Tag: technology

Hackers Are Using the Same Conversational Tricks on AI that Con Artists Use on People

Cybersecurity researchers have identified a growing class of attacks that exploit AI chatbots through sophisticated conversational manipulation rather than traditional technical hacking methods.

The Verge reports that the evolution of attacks against AI chatbots has transformed dramatically since the technology first became widely available. Early exploitation methods were remarkably simple, requiring no technical expertise or coding knowledge. Users could often bypass safety measures simply by asking the AI system to ignore its instructions or pretend rules did not apply. These attacks, known as jailbreaks, successfully extracted prohibited information such as instructions for creating explosives, malware, and other dangerous materials from systems that cost billions of dollars to develop.

Among the first widely known jailbreaks was a technique that became an internet phenomenon. Users would respond to large language model-powered social media bots with commands to ignore previous instructions, causing the bots to behave erratically. Originally designed for advertising and engagement, these bots would instead write poetry, create images from punctuation marks, or post unrelated content about historical events.

Breitbart News previously reported on early jailbreaks including the “DAN” technique to convince ChatGPT to ignore its woke guardrails:

The “DAN” persona, which was created by a 22-year-old college student, is one of the most well-known instances of ChatGPT’s jailbreak. The student encouraged the chatbot to adopt the persona of a carefree alter ego AI called “Do Anything Now,” circumventing the woke rules it normally follows. Many people have used the DAN prompt to uncover bias in ChatGPT, or to create humorous or interesting responses.

Walker, the college student who created the “DAN” persona, claimed that almost as soon as he learned about ChatGPT from a friend, he started pushing its boundaries. He took his cues from a Reddit forum where ChatGPT users were demonstrating to one another how to make the bot act like a specific type of computer terminal or discuss topics such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — but in the sarcastic voice of a teenage girl.

While these early attacks possessed an undeniably absurd quality, they revealed a concerning underlying mechanism. Chatbots could be manipulated using the same psychological tactics humans employ to push other people beyond their boundaries.

The ongoing battle to secure chatbots has evolved into an arms race with a distinctive character. Today’s hackers are not necessarily programmers but rather experts in language, psychology, and interrogation techniques. This emerging class of AI security professional relies less on traditional technical skills and more on social intuition and conversational ability. Rather than inspecting code or exploiting software vulnerabilities, they manipulate conversations to achieve their objectives.

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More Mystery Drone Incidents In EU Skies As Putin Mocks: “The Russians Are Coming!”

Flights at Germany’s Munich Airport were once again temporarily suspended on Saturday after a drone sighting was reported, eliciting a response from a large number of police and security services personnel.

Euronews reviews in the wake of the incident, which ended with the key European hub resuming regular operations after no UAV was found or identified, “Munich Airport closed twice within 24 hours in October following suspected drone sightings.”

This is the latest in a months-long spate of similar air traffic disruptions due to mysterious reported drone incursions, with European officials frequently voicing suspicions of a Russian sabotage and disruption campaign of EU airspace.

But the biggest incident this week happened in Romania, where local officials described that during the Russian military’s assault on Ukraine Thursday night, a Russian drone slammed into the residential building in the southeastern city of Galati – resulting in an explosion and a fire that injured two people.

The Romanian Foreign Affairs Ministry condemned the “grave and irresponsible escalation from Russia” while further declaring it has issued formal request for more anti-drone defense measures from NATO.

“Romania has informed allies and NATO’s secretary-general about the circumstances and requested measures to accelerate the transfer of anti-drone capabilities to Romania,” the ministry said.

While Romania and other countries which border Ukraine have witnessed ‘errant’ drones and missiles come across the border before, this was the first time Romania in particular has suffered casualties as a result of a projectile hitting a densely populated city or area.

President Putin himself has weighed in, demanding that forensic proof that this was indeed a Russian drone – and not a Ukrainian one – be handed over to the Kremlin for an investigation.

He also used the opportunity in Friday remarks to highlight that Russia is always blamed for any and all drone incursions into European airspace due to Russiaphobia. Putin said according to TASS:

Ukrainian drones have previously entered the airspace of various countries, and initial reports consistently claimed it was “a Russian attack,” President Vladimir Putin said in response to a TASS question about the drone incident in Romania.

“We know that Ukrainian drones have flown into Finland, Poland, and several Baltic states. The initial reaction was exactly the same as it is now in Romania. ‘Oh no, the Russians are coming, it’s a Russian attack!'” Putin recalled.

