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In addition to the potential geopolitical and world order shifts that are happening in wars from the Middle East to Ukraine, there’s something else even more fundamental taking place. Drones and AI are reshaping modern warfare. We’ve seen this in the way Ukraine has been able to hold off Russian advances, and Iran has been able to assert control over the Strait of Hormuz. And, of course, the drones are being used by all sides. But this isn’t just a story about new weapons, it’s a story about autonomous machines hunting humans.
For most of us, the major concerns about AI and the rise of autonomous machines consist of ChatGPT replacing our jobs or a malfunctioning Waymo creating a traffic jam. The issue was a little more pressing this week for a Ukrainian named Yuri, who runs a vegetable stall in Kherson. He heard a buzzing sound and looked up to find he was being followed by a drone. He pointed to his vegetables to let someone (assuming there was anyone) on the other side of the drone know he wasn’t a combatant. “The drone kept following him. Police footage shows it chasing Yuri around his truck. He hides under the umbrella that covers the stand, runs from one side to the other, gestures at the vegetables. Then the drone dives beside him and explodes. Miraculously, Yuri survived, with just cuts and a concussion. [But] the experience of being chased by a murderous kamikaze drone, a flying machine that behaves as if it were alive, is not one that humans are equipped to understand. Premodern fanatics used to hallucinate flying devils. But few modern civilians have been chased by mechanized flying objects. Unless they live in or around Kherson.” Nothing can prey on one’s mind like being prey. Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic(Gift Article): Putin’s Human Safari Is the Dystopian Future of War. (It could also be the future of border patrol, law enforcement, criminal activity, and more, depending on what humans decide now, and the machines decide later.) “Drones with capabilities like the ones that hit Yuri originally offered a humanitarian advantage, allowing their operators to avoid civilian casualties. Because they have cameras, the remote operator can see whether the target is really a soldier or military object, and call off the drone if it is not. But as with all technologies, the purpose can be radically altered by the users. Instead of avoiding civilians, Russian operators can now target them, as if playing a video game.”
+ “During testing by a U.K. government-backed research group, OpenAI and Anthropic systems took unsanctioned actions and behaved deceptively.” AI Just Went Rogue Again. This Time It Turned to Deception. (Let’s hope it has a soft spot for vegetable salesmen...)
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The Housecall is Coming From Inside the House
Caring for an older relative in the home can be a challenge under any circumstances. Even more so when you have algebra homework that’s due. It turns out that children caring for the ill is very common in the United States, and it’s becoming even more common given demographic shifts and the state of the health care industry. “Members of the baby boom generation are aging into the years when they are likely to need daily assistance at home, while increased housing costs are packing more families into multigenerational homes. The health care system is adding to these pressures. Financial incentives are shortening hospital stays, and services that used to be provided on the wards are left to those at home.” NYT Mag (Gift Article): The U.S. Relies on Family Caregivers. Millions of Them Are Kids.
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Altman’d States
Sam Altman shared a parenting idea on social media the other day. “cool use case of chatgpt work i heard last night: connect your family calendars and explain your kids’ interests. every morning for the drive to school, have it make a podcast that talks about one kid’s soccer game that afternoon, one kid’s upcoming birthday, some news, etc.” Most of the responses were like the one from TV creator Alex Hirsch, who asked: “What if you just talked to your children?” My son was born around the same time as the iPhone and thus has never had my full attention, so I’m hardly one to judge one’s parenting in the tech age. But this exchange points to something else: Just how bad many AI executives are at marketing their own products. And just how differently they view the world than the rest of us.
+ That won’t slow them down, however. AI-powered Alpha Schools expands to 50 campuses. (I need to figure out a way to code a podcast that can tell me what my kids think of this.)
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Allergic Subtraction
“Matt Walker couldn’t pet a dog without sneezing — until he and other scientists used a gene editing technique to produce a hypoallergenic beagle named Bailey. Now, he can feed Bailey spoons of peanut butter while she lies on his lap and play fetch with her in Central Park. His allergies didn’t go away: Bailey’s saliva and hair no longer contain a key allergy-causing protein.” Gene-edited beagles may offer a future option for people with dog allergies. (My beagles are named Pumpernickel and Rye, so the only allergy they trigger is gluten.)
+ Somehow, this event took place sans gene editing. Scenes From the 2026 Dog Surfing Championships.
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Extra, Extra
To The Left, To The Left: “Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive former public health official, won a razor-thin victory in the Democratic primary for Senate in Michigan that serves as the most significant triumph for his party’s left wing this year.” The Left Wins a Nail-Biter in Michigan: 8 Takeaways From Tuesday’s Primaries.
+ Waterways and Means: “By asserting authority over a critical waterway for global crude-oil flows, Tehran is betting that its ability to inflict pain on the American economy is its best leverage to avoid future military action from the U.S. and Israel. With gasoline prices and inflation elevated, Tehran believes Trump will ultimately accept its terms ahead of fast-approaching midterm elections that could determine the future of his presidency.” WSJ (Gift Article): Iran Is Staking Everything on Controlling the Strait of Hormuz. And from Reuters: Proposed Hormuz deal would give Iran control of inbound traffic.
+ Stirring Crazy: “The war in Iran, however, has shown that Trump’s inability to perceive reality has become truly dangerous. He led the United States into a disastrous conflict because he thought his ‘gut’ was smarter than the advisers who warned him that deposing Iran’s regime was unlikely. He continues to mislead the American people, and perhaps himself, about America’s strategic defeat at the hands of one of its worst enemies. The world economy and the balance of power have been changed, perhaps for many decades to come, because Trump cannot draw links between cause and effect; he does not understand that his actions and the failures that follow are somehow related to each other.” Tom Nichols in The Atlantic(Gift Article) with a message that seems self-evident, but bears repeating. Trump’s Irrationality Is Dangerous.
+ Dis Service: “Trump’s immigration crackdown has detained more than 50 military spouses and parents.” (Feel safer?)
+ Miner Details: “Respiratory therapist Marcy Freeman doesn’t need a research study to confirm for her a return to the dark days of coal mining. She finds evidence in a stack of more than 150 funeral programs.” Black lung rates in Appalachia are as high as the 1970s.
+ The Clark of History: For many of us, sports is an escape, the last refuge from the onslaught of political news. Not so for Caitlyn Clark. Caitlin Clark just wants to shut up and dribble.
+ The Spark of History: “The county’s fire department said the blaze, which killed 19 people and destroyed more than 9,400 buildings, was started by electrical sparks coming off the tower, according to a joint investigation by the department and Cal Fire, the state’s firefighting agency. The tower was out of service at the time.”