00:00:23.960BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario.
00:00:27.820Well, the experts are unanimous. We are all doomed. You need to stock up on food, water,
00:00:35.280gasoline, ammo as soon as possible. Pay $10,000 for a generator. Don't forget to build a solar
00:00:41.760powered farmhouse somewhere far away from the city, just in case, you know, the fuel supply1.00
00:00:45.420completely runs out and or the Chinese detonate an EMP over your neighborhood or something like0.96
00:00:50.740that. These are all basic steps that you should be taking right now so that in the event of a0.99
00:00:55.300total catastrophe, you won't be overtaken by the inevitable zombie horde that results,
00:01:00.860at least not right away. These are the kinds of messages that we have all been bombarded with,
00:01:06.780I've been bombarded with over the past few days, as the algorithm has decided to confront me and
00:01:12.360I think many of us with every imaginable doomsday scenario all at once. Now, on one level, this is
00:01:18.840nothing new. There's always been a market for hysteria and paranoia. Fear is, as we know,
00:01:23.960a lucrative industry. And now this market is bigger than ever thanks to amplification from
00:01:29.440the various big tech platforms. If you interact with just one post on X about how, say, the UK
00:01:36.640government is telling people to prepare for an emergency, as I did, then as I was, you will be
00:01:42.580quickly overwhelmed with all of this kind of stuff. And this is what my feed looks like right
00:01:48.840now, more or less. It's just full-on apocalyptic, nonstop. Every story is something along these
00:01:55.200lines. Once you're swept up by the algorithm, it just floods you with a fire hose of doomslop.
00:02:03.540And this is how the algorithm works, of course. You interact with one kind of piece of content,
00:02:07.200and it just feeds you only that for weeks at a time. And as you can see, various governments,
00:02:13.860as we are seeing on X, including America and the UK, are warning of an impending disaster,
00:02:20.880the power grid's about to get wiped out, and so on. There's no way to see content like this
00:02:27.120day after day and remain unaffected by it. Even if you're a rational person,
00:02:32.360as I try to be on my good days anyway, it still gets in your head. None of us are immune.
00:02:38.820You're either going to take the warning seriously or you're going to try to tune them out. But even
00:02:43.340And then it's hard to ignore what you're hearing.
00:02:46.360After all, if there's even a small chance
00:02:48.220that some terrible calamity will occur,
00:02:51.180then it's reasonable to make some basic preparations
00:02:53.520like what we're being encouraged to do.
00:02:57.680The cost-benefit ratio seems to favor a cautious approach.
00:03:02.440On his show the other day, Dan Bongino,
00:03:04.740the former deputy director of the FBI,
00:03:07.360weighed in with a somewhat measured take on the issue.
00:03:11.400I think a very measured take, actually. He didn't endorse any of the apocalyptic predictions, but he didn't dismiss them either. And instead, he encouraged his audience to prepare themselves for whatever's coming. And, you know, we should pay attention to this because he's not just a random person on X. So watch.
00:03:31.300there have been um some warnings put out by the uk government and elsewhere
00:03:36.760about 30 days of preparedness and have food ready and power you know i am a firm
00:03:45.940committed believer in the don't hit the bed theory hit with an s in front of it in other words
00:03:52.580we were young agents if you panicked on a security detail with the secret service you were out you
00:03:58.360were you that was it they would never take you on a protection assignment again panic kills i have
00:04:03.680never i was not in the military i haven't been in combat but ask your heroes who have been they will
00:04:08.700tell you you you can't panic it i can't even imagine what that scenario is like however the
00:04:19.720way to reduce anxiety and panic in in tumultuous times is to be prepared have yourself an emergency
00:04:27.240radio have yourself some batteries get yourself some emergency food get yourself a rain collection
00:04:34.020and water filtration some filtration tablets the best day of your life you don't need them and in
00:04:39.70010 years you're like i wasted a thousand bucks or whatever and you throw it out the worst day
00:04:44.020in your life is god forbid something were to happen the worst day of your life is your kids
00:04:49.840are looking you in the face like hey dad mom you know where's the water and well we don't have any
00:04:55.180There are plenty of credible commentators who are basically saying the same thing. They're saying that it feels a lot like February 2020 all over again, just before the COVID lockdowns began. Kind of has that feeling. And once again, it's an election year where the Trump administration is clearly vulnerable.
