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Artificial intelligence and machine learning capacities are allowing analysts to produce quicker, more streamlined assessments.

Americas national security organizations have begun applying AI to more quickly and effectively produce intelligence assessments.

Speaking at the GovernmentCIO Media & Research AI: National Security virtual event, Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) Research Directorate Mark Segal discussed how these new capacities are assisting intelligence analysts in better processing and sorting large quantities of often complex and disparate information.

In outlining the NSAs research priorities, Segal noted that both AI and machine-learning capacities already showed promise for better organizing the large pools of variable data their analysts sort through in producing regular assessments.

One of the challenges that we have found AI to be particularly useful for is looking through the sheer amount of data that's created every day on this planet. Our analysts are looking at some of this data trying to understand it, and understand what its implications are for national security. The amount of data that we have to sort is going up pretty dramatically, but the number of people that we have who are actually looking at this data is pretty constant. So we're constantly looking for tools and technologies to help our analysts more effectively go through huge piles of data, Segal said.

This application of AI to analysis has the potential to expedite the delivery of actionable intelligence to policymakers as well, who are able to more quickly and conclusively come to decisions based on a more effective sorting of available information.

We analyze information and then provide that analysis to policymakers. For example, lets say we're looking at a large pile of documents and trying to understand what the intentions of another country are by looking through that data quickly. We want to zoom in immediately on the most important parts of that data, and have our skilled analysts say, We think this entity is doing a specific thing, and then leave that to the policymakers to determine how we might respond, Segal said.

Segal cautioned that agency technologists need to start with a realistic understanding of AI and machine learning to make most effective use of these new capacities, and to see them in terms of how they can concretely refine internal processes and advance their organizations key aims.

One of the biggest risks about AI right now is that there's this huge amount of hype surrounding it AI is a tool just like any other tool. And the way that you use a tool is to figure out where it would be effective, and where it would actually help solve a problem in our research organization. One of the things that we try to do is actually look at the technology in order to apply it to real problems and analyze the results in a scientifically rigorous manner, Segal said.

Segal also cautioned agencies to avoid creating undue biases within their algorithms, as these built-in flaws would ultimately distort the resulting analysis in ways that are either ineffective or potentially dangerous if they go uncorrected.

A lot of machine-learning algorithms are trained on data, and one of the challenges that can emerge there is that if the data is biased, its going to affect the output," Segal said. "For example, with facial-recognition software, if the training data only has people that have a certain hair type, or a certain skin color, or certain facial features, it will not work in practice because when you encounter other data that you've not seen before, the algorithm will behave in unpredictable ways."

One of the most promising applications NSA researchers have begun exploring is automated data sorting, using AI to sift through large quantities of documents and identify relevant information far more quickly than a human worker would be able to.

Imagine you've got a very large pile of documents, and in some of these documents there are really important things you want analysts to look at while some of the other documents are completely irrelevant. So one of the ways that we've used AI and machine learning in particular is we can have a trained human look at a subset of these documents and train a model to say which ones are really important and which ones are less important. Once you've trained a model and have enough data that you train the model successfully, you can go through a much larger collection of documents much more quickly than a human being could do it, Segal said.

Another concrete use case that aligns AI with operational efficiency is using tailored algorithms to convert speech to text.

If you can do that, you can make that text searchable, which once again makes the analyst more productive. So instead of listening to thousands of hours of audio to hear one relevant audio clip, you put in a few keywords and scan all this processed text, Segal said.

Segal emphasized that no matter how advanced these capacities become, national security institutions should continue evaluating AI for both potential biases, as well as through the central criteria as to whether or not these new uses are conducive to their longstanding mission.

I think the main way that we do that is when we try these experiments, pilot studies and different techniques, we have a way of quantitatively measuring its effectiveness. When it proves to be effective, we refine the techniques. And when it proves not to be effective, we take a step back and think about why it failed, Segal said.

The rest is here:
AI Helping to Refine Intelligence Analysis - GovernmentCIO Media & Research

Kenneth Sharpton Glasgow, a Dothan minister and half-brother of the Rev. Al Sharpton, pleaded not guilty in federal court Wednesday following his indictment on federal drug charges.

Glasgow, 56, was charged in Dothan federal court on one count of conspiracy to distribute drugs amid allegations he and another, unnamed suspect distributed cocaine, WDHN reported.

Court records showed that Glasgows case had originally been under seal. A judge removed the seal Wednesday, but records were not yet publicly available.

Glasgow, a prisoners rights activist and the half-brother of civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton, pleaded not guilty during his arraignment Wednesday.

The Dothan pastor had previous legal troubles, including an arrest on capital murder charges in 2018 in the death of Breunia Jennings, 23, who was shot in the head in Dothan.

