Iran Mobilizes Its Houthis. Miranda Devine Gets to the Bot of ‘AI Apocalypse.’ Columnist: Yes, Children Are Getting Dumber. Kennedy Center Could Close. Forget Six Genders: Talarico Has New Job for the Lord. More
President Trump didn’t require the gift of prophecy to predict Iran will likely hang on until after the U.S. midterms. The latest is that the Iranian regime has mobilized its Houthis:
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels captured more strategic islands in the southern Red Sea, government and Houthi officials said Monday, strengthening their control of a major maritime shipping route.
The capture of the islands of Greater and Lesser Hanish is the latest in the rebels’ swift advance around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key passage for Saudi oil shipments that has only become more crucial during the Iran war since it serves as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz.
It’s going to be a bad day for the markets. Brent crude jumped above $108 after the Saudis shut down a critical pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz. AI fears are also a factor. Meanwhile, a former Pentagon official suggests that the Houthis have “walked into a kill box”:
Iran-backed Houthi rebels captured Perim Island in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait Sept. 11, opening a new front at a vital global shipping chokepoint as a former Pentagon official warned Sunday the militants had entered a “kill box.”
“But they’ve put themselves into a kill box. They’re nowhere near the capability of the United States and if the president so chooses, he can wipe them off the face of that rock pretty easily,” Murphy warned.
But closer to home, do the bots really want to kill us? “Obama and the Dems are suspiciously sounding the ‘AI apocalypse’ alarm — just in time for the midterms,” proposes the New York Post’s Miranda Devine. Here is how she begins:
The “AI Apocalypse” scare campaign looks suspiciously like the climate hoax. How convenient that it’s come to a head right as the midterm election season kicks off this week.
The campaign launch was when Jacob Coxon, a low-level 27-year-old AI researcher, trumpeted his resignation from AI company Anthropic in a Wall Street Journal exclusive last week followed by a viral X thread warning AI will “kill us all.”
“The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade . . . They are gambling with our lives,” he claimed.
His boss, the Democrat-aligned Anthropic founder and CEO Dario Amodei, amplified Coxon’s apocalyptic message with a 3,800-word essay on Saturday, followed by a giddy interview CBS aired Sunday in which he essentially called for a one-world government to regulate AI.CBS aired Sunday in which he essentially called for a one-world government to regulate AI….
Of course Barack Obama is involved. The former president and back-room Machiavelli “has taken a special interest in AI in recent years, and has offered himself as a sounding board to industry leaders, including [Open AI’s Sam] Altman and Mr. Amodei,” says The New York Times.
An editorial in the Wall Street Journal recognizes that “warnings of Apocalypse are also growing, often uninformed and amplified by those like Bernie Sanders who want government to stop the industry until the politicians can run it.” In an op-ed headlined “We Need a Science of the AI Mind,” Cameron Berg argues that we aren’t doomed but that models are advancing more quickly than our understanding of them.
Matthew Hennessey writes, meanwhile, that Anthropic CEO Amodei created a monster and wants everyone else to stop it. He might not get his way. President Trump brushes off AI apocalypse: “Whoever wins AI, wins.” Speaker Mike Johnson says AI leaders must meet with Congress over safety concerns, but he resists calls for a moratorium.
While bots are allegedly getting smarter, Allyssia Finley’s column this morning is headlined “Yes, Children Really Are Getting Dumber.” The bots—or rather reliance on AI—are a big part of the problem:
Covid school shutdowns no doubt contributed to the learning loss, though they don’t appear to be the primary culprit, given that scores fell in countries that kept schools mostly open. But there are two common denominators across most countries where scores fell: increasing classroom distractions and reliance on artificial intelligence.
According to a Thomas B. Fordham Institute survey published last week, half of high-school students and recent graduates say they use social media during class every day. When devices are supposed to be used for instructional purposes in class, 58% said peers watch videos, use social media or engage in off-task activities.
Are students really to blame? As a result of their less mature brains, kids exhibit less impulse control and self-restraint than adults. Assigning in-class lessons on devices invites kids to rush through them so they can goof off. The result: hasty reading and math.
“Girl, Diagnosed.” A new book by a psychiatrist examines “our obsession with mental-health labels”:
In “Girlhood, Translated: Understanding Young Women in the Age of Therapy Speak,” Dr. Garfinkel-Crowell vividly describes her patients’ reliance on social-media buzzwords to understand themselves and their problems. Despite her suspicion of therapy-speak, Dr. Garfinkel-Crowell still believes in the value of therapy itself, unsurprising for a working psychiatrist. Unlike some other recent books, “Girlhood, Translated” defends the work of responsible clinicians.
Dr. Garfinkel-Crowell explains that many of her patients now arrive in her office with a self-diagnosis that they pressure her to affirm.
Culture War. The Kennedy Center could close as early as tomorrow, according to the Washington Post. The newspaper cites a “bleak,” 57-page packet distributed to the institution’s trustees that indicates a looming financial crisis, including the possibility of bankruptcy:
The presentation makes clear that Trump’s support hinges on getting public credit for his involvement. The financial resolution says Trump has offered to “raise the necessary funds to keep the Center from bankruptcy” while the building undergoes a sweeping renovation. But it says Trump is unlikely to provide “fundamental oversight” of that project or lead a financial rescue without “appropriate recognition” of his role.
“The New ObamaCare Trust Busters” describes how Democrats now want to break up the large firms they helped to create:
Who knew Jesus was an antitrust lawyer? So sayeth Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, who recently invoked his Lord and Savior in his campaign to “break up these big healthcare monopolies.” You have to chuckle at Democrats campaigning to crush the trusts they created.
Mr. Talarico held an event with billionaire Mark Cuban in which he laid out a plan to break up vertically integrated healthcare companies. “Healthcare corporations are ripping us off—jacking up premiums and profiting off our pain,” he said. Later he suggested that breaking up the companies is what Jesus would do.
The Senate hopeful cited reports claiming that 90% of U.S. hospital beds are controlled by large hospital systems, and three pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) process some 80% of prescriptions. Healthcare consolidation has increased and is driving up prices. But government policies, especially ObamaCare, have driven the consolidation….
A study this year by University of Chicago and Northwestern researchers found evidence that ObamaCare’s profit cap spurred insurers to combine with providers and shift profits to affiliates. The result: Higher prices and out-of-pocket costs for patients. The medical-loss ratio has also contributed to higher drug costs.
The revamped “60 Minutes” last night had an interview with the U.S. Air Force Colonel shot down in Iran and his miraculous survival story. Compelling TV, I’m told. Good shows, however, won’t deter the Left, which hates Bari Weiss, whose first “60 Minutes” installment this was.
From “The Lindsay Clancy Holdout Juror Is a Black Man. Here’s Why Gayle King Needed To ‘Sit with’ That For Just A Second’,” by Eddie Scarry at The Federalist:
“Is the holdout juror a person of — a black man?” asked King in near disbelief. Devlin said he was. King asked again, to be sure. “A black man is the holdout juror?” Yes, Devlin said, looking every bit as dismayed as King.
“Whoa,” said King, who was fortunately seated safely in a large cushioned chair, lest she had face planted. “I have to sit with that for just a second.”
A Few for the Road. As Townhall’s Matt Vespa notes, the media went after the holdout juror. … Vespa on why Randi Weingarten is involving herself in lawsuits over illegal CDL drivers. … Should the child tax credit be expanded? It could be a step toward universal basic income.