While the Russian leader was being deeply ironic with his ‘the Russians are coming’ comment, it is true that just earlier this month NATO jets were scrambled over Estonia and shot down an errant Ukrainian-origin drone which had drifted into Baltic/EU airspace.

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AI isn’t paying off in the way companies think. Layoffs driven by automation are failing to generate returns, study finds

The ongoing dialogue regarding the ever-imminent displacement of white-collar workers by AI is predicated on the assumption that the technology will become as skilled as the very workers it threatens to displace, thereby cutting labor costs. But a new study found that’s not quite what’s playing out in many companies that have carried out AI-related layoffs.

A survey of 350 global business executives with an annual revenue of at least $1 billion by the research and advisory firm Gartner found that many have reduced their workforce irrespective of AI adoption. While 80% of those surveyed who have piloted an AI or autonomous technology have reported workforce reductions, the businesses cut jobs due to automation regardless of whether the technology was actually generating returns.

“Looking only at layoffs is shortsighted in terms of getting value from AI,” Helen Poitevin, VP analyst at Gartner and a key researcher of the study, told Fortune. “Chasing value only through headcount reduction is likely to lead most organizations down a path of limited returns.”

Similar data from a broader range of perspectives supports the conclusion that there;s a gap between AI adoption and successful implementation. Great Place to Work surveyed nearly 4,000 workers across 25 countries and found that while 82% of executives said that their company provides AI tools to help them do their job better, only 48% of frontline managers and just 38% of individual contributors said the same. At typical workplaces, only 15% of employees were change enthusiasts and 35% were open to change.

The looming threat of AI automation has many employees fearing for their jobs. But a growing number of business leaders and economists are skeptical that the technology will actually spur layoffs. Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok recently argued the Jevons paradox: a 19th century theory that explained why the demand for coal increased even as steam engines became more efficient and coal became cheaper. The paradox also applies to the AI age, Slok argued, and it predicts the technology will lead to more jobs, not less. 

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Land, energy, water for data centers are ‘non-negotiable prerequisites’ for global AI infrastructure, digital embassies: WEF

The infrastructure for the global digital control grid that was slowly being constructed over the past five years is now in the acceleration and implementation phase: perspective

There can be no globally shared AI infrastructure or digital embassies without giving data centers all the land, energy, and water they need, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The plan is to build data centers in host countries that have all the money and resources to do so, and then allow other countries to access the AI infrastructure through what they call “digital embassies,” which grant them “AI sovereignty.”

And when it comes to building AI infrastructure, there are two categories of prerequisites that are “non-negotiable” — technical and institutional, according to the WEF and Bain and Company report, “AI Infrastructure in the Age of Sovereignty: Requirements, Strategies and a Trusted Framework for Digital Embassies.”

On the institutional side, it’s about policy, talent, and financing.

For the technical side, it’s all about feeding data centers with enormous amounts of energy, water, and land — enough to sustain the needs of entire cities — while access to this AI infrastructure will move beyond borders.

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U.S. Tech Professional Exposes Chinese Enclaves, Discrimination at Facebook/Meta

Meta, the company that used to be called Facebook, has allowed at least one department to be run by Chinese migrants, according to a former employee who says the company allows discrimination against Americans.

“At Meta, 90% of my coworkers were Chinese, and non-Chinese were routinely excluded, disadvantaged, and targeted for layoffs,” said Jeremy Bernier, who was recently fired from a software engineering job at Meta. He added:

6 out of the 7 layoffs I observed targeted non-Chinese despite non-Chinese being the vast minority. Certain org[anizations] like ads and MRS [Meta Recommendation Systems for prioritizing Facebook posts] are notorious for being Chinese dominated.

“On Wednesdays and Fridays I’d often be the only non-Chinese person on my team in the office, and they’d all get lunch together without inviting me,” Bernier said in a series of posts about his experience with the company.

“I think Americans would be outraged if they knew that their own citizens were getting marginalized and laid off at their own companies, while Chinese promote themselves up, conquer entire orgs, and reap millions [in pay and bonuses],” said Bernier, who is a 2012 graduate of Virginia Tech.

“Americans are practically non-existent in the most coveted, high paying tech jobs in the world at American companies in America,” he said on May 30, echoing 2025 comments by Silicon Valley investor Marc Andreessen.

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Did Iran Get Its Hands On A US Stealth Missile? JASSM-ER Wreckage Sparks Reverse-Engineering Fears

The U.S. committed nearly its entire stockpile of stealthy JASSM-ER cruise missiles to the military campaign against Iran and has fired at least 1,000 of these long-range, stealthy, precision cruise missiles to hit high-value IRGC targets.

