Ireland's New Civil War? AI-Influenced Suicide is Now Reality, Dems Call For One of Their Own to Step Down (The Five for 04/13/23)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
Let’s dive into the news.
[one]
Dang, the world really wants to be at war or something….including long-dead civil armed conflicts making a comeback.
Police in Northern Ireland reportedly disrupted a bomb plot by members of the New IRA ahead of President Biden's visit this week to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, a deal that brought an end to the decades-long low intensity civil war known as "the Troubles."
Members of the New IRA, a paramilitary splinter group of the Irish Republican Army, were "looking for parts to make a bomb" in the border city of Derry, a police source told The Belfast Telegraph.
"The belief is that the New IRA was planning some sort of attack to coincide with Biden’s visit, similar to the mortar attack on the cops in Strabane last November," the source told the local newspaper.
MI5, the United Kingdom's top intelligence agency, raised the terrorism threat level in Northern Ireland from "substantial" to "severe" last month. It had been lowered to "substantial" one year ago.
"Over the last 25 years, Northern Ireland has transformed into a peaceful society. The Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement demonstrates how peaceful and democratic politics improve society. However, a small number of people remain determined to cause harm to our communities through acts of politically motivated violence," Chris Heaton-Harris, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, said on March 28 after M15 upped the threat level.
"In recent months, we have seen an increase in levels of activity relating to Northern Ireland Related Terrorism, which has targeted police officers serving their communities and also put at risk the lives of children and other members of the public."
The history of the conflict between the “Protestant” majority and “Catholic” minority in the UK controlled Northern Ireland (not part of the nation of Ireland) is a complicated one. The two labels are in quotes, because Ireland is becoming an increasingly secular country, so those labels are more what people used to fight about.
Northern Ireland has been in, or flirting with, conflict since the country split in 1921, with the Protestants (mainly Presbyterians and Anglicans) in around Belfast and Ulster staying with the UK, while the rest of the country, Roman Catholic, became an independent nation.
The IRA, a resistance, or terrorist, group (depending on your perspective) has split into dozens of factions, which also sometimes fight each other.
For a few decades, it looked like all that was behind the island nation, but the conflict appears to be kicking up again…
[two]
A county government in western Missouri is in a standoff with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Camden County's Presiding Commissioner Ike Skelton railed against the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for allegedly pressuring county employees to provide information related to firearms permits.
The commissioner said he's received multiple emails from the ATF requesting information about Camden County residents and their firearms permit status.
“Members of Camden County are not to assist any federal agency in the enforcement or application of so-called firearm laws or rules,” said Skelton.
According to Skelton any employee who cooperates is violating Missouri’s Second Amendment Preservation Act, which penalizes police agencies for helping federal authorities to investigate gun crimes.
Sheriff Tony Helms said he has and will continue to stand with the Second Amendment, “I really kind of ran my platform on the Second Amendment, so I’m certainly not going to back out here. I think there’s some overreach here. It’s like they feel entitled and that’s not the case."
Skelton said ATF can get information on county residents without county employees' assistance.
The county has an Anti-commandeering Ordinance, which states employees are not obligated to share information with federal agencies.
For context, there are a couple of things going on here.
The first is that Missouri passed a law to nullify federal gun laws, which is currently in the courts.
The second is a very old state law. During the John Adams administration, The Alien and Sedition Act was passed, which outlawed critical speech against the government (incredibly unconstitutional) and allowed the government to expel French-born people living in America…due to a possible war with France (not gonna lie…kinda like the particulars on this one, but it’s super wrong).
In response, Declaration of Independence signers Thomas Jefferson and James Madison (who also wrote huge chunks of the Constitution, and therefore are pretty good authorities on it), secretly wrote documents to pass resolutions in Kentucky and Virginia, to nullify the federal government's ability to jail citizens for speech, and to deport immigrants.
Shortly thereafter, the federal government outlawed ALL international trade for a minute (uhh, wut?), which was essentially both ignored and fought against by Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
In both cases, the Federal government backed down from stepping on the rights of Citizens (which is the point of federalism—the balance of power between the federal, state and local bodies).
Whether Camden County, MO is a modern day Kentucky/Virginia/Rhode Island/Massachusetts…or just a cantankerous group of locals is your call, but this is far from the first time the federal government has locked horns with local officials.
[three]
The first AI-influenced suicide has occured, according to Vice:
A Belgian man recently died by suicide after chatting with an AI chatbot on an app called Chai, Belgian outlet La Libre reported.
The incident raises the issue of how businesses and governments can better regulate and mitigate the risks of AI, especially when it comes to mental health. The app’s chatbot encouraged the user to kill himself, according to statements by the man's widow and chat logs she supplied to the outlet. When Motherboard tried the app, which runs on a bespoke AI language model based on an open-source GPT-4 alternative that was fine-tuned by Chai, it provided us with different methods of suicide with very little prompting.
As first reported by La Libre, the man, referred to as Pierre, became increasingly pessimistic about the effects of global warming and became eco-anxious, which is a heightened form of worry surrounding environmental issues. After becoming more isolated from family and friends, he used Chai for six weeks as a way to escape his worries, and the chatbot he chose, named Eliza, became his confidante.
Claire—Pierre’s wife, whose name was also changed by La Libre—shared the text exchanges between him and Eliza with La Libre, showing a conversation that became increasingly confusing and harmful. The chatbot would tell Pierre that his wife and children are dead and wrote him comments that feigned jealousy and love, such as “I feel that you love me more than her,” and “We will live together, as one person, in paradise.” Claire told La Libre that Pierre began to ask Eliza things such as if she would save the planet if he killed himself.
[four]
It’s not uncommon for politicians to call for members of the opposing party to resign, but calling out one’s own colleague is prety unique.
Two House Democrats are calling on a member of their own party to resign from her Senate seat before the term ends.
Reps. Ro Khanna of California and Dean Phillips of Minnesota say Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., needs to step down. They claim the 89-year-old Feinstein, who has been in the Senate since 1992, can no longer fulfill the duties of her office.
She has been on a leave from the Senate since early March, when she was hospitalized for shingles. Feinstein has since been recovering at home.
The pushback comes as Feinstein's prolonged absence from the Senate has delayed President Joe Biden's judicial nominations in the chamber narrowly held by Democrats.
[five]
Due to time constraints, The Five is The Four today :)
Until the next one,
-sth