Prosecutors said man who was a passenger in Glasgows vehicle shot Jennings.

A federal grand jury determined there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a case against Glagow on the capital murder charge, which was then dropped.

In 2020, Glasgow allegedly bit the finger of a Dothan police officer who was trying to take what authorities said was crack cocaine from Glasgows mouth.

Read more from the original source:
Alabama pastor and Al Sharptons half-brother, Kenneth Sharpton Glasgow, indicted on federal drug charges - AL.com

Activists have held rallies near the White House to put pressure on President Biden to do more to protect voting rights. Alex Wong/Getty Images hide caption

Activists have held rallies near the White House to put pressure on President Biden to do more to protect voting rights.

As voters trickled into a community center to cast ballots near West Manor Park in Atlanta, singer Gabe Lustman performed as a part of a "Party at the Polls."

Lustman, dressed in a royal purple shirt, played as a DJ pumped music through two portable speakers.

"We're just getting started," he said. "Shout out to the New Georgia Project."

The New Georgia Project, an organization aimed at registering and mobilizing people of color and young people, holds events like this one Tuesday to keep voters' spirits high while they wait to cast a ballot.

But the organization has also marshalled its voter protection program in a vigorous push against Georgia's controversial voting law. That law is one of a wave of new measures restricting ballot access in Republican-led states.

Organizers in Georgia and across the country say they're doing all they can to fight back against these laws and turn out voters. But they also say what they haven't gotten at least not yet is much help from Washington, D.C.

"What we need is for people to do their jobs," Ns Ufot, CEO of the New Georgia Project, said in an interview from her Atlanta office. "I'm doing mine."

With Democrats' slim majority in Congress, they've been unable to pass federal legislation to push back against restrictive voting laws at the state level. Republicans say the laws are meant to ensure "election integrity," but Democrats and activists say they intentionally make it harder for some people, particularly people of color, to vote.

In Georgia, the new law, SB 202, restricts ballot access in a number of ways, including adding more hurdles for absentee voting. Among its provisions, it also limits who can pass out food and water to voters waiting in line, and where that can occur.

Ufot says Republicans seem to have a clear, unified strategy to sharply limit ballot access. Democrats, she countered, are not as unified around the cause of voting rights.

"Why do we not have that clarity and that consensus and that urgency among Democrats?" she asked. "That urgency, that clarity exists among activists. And so we are looking forward to having our Democratic leaders join us."

Vice President Harris speaks to reporters after Republican senators voted to block debate on another major voting rights bill pushed by congressional Democrats. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images hide caption

Vice President Harris speaks to reporters after Republican senators voted to block debate on another major voting rights bill pushed by congressional Democrats.

President Biden has described these GOP state laws as a once-in-a-lifetime assault on the right to vote.

And Vice President Harris, who is spearheading the White House's efforts on the issue an assignment she personally requested told civil rights activists this week that the nation is at an "alarming" and "consequential" moment.

"This is a moment for action," Harris said Monday in a speech to the National Action Network. "And whether we take an oath of office or we take to the streets, we all have an important role to play. "

Harris, who has been convening regular discussions on the issue, urged civil rights activists to keep fighting.

"Yeah, the time is to fight, we've taken enough defensive blows," the group's leader, the Rev. Al Sharpton, said Wednesday after Senate Republicans again blocked debate on a piece of major voting rights legislation. This time, it was the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which is named for the late Georgia Congressman John Lewis, who died last year.

"Today Black America was stabbed in the back. The president needs to use his bully pulpit and say that this is intolerable," Sharpton said.

Sharpton is among those calling for Democrats to change Senate filibuster rules to allow voting rights bills to pass with just their votes. But it's unclear whether Democrats have a path to do that, with not even all of their members on board.

For his part, Biden has said he would be open to a move to "fundamentally alter" the filibuster, but not until his spending bills passed in Congress.

The White House says the administration is pursuing a multipronged approach to protecting voting rights that includes calling on Congress to pass legislation and executive actions, but also organizing and other tools.

The White House points to the executive order that Biden signed in March to promote voting rights. And Harris announced a $25 million expansion of the Democratic National Committee's "I Will Vote" program, which focuses on voter protection, education and registration.

DNC Chair Jaime Harrison described this as a "break the glass" moment in which the party must be more "proactive" about protecting the right to vote.

He pointed to one way Democrats are using technology to combat what they label voter suppression efforts.

"Somebody could have voted in the last few elections, but because they miss one election, they get a postcard sent in by the Republican Election Commission in some state. and if they don't turn that postcard in, then they are purged from the voter rolls," Harrison said by way of example.