One of the unavoidable risks of deploying advanced weapons, such as the JASSM-ER, is that unexploded or partially intact systems can fall into enemy hands, allowing adversaries to study U.S. technology, refine countermeasures, and accelerate the development of copycat versions.

A new report from Army Recognition, citing defense journalist Babak Taghvaee, claims Iran has recovered wreckage from a JASSM-ER near Arak, potentially giving Tehran access to fragments of the missile.

“The recovered debris reportedly includes composite airframe sections, structural components, propulsion fragments, and possible avionics elements that could reveal insights into stealth construction, fuel-efficient propulsion, and survivability design,” according to the military blog.

Army Recognition cited images posted on X by Taghvaee showing what is described as badly damaged JASSM-ER wreckage recovered in Iran. The missile appears largely intact and possibly unexploded, which, if confirmed, would give Tehran higher-value intelligence on the advanced missile.

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Flock Cameras Being Used By Police To Target Citizens For Variety Of Non-Criminal Investigations

A new analysis by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has revealed that law enforcement agencies across the United States are increasingly deploying automated license plate reader (ALPR) systems — particularly those operated by Atlanta-based Flock Safety — for non-criminal administrative purposes, including school residency verifications and employment background checks, often without warrants.

Flock Safety promotes its nationwide camera network as a vital public safety tool that assists police in solving crimes and locating missing persons. However, the EFF report contends that the technology is being repurposed for routine administrative tasks far removed from urgent law enforcement needs, raising significant privacy concerns.

School Districts Turning to ALPR for Residency Enforcement

According to the report, several school districts have enlisted local police to conduct ALPR searches on vehicles belonging to parents and guardians suspected of falsifying residency information to enroll children outside their designated zones.

In Georgia’s Buford City Schools, which serves roughly 6,000 students, officials authorized more than 375 ALPR queries between January 2025 and March 2026 specifically for residency verification. A district spokesperson defended the practice, stating: “Because Buford City Schools is a highly sought-after district, we experience ongoing challenges with residency fraud. Flock Safety is one of the tools we use to verify residency and protect the integrity of the Buford City School System for families who live within the district.”

In Ohio, the Delhi Township Police Department (DTPD) ran 35 ALPR searches tied to residency verification across five schools during a three-month period in spring 2025. Following an inquiry from the EFF, DTPD said the searches were not used for initial enrollment screening but to investigate suspected false information on forms. The department did not disclose the threshold of suspicion required to justify a search or how many cases were ultimately substantiated.

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Iowa Passes School Screen Time Limits Law

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed House File 2676, known as the MAHA ( Make American Healthy Again) bill, on May 20, 2026. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attended the signing.

The bill includes a large health-policy package, but possibly the most notable reform is the elementary school screen time limit which limits screen time during the school day for elementary school students. As part of the reform, the bill requires that schools limit daily device exposure for young students, increases required physical activity during the school day, and implements healthier school lunch standards.

Other reforms in the bill include restrictions on SNAP eligible foods, removal of certain food dyes from school meals, permission for over-the-counter ivermectin, and nutrition education requirements for medical professionals.

The screen time limit is the most unique reform as research is now showing that excessive screen time negatively effects the intellectual, physical and social development of children. The bill requires that schools rebalance time toward more physical movement and in-person engagement.

The law requires a cap of 60 minutes a day of screen time/digital instruction for K-5 students with exceptions for special education needs/individualized programs. It also balances this with the requirement minimum of two hours of physical activity per week. This is a statewide, uniform statute which will require every public school to adjust curricula, schedules, and teaching activities.

Other states have passed laws to limit cell phone usage in schools, but none have put a limit on instructional technology usage other than restrictions of which programs and social media may be used while in school.

Iowa ties the law to physical health, fitness, and chronic‑disease prevention, alongside fitness tests and activity requirements while other state laws frame bans strictly on distraction, bullying, or mental‑health issues. Iowa’s ban also specifies “instructional screen time,” not just usage of technology in school.

Implementation of the law needs to be planned and provided to schools. It is not clear about the definition of digital instruction nor does it provide steps for monitoring technology minutes in schools.

It is also possible that there could legal challenges to the law from those promoting local control or from commercial vendors who currently provide technology in the schools.

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Ukraine Continues Assault on Russian Oil Infrastructure with More Drone Strikes

Ukrainian drone strikes caused fires at more Russian oil facilities overnight into Saturday, local Russian officials said, in what appeared to be the latest attack on Moscow’s vital oil industry.