00:05:15.120There's a threat of a new development that could fundamentally change the economy.
00:05:39.780The problem is that since we're all buried in constant slop and propaganda, it's very difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff, the signal from the noise.
00:05:49.840How do you identify which threats are real, if any of them are, and which threats are fabricated or exaggerated?
00:05:57.800Is there a possibility that all of this hysteria is a psyop designed to demoralize voters, especially conservatives, right before an election?
00:06:05.400your challenge is to separate what's a real risk versus doom slop and paranoia-driven panic and
00:06:13.700social contagion. So what's needed, I think, is a blow-by-blow analysis of the leading theories for
00:06:21.920why the apocalypse is approaching and what sort of apocalypse is approaching, if any.
00:06:28.220So we need to go through each claim, try to make sense of it one way or the other. We have to
00:06:34.560determine the credibility of as many of these claims as possible. And that's what we'll try to
00:06:39.080do. Now, I have no special insight or sources here. I can't claim that I can definitively set
00:06:44.280the record straight on any of this stuff. But I can try to use some basic common sense as far as
00:06:49.440that goes. And that's what we will do today. So we'll start with an ultra viral post from an
00:06:55.540account called Live Door News, which racked up more than 20 million views. And it says, quote,
00:07:02.820Minister Hasono issues emergency requests to all citizens to prepare food, water, and toilet supplies.
00:07:09.860The minister stated that on November 2nd, when the Disaster Prevention Agency is launched,
00:07:14.780an emergency request will be issued to all citizens to prepare for disasters.
00:07:19.200He mentioned that even without public assistance, citizens should prepare at least a minimum of three days' worth of food, toilet supplies, and water at home.
00:07:28.060now because this post doesn't provide any context you can map whatever theory you want onto it
00:07:37.500as a lot of people are doing um in truth what's happening though on november 2nd is that japan is
00:07:43.980launching a new disaster prevention agency to deal primarily with earthquakes they are after all a
00:07:49.800volcanic island in the middle of an ocean that regularly gets hit by tsunamis and they're
00:07:54.720situated directly next door to a rogue nuclear state. And not to bring up a touchy subject,
00:07:59.760but they have been hit with nukes before on two occasions. And therefore, Japan's government
00:08:05.080routinely issues guidance like this, telling people to prepare for disasters. In fact,
00:08:08.720every year since 1960, Japan has held a disaster prevention day where millions of people perform
00:08:14.900synchronized evacuation drills. So this has been going on for a very long time. And they began
00:08:19.560tradition on the anniversary of the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake, which destroyed nearly 400,000
00:08:25.800homes in Tokyo. On disaster prevention day, government officials wear jumpsuits. Kids put
00:08:32.360on fireproof hoods in school. It's part of the culture, and they issue plenty of guidance,
00:08:39.380and they hold many other drills on top of this. A decade ago, after a major earthquake and tsunami,
00:08:44.660Japan formally implemented a policy where people need at least three days, and ideally seven days,
00:08:49.560worth of supplies in case of another earthquake. And before that, the three-day standard was the
00:08:55.000norm, and now it's just kind of the baseline. So this is how disaster management works in Japan.
00:09:00.880They've been issuing new guidance on preparing for disasters for a century. It's nothing new.
00:09:07.120But when you remove all the context and you combine it with other reports,
00:09:12.540it's easy for hysteria to take over. For the account Live Door News, this all works out.
00:09:18.800They get a ton of money from ad revenue because so many people clicked on their story, like I did, which was deliberately misleading.
00:09:26.760And the problem with the incentives created by the algorithm is that it inspires copycats, lots of them.
00:09:33.360So another round of viral posts were created in which large accounts warned that various other governments around the world were telling their citizens to prepare for some unspecified apocalyptic scenario.
00:09:46.520And so now, through the algorithm and through people's imagination, you're connecting all these threads. Japan with this country with this country. What's going on? One viral report mentions that the UK government is involved in this. And once again, some of the posts were more accurate than others.
00:10:04.580Polymarket, for example, published the following warning that was seen by nearly a million people,
00:10:10.060quote, breaking. UK government urges citizens to stockpile at least three days of emergency
00:10:15.380food and water amid the global cybersecurity crisis. Now, Polymarket, of course, is a gambling
00:10:23.140platform. But lately, as you might have noticed, especially if you spend any time on X,
00:10:27.180they pop up a lot with non-gambling related content. They're getting into the business
00:10:34.280of posting breaking news, which seems kind of weird. It seems like a strange pivot,
00:10:38.800but it's actually a very smart marketing strategy. One way to ensure that your brand
00:10:44.080is always showing up in people's feeds is to post some splashy headline about current events.