"We're able to get their contact information to have our canvassers and our organizers get in contact with them," he continued. "We are even able to match them up to social media data so that we can get in contact with them and say, 'Hey, listen, you have just been purged from the Georgia voter rolls. Do you want to register to vote again?' "

But when it comes to federal legislation, Harrison also said he believes Congress must move as quickly as possible.

"It's important that we accelerate the pace here in order to really have an impact, particularly on the 2022 election cycle, to make sure that not one American is prohibited from exercising the right to vote," he said.

The Justice Department has also doubled its voting rights enforcement staff, and sued Georgia and, just Thursday, Texas over voting restrictions.

Frustration among activists isn't limited to states where ballot access has been restricted. There are also fears of what could come in the future.

In Virginia, ballot access has been expanded under Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam. But some activists worry that the state could veer back to its long-held restrictions on voting rights.

"The way that I voted when I first moved here is not the same way that I can vote now. It is so much easier. There is a 45-day early voting period. People no longer need their photo ID to vote," said Maya Castillo, the political director of New Virginia Majority. "I don't want to lose all that."

Castillo was helping to organize a group of canvassers in her Fairfax, Va., neighborhood a little more than a week before Republican Glenn Youngkin won that state's governor's race, though the party does not control the state General Assembly.

Now, many activists warn that if Democrats in Washington can't do more to protect the right to vote, losses could be on the horizon in 2022 and beyond.

Continue reading here:
Voting rights activists say Democrats in Washington need to do their job - NPR

Ariel Gans| Medill News Service

Fauci blasts Paul for virus origins accusation

A heated exchange erupted on Capitol Hill between Dr. Anthony Fauci and Senator Rand Paul as the Kentucky Republican insinuated that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases chief is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. (Nov. 4)

AP

WASHINGTON Dr. Anthony Fauci and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., clashed at a Senate hearing Thursday over the origins of COVID-19, the latest in a series of high-profile skirmishes between the nation's top infectious disease expert and the junior senator from Kentucky.

COVID-19s origin has been a subject of global debate since the start of the outbreak. Yet scientists around the world have not reached a clear conclusion on how the pandemic started.

Paul and Fauci sparred over whether the National Institutes of Health funded "gain-of-function" research, the process of altering a pathogens transmissibility to help predict emerging diseases, at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The COVID-19 pandemic began in Wuhan, China, and some have speculated about whether the institute there was involved in the spread of the virus.

The facts are clear, the NIH (National Institutes of Health) did fund gain-of-function research in Wuhan, despite your protestations, Sen. Paul said.

Fauci objected, but Paul again attacked the scientist.

Until you accept responsibility, were not going to get anywhere close to trying to prevent another lab leak of this dangerous sort of experiment, Paul said. You wont admit that its dangerous, and for that lack of judgment I think its time that you resign.

You have said that I am unwilling to take any responsibility for the current pandemic. I have no responsibility for the current pandemic, Fauci said. He went on to clarify that current evidence indicates that COVID-19 naturally occurred and that he continues to support research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Paul interrupted once again, saying, if hes going to be dishonest he ought to be challenged.

COVID-19: New variant is here, but Fauci says not 'immediate threat'

A new COVID variant has emerged called mu, but Dr. Fauci says they are "keeping a very close eye on it."

Staff video, USA TODAY

As usual, and I have a great deal of respect for this body of the Senate, and it makes me very uncomfortable to have to say something, but he is egregiously incorrect in what he says, Fauci concluded.

History will figure that out on its own, Paul retorted.

The two officials have a history of sparring publicly. Paul grilled Fauci in July over whether the NIH funded what Paul called gain-of-function research.

The hearing comes two days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech for children ages 5 through 11. The decision was in line with the Food and Drug Administration, which authorized emergency use of the pediatric dose on Friday.

Connecticut's Hartford hospital delivered some of the first early childhood doses Tuesday night. At a White House briefing Wednesday, President Joe Biden said the administration has secured enough vaccine supply for every American child.

In September, a group of 16 virologists, biologists and biosecurity specialists signed a letter urging more research on the issue in the weekly peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet.

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Sen. Rand Paul calls for Anthony Fauci to resign in latest clash over origins of COVID-19 - USA TODAY

Spencer and other Unite the Right organizers talked about war and violence multiple times before their event turned deadly, according to evidence presented in their civil trial Thursday.

Posted on November 4, 2021, at 7:13 p.m. ET

White nationalist Richard Spencer (center) and his supporters clash with Virginia State Police officers after the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was declared an unlawful gathering on Aug. 12, 2017.

Richard Spencer, the one-time national leader of the alt-right movement who headed a Washington, DC, think tank promoting his racist ideology, strode confidently to the witness stand in the Charlottesville federal court Thursday morning.