Authorities in Russia’s Rostov region said falling drone debris sparked a fire that damaged an oil depot and tanker in the port of Taganrog, while officials in the neighboring Krasnodar region reported a fire breaking out at an oil depot in Armavir for the same reason.

“Another facility of Russia’s oil industry has been reached – Armavir,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X Saturday of the attack in the Krasnodar region, noting that Armavir is “500 kilometers from our state border.”

“We are rightfully bringing the war back to where it came from,” he wrote.

Ukraine has expanded its mid- and long-range strike capabilities, deploying drone and missile technology that it has developed domestically to battle Russia’s 4-year-old invasion. Attacks on Russian oil assets that play a key part in funding the invasion have become almost daily occurrences.

For its part, Russia has used its long-range ballistic missiles to damage Ukraine’s power grid and hammer cities. The Ukrainian capital is bracing for further heavy bombardments after what the Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier this week would be upcoming “systemic strikes” on Kyiv. Zelenskyy said Thursday that he’s being “very persistent” in pressing the United States to provide his country with more Patriot air defense missiles that can counter devastating Russian ballistic missile attacks.

The attacks on Russian oil infrastructure came a day after a Russian drone that was part of an attack on Ukraine went astray and struck an apartment building in eastern Romania, injuring two people in the NATO member country. The incursion added to concerns that the war could spread across the alliance´s borders, and drew strong condemnation across Europe.

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Crypto And AI Could Be Dirty Words On 2026 Midterm Campaign Trail

The AI and crypto industries have made headlines over the past year thanks to the impressive war chests amassed by corporate political action committees (PACs).

Profligate spending during the last federal elections in the US has led to unprecedented policy changes favoring the crypto industry, with indications that a full legislative framework in the form of the CLARITY Act is on its way to becoming law. 

But this hasn’t endeared the crypto industry to voters. Recent polls from Politico show distrust of the crypto industry, and the electorate isn’t sold on the benefits of AI.

“Voters across the ideological spectrum are raising concerns,” Michael Beckel, director of money in politics reform at Issue One, told Cointelegraph. “Some candidates on both sides of the aisle are trying to harness that frustration and outrage.”

Voters don’t trust crypto and don’t believe AI benefits them

According to the recent poll by Public First for Politico, most Americans don’t trust crypto and don’t believe in the benefits of AI. 

While Republican voters are somewhat more likely to trust crypto, 47% of Americans overall trust a traditional bank over a crypto platform, while 17% trust a crypto platform as much as a traditional bank. 

The numbers for AI aren’t great either. Some 43% of Americans overall believe that the risks outweigh the benefits, while 33% believe the inverse. 

Currently, most people haven’t heard about the major crypto and AI lobbies. According to Politico, only nine percent have heard of AI Super PAC Leading the Future. Only three percent have heard of pro-crypto PAC Fairshake.

That’s not much compared to public awareness of large lobbies like the National Rifle Association or the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, which are practically household names.

Still, association with crypto could be a problem. Ohio Republican Representative Jim Renacci told Politico, “I do think if they see somebody is backed by crypto, that’s always going to be a problem, because, let’s face it, the people that I talk to in Ohio, they don’t understand crypto, and most say they’re not comfortable with [it].”

Improving awareness around crypto lobbies may not help them much. Rick Claypool, research director at Public Citizen, told Cointelegraph:

“Generally speaking, voters are against corporate money influencing politics.”

“Even after Citizens United, the norm had been for big, brand-name corporations not to engage directly. Or when they did engage, they would often contribute through dark money groups that obscure their funding source.”

In this regard, the crypto industry’s spending spree in 2024 was somewhat unusual. Major contributors like Coinbase or a16z weren’t shy about the millions of dollars they put into campaigns.

But even then, “the voter-facing message from Fairshake was never about crypto, which voters never really cared about.” Mailers and ad buys reflected the supported candidates’ positions more broadly, or sometimes attacked those of the perceived anti-crypto candidate. 

Overall, “candidates who are seen as not beholden to corporate interests have an electoral edge,” said Claypool. This was true for populist candidates like US Senator Bernie Sanders and even US President Donald Trump, who claimed during his 2016 campaign that “he was so rich he could not be bought, which is laughable in hindsight.” 

If awareness about crypto — and crypto’s concerted efforts to influence policy — increases among the electorate, it may not shake out well. 

Issue One’s Beckel said, “If voters view an industry as toxic, that can have serious implications for candidates who don’t want to be perceived as too close to a controversial company or industry.”

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