00:10:49.640It also helps push the idea that Polymarket is a prediction market, a tool for serious policy
00:10:55.080analysts, and not just another betting website, which is what it is. Meanwhile, the account
00:11:01.440Unusual Whales, which normally focuses on noteworthy trades in the stock market, especially
00:11:06.060by insiders like Nancy Pelosi, weighed in on the situation as well. They posted this message,
00:11:11.000which was seen by millions of people, quote, breaking. UK government has requested that
00:11:16.060citizens stockpile canned food and drinking water for at least three days, per BBC.
00:11:21.380so and one thing you know of course we've seen on uh social media for a long time especially on x
00:11:27.360is that the the word breaking is just has lost all meaning so you'll have an account that posts
00:11:32.700breaking and then it's information that has already been reported for three days by a million
00:11:37.560other accounts so not exactly breaking news but anyway they cite a source the bbc and uh we're
00:11:43.400now led to believe that the uk state broadcaster is making this problem proclamation other accounts
00:11:50.840didn't bother with the attribution. Here's a post by a guy named Ethan Levins, for example.
00:11:56.020It racked up nearly 2 million views as well. Quote, something very bad is brewing in Europe.
00:12:01.300UK advising citizens to stockpile food, German hospitals prepping for mass casualty events,
00:12:07.040and German troops moving towards Lithuania. This is not normal. NATO is preparing to fight Russia.
00:12:13.740This has to stop. So you notice also, you know, various different explanations being offered by
00:12:19.860these random posts. The poly market mentioned cybersecurity. This guy is saying, oh, it's
00:12:25.760Russia. Then there's this post from the account Watcher Guru, which also received millions
00:12:31.560of views. Quote, just then, UK government urges citizens to stockpile three days of emergency
00:12:36.500food and water due to growing cyber attack threats. Okay, now we're back to cyber attack.
00:12:41.860And there's many more posts like this. And then several of them, unlike the warnings about Japan,
00:12:45.560are actually legitimate there has been a change in the uk's messaging on preparing for disasters
00:12:51.980a month ago for example this was the kind of content that the state broadcaster was producing
00:12:57.280on the topic watch stock up on food for extreme weather that's what the uk government says we
00:13:03.780should be doing because climate change is making food supplies more unpredictable but what food
00:13:08.860should you be buying you should keep some healthy options at the back of your cupboards things like
00:13:13.380whole grain cereals crackers pasta and oats for protein you can stock up on things like lentils
00:13:20.660or tinned pulses whilst canned fish like tuna or mackerel is also a really good option you might be
00:13:27.060surprised to hear that fruit in a tin is actually quite nutritious as are pickled eggs and vegetables
00:13:34.180but there are some things to avoid things tinned in brine or syrup instant noodles and processed
00:13:41.220meats such as corned beef or hot dogs which provide extra salt sugar and saturated fats that we don't
00:13:47.540need in our diets and if you're worried about these foods lacking flavor be sure to keep some
00:13:52.740herbs and spices around for extra seasoning that needs to be said not to get too uh you know into
00:13:59.220the into the technicality into the weeds too much but this is utterly horrible advice on many levels
00:14:05.700she says that in an emergency when the world is ending you don't want to eat instant noodles or
00:14:10.180or hot dogs, not because they might be difficult to prepare, but because they have saturated fats
00:14:15.600that are bad for your diet. Now, personally, when I'm experiencing the apocalypse,
00:14:20.120I'm not worried about having saturated fat in my diet. When there's a nuclear bomb falling
00:14:25.620in my neighborhood, saturated fat is really the least of my worries. I'm also not going to be
00:14:31.040obsessing about cholesterol or salt intake. What I want above all is to have food,
00:14:36.260preferably food that doesn't taste terrible, that contains a lot of calories in a very small
00:14:42.780package. Hot dogs are a pretty good option in that regard, but she wants everyone eating lentils
00:14:48.620instead, which is a good way to make people even more depressed than they already are in this
00:14:52.600scenario. All of your friends are dead. The world's falling apart. Climate change, zombies, AI, robots,
00:15:00.660everything's happening. And on top of that, you're stuck eating lentils because you threw away all
00:15:05.680the hot dogs because you listen to the BBC. I mean, what's the point of staying alive in that
