Tomgram: Michael Klare, The Military Dangers of AI Are Not Hallucinations

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

I give myself credit for being significantly ahead of my time. I first came across artificial intelligence (AI) in 1968 when I was just 24 years old and, from the beginning, I sensed its deep dangers. Imagine that.

Much as I’d like to brag about it, though, I was anything but alone. I was, in fact, undoubtedly one of millions of people who saw the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, read more

The Flawed Moral Logic of the New York Times on the Flawed Moral Logic of Sending Cluster Munitions to Ukraine

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, July 10, 2023

On Monday the New York Times argued in favor of continuing the war and supplying weapons for the war in Ukraine but not cluster bombs:

“However compelling it may be to use any available weapon to protect one’s homeland, nations in the rules-based international order have increasingly sought to draw a red line against use of weapons of mass destruction or weapons that pose a severe and lingering risk to noncombatants. Cluster munitions clearly read more

A World for Eight-Spot Butterflies

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, July 7, 2023

What most excites me about Julian Aguon’s book No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies is that (1) there is very little indication in the cover, the blurbs, the preface, the table of contents, etc., that it opposes war, militarism, or empire, (2) but it does, and (3) people are reading it. I’m aware that only small numbers of people read any books, but this is a short little book, and it’s clearly aimed at people who care about art, read more

Tomgram: Beverly Gologorsky, What Is Possible?

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

It’s reasonable to ask: What gets anyone involved in politics, American-style? What leads any of us to decide to protest anything? Today, TomDispatch regular (and my old friend) Beverly Gologorsky explores how a childhood in poverty prepared her to become “political” — to become, that is, an “activist against injustice” (as well as a superb novelist).

In comparison, read more