By lunchtime, Spencer would become frazzled and irritated as an attorney attempted to undress his suit-and-tie brand of white nationalism and expose him as a violent racist who behind closed doors worshipped Adolf Hitler, launched into antisemitic tirades, and was bent on sparking a bloody and terrible race war to create an all-white ethnostate.

He was the latest person to testify in the high-profile civil trial that will decide whether a conspiracy to commit racially motivated violence existed among 24 white supremacists including Spencer who organized the deadly Unite the Right rally on Aug. 1112, 2017. They are being sued under the 150-year-old Ku Klux Klan Act by nine plaintiffs, who are seeking not only damages for their personal injuries but to bankrupt and dismantle the white supremacists organizations.

Over the course of hours of direct examination, Michael Bloch, the plaintiffs attorney, stripped away the polished veneer that Spencer, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center has called a kind of professional racist in khakis, typically presents. Under questioning, Spencer, who was once punched in the face in a viral video that sparked widespread conversation on the ethics of punching Nazis, discussed a report he authored that focused on the bogus claim that Black people are intellectually inferior to white people. Spencer also admitted to using hate speech in private while at his apartment, which other white supremacists had dubbed the fash loft; he confirmed that fash in that context meant fascist.

White nationalist Richard Spencer speaks at the University of Florida on Oct. 19, 2017.

Bloch played a significant portion of a leaked recording of Spencer from Aug. 13, 2017, the day after a neo-Nazi rammed his car into Unite the Right counterprotesters in Charlottesville, killing activist Heather Heyer and injuring dozens of other people. In the recording, originally published by alt-right figure Milo Yiannopoulos in 2019, Spencer is heard addressing fellow white nationalists and current codefendants Nathan Damigo, Jason Kessler, and Elliott Kline. Spencer can also be heard shouting racist and antisemitic phrases.

Little fucking kikes. They get ruled by people like me. Little fucking octoroons... I fucking... My ancestors fucking enslaved those little pieces of fucking shit. I rule the fucking world, Spencer is heard saying. Those pieces of fucking shit get ruled by people like me. They look up and see a face like mine looking down at them. Thats how the fucking world works. We are going to destroy this fucking town [of Charlottesville].

Questioned by Bloch on Thursday about the recording, Spencer owned up to the remarks but claimed they didnt represent who he is.

That is me at my absolute worst. I wont dispute that thats me, because at the end of the day I have to live with that, he testified. My animal brain. Thats me as a 7-year-old. Its a 7-year-old that is probably still inside me. Im ashamed of it. That is a childish, awful version of myself.

Spencer said he doesnt believe in demeaning people to their face. But he admitted he privately used slurs to describe Jews and Black people.

Bloch showed another video of Spencer delivering a speech at a booze-soaked afterparty for a torchlight event in Charlottesville in May 2017. In that footage, Spencer is heard saying, I was born too late for the Crusades. I was born too early for the conquest of Mars. But I was born at the right time for the race war.

In yet another video from the party that was played for the court, Spencer is seen giving a Nazi salute and chanting, Sieg heil! The footage was reminiscent of the 2016 video of the white nationalist leader addressing a crowd after Donald Trumps election victory in Washington, DC, where he shouted, Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!

Spencer testified that his alt-right movement had been growing and gaining momentum at the time he began helping to organize the Unite the Right rally. But he denied that the violence at the event was planned.

A white supremacist and a counterprotester are seen fighting on Aug. 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia.

That issue is at the heart of the lawsuit, brought by civil rights nonprofit Integrity First for America on behalf of the plaintiffs.

Bloch, however, presented evidence that he said showed that Spencer and his codefendants had methodically planned for racist, antisemitic violence there. He showed text messages between Spencer and other alt-right figures in which they discussed how they would dominate the streets and that 2016 was the meme war, 2017 is the IRL war.

He tried to dismiss the dominate the streets remark as merely a metaphor for having a presence and engaging in [a] demonstration.

Bloch also showed that Spencer had difficulty telling the truth when it came to his communications with other white nationalists and alt-right figures in the run-up to the Unite the Right rally.

Presented with evidence of dozens of text message exchanges between himself and neo-Nazi and codefendant Christopher Cantwell after claiming they had communicated a handful of times and ate lunch once, Spencer stumbled.

Between July and August you exchanged 88 text messages with Mr. Cantwell, Bloch told him, referring to evidence submitted to the court. But you said, We shared a few text messages, seven in total. Isnt that what you told the jury?

Spencer fell silent. After a long pause, he said, I think I was referring to instances.

Originally posted here:
White Nationalist Richard Spencer Was Confronted With His Own Violent Rhetoric On The Witness Stand At The Charlottesville Trial - BuzzFeed News