunts like Evel Knievel they'd be bragging about it everywhere.

Genuinely most terrorists are mentally handicapped. They groom, coerce and exploit low IQ individuals, because those are the people you can convince to blow themselves up (or whatever else).

OK, if that makes you feel better. Most of the 9/11 hijackers weren't low-IQ individuals; they included engineers, architects, schoolteachers, and pilots (for real); many were recruited out of universities; many were bi- and trilingual; &c.

Re: How the terrorist group Boko Haram uses frontier AI

#203

Post by throw2ih020 » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 6:38 PM UTC

chasd00 wrote: post #93

aprilthird2021 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> and that has to be in the first chapter of every first year battle strategy/tactic book on the planet.

You expected Boko Haram - a group whose name literally translates to "books are forbidden" - to read a book?

Re: How the terrorist group Boko Haram uses frontier AI

#204

Post by ajmurmann » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 6:56 PM UTC

bigmattystyles wrote: post #154

notahacker wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not gonna lie, I'd rather attack with 26 fighters that haven't survived lots of jump attempts than 8 who are much more confident in their motorbike stunt riding but presumably still aren't bulletproof. But maybe they could ask Claude how to train themselves to resist bullets as well?

You need Jean Claude for that.

I hope that the first model to reach ASI will be called that. I don't want humanity to go out with a whimper nor a bang but with a pun

Re: How the terrorist group Boko Haram uses frontier AI

#205

Post by anigbrowl » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 7:11 PM UTC

quantumleaper wrote: post #7

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…

Consider the possibility that you're the clueless one here. Pitched battles are generally horribly inefficient for insurgent forces; they're not used to fighting in formation or doing sophisticated combined-arms attacks, and if they just rush their target as a mob it's easy to shoot lots of them with a machine gun. A small force of 20 people is easier to train, coordinate, and deploy and can be much more effective once they learn hit and run and basic ambush tactics.

Re: How the terrorist group Boko Haram uses frontier AI

#206

Post by CamperBob2 » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 7:51 PM UTC

johnsmith1840 wrote: post #148

throwaway27448 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the chinese are doing just fine by themselves at this point

As the largest AI scappers on the planet.. sure They don't have nearly enough compute to be competitive on pretraining and distillation is exponentially cheaper. It's literally the same tactic they do in every industry. Steal top IP, gov funding, ban the company they stole from domestically while driving cost to zero, try to kill the original IP creators. They are actively in the process of doing this with Tesla as w…

Steal top IP

LOL. How do you thin...

On second thought, I'm about to feed a troll, and we're not supposed to do that here.

Re: How the terrorist group Boko Haram uses frontier AI

#207

Post by antod » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 9:18 PM UTC

Scroll_Swe wrote: post #196

antod wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless by "the left" you mean some solitary idiot (or troll) on tiktok who just went to college. In the west Boko Haram's goal seem closer to groups on the right than anyone on "the left". eg suppressing women's rights, more religion in school/govt, homosexuality etc

So just the same as every muslim group then! An imam preached in a mosque in Kristianstad this summer about how and when it's okay for men to beat their wives, tabloid Expressen reports. https://www.sverigesradio.se/artikel/imam-in-sweden-preached... Which is my point.

That wasn't anywhere near your point. Your point was that "the left" would praise Boko Haram. You backed it up with a link to a story that was neither about Boko Haram, was about behavior "the left" opposes, nor had any praise from anybody.

The only way your point could work is by redefining "the left" as Muslim fundamentalists, which is frankly bonkers.

Re: How the terrorist group Boko Haram uses frontier AI

#208

Post by petilon » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 9:33 PM UTC

dyauspitr wrote: post #182

petilon wrote: post #86

"Boko Haram" translates to "Western education is forbidden". Using Western AI as an educational tool seems like hypocrisy.

Western values

Boko traditionally refers to Western or secular education (as opposed to Islamic education).

Re: How the terrorist group Boko Haram uses frontier AI

#209

Post by Animats » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 10:38 PM UTC

dylan604 wrote: post #161

Animats wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The books exist, but those books are read by few outside military leadership. The good ones come from leaders who have been there, and they skip over the basics. Being able to talk to a chatbot that can get people past the classic military mistakes could make a force far more effective. Maybe. It's not going to create a Giap or a Rommel, but it might keep a force from repeating classic military mistakes. There's a br…

I guess they aren't reading Art of War either. Knowing one's enemy blah blah. People unwilling to learn from others are doomed to repeat other's failures. In some situations, there's a perverse pleasure in seeing them fail. Such a pleasure it'd be great if there was a really fun word to describe it...

The US Army War College publishes a quarterly, "Parameters", with articles about current military issues. "A New Security Framework for NATO’s Eastern Flank" (253 downloads), which is about what to do about Russia pushing against Europe, and "Key themes in Sino-American History" (165 downloads), which is about why China is pushing against Taiwan. Those are kind of important subjects.

"Rethinking Power: E. H. Carr’s Enduring Lessons for Modern Strategists" [1] (344 downloads) is worth a read. Carr wrote about the period between WWI and WWII, and this article compares it to the current situation.

This sort of material is worth reading to understand what happened the last few times there was a big political and military mess, what the players thought going in, and how it played out in reality. The same mistakes do repeat.

Few people read this, and most of the ones who do wear a uniform.

Current big mistakes are mostly covered by the classic line "The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions."

[1] https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol56/iss2/7/

Re: How the terrorist group Boko Haram uses frontier AI

#210

Post by johnsmith1840 » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 10:39 PM UTC

CamperBob2 wrote: post #206

johnsmith1840 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the largest AI scappers on the planet.. sure They don't have nearly enough compute to be competitive on pretraining and distillation is exponentially cheaper. It's literally the same tactic they do in every industry. Steal top IP, gov funding, ban the company they stole from domestically while driving cost to zero, try to kill the original IP creators. They are actively in the process of doing this with Tesla as w…

Steal top IP LOL. How do you thin... On second thought, I'm about to feed a troll, and we're not supposed to do that here.

Go learn yourself the history of nuclear reactors in china