00:15:10.520scenario? It creates kind of a paradox. You know, if there's a nuclear holocaust and you're safely
00:15:15.880hidden away in your bunker and all you have to eat are healthy vegetarian options, then why
00:15:23.060exactly would you want to survive the nuclear holocaust in the first place? Like I'd prefer to
00:15:28.500be incinerated and just get it over with. Well, she never grapples with this paradox, but she does
00:15:34.080explain helpfully enough that she's offering this advice on behalf of the state broadcaster because
00:15:39.060of the threat of climate change. Now, everybody watching this video knows this is a pretext. Even
00:15:44.180in the UK, the climate scam is played out. The real point of the video was to get people ready
00:15:49.360for another emergency that the British government might think is likely, although they don't want
00:15:54.820to say it out loud. And to that end, within the last month, the British government launched a
00:16:00.900more comprehensive Be Ready campaign, which dropped the climate change rhetoric for the most
00:16:06.360part. This is a three-year campaign that they're committing to where the British government is
00:16:11.460partnering with hundreds of organizations and agencies. They also published this website just
00:16:16.420a few days ago. You can see it on your screen there. The website reads, here are some simple
00:16:21.100effective steps you can take to be ready for emergencies and the disruption they cause. Many
00:16:25.820these activities can be helpful across a range of different types of emergency. And some of the
00:16:31.740activities include having enough bottled water for three days. They estimate three liters per
00:16:36.580person per day, plus non-perishable food for three days, along with a torch, which I believe
00:16:42.280is a flashlight, although you can never underestimate how primitive the UK is, plus a battery-powered
00:16:48.220FM radio and cash in case electronic payments or ATMs are disruptive. And you also need baby
00:16:54.400formula, pet food, et cetera. Now, this is much more general advice than the climate change
00:17:00.420guidance, and it's getting the attention of millions of people in the UK. This is reporting
00:17:05.780from the British outlet LBC, quote, bottled water, baked beans, and batteries are selling out at some
00:17:11.720supermarkets after Britons were urged to prepare for short-term disruption to essential services.
00:17:17.520The rush follows the launch of the government's Be Ready campaign, which advises households to keep
00:17:22.680a three-day supply of long-life food, drinking water, and basic emergency equipment at home.
00:17:29.000Shoppers using avocado found several essentials unavailable shortly after the announcement,
00:17:33.720including bottled water, batteries, and baked beans. Some soup ranges were also listed as out
00:17:39.340of stock alongside brands of bottled water. So they got everyone's attention. This is obviously
00:17:46.520a situation that most people in Britain recognize as out of the ordinary. But according to British
00:17:51.260government officials, including their security minister, the point of the campaign is just to
00:17:55.960bring the UK in line with other countries in Europe. Watch. Now, our research shows that just
00:18:02.64013% of people in the UK feel that they're prepared for an emergency, like a severe storm,
00:18:08.540that could cut them off from the services they rely on. This figure is far lower than our European
00:18:14.460neighbors. The very same research showed that 84% of people in the UK want the government to share
00:18:20.820more information about the steps they can take to increase their preparedness.
00:18:25.660So Mr Speaker, to give some credit to the Opposition, they also recognised this resilience
00:18:30.320gap while in Government and launched a new website to share preparedness guidance with
00:19:59.800general household emergency guidance in 2024,
00:20:02.380but this is a much more developed program.
00:20:04.820So they went from zero to 60 very quickly.
00:20:09.060And that raises the obvious question of why now?
00:20:12.580Why are we now concerned about all of these other threats
00:20:16.100when they were telling us about climate change
00:20:18.640and telling us that was the real issue just a few weeks ago?
00:20:23.400Whatever your bias may be, you have to ask,
00:20:26.580does this have something to do with the fact
00:20:28.420that the United States military is also simultaneously preparing
00:20:32.740for a worst case scenario where our basic,
00:20:35.860you know, where our military bases are cut off from essential services, including power.
00:20:41.540It's a very similar scenario that they're preparing for. Watch.
00:20:46.300The Pentagon preparing for a nightmare scenario, a global war that could knock out power grids,
00:20:51.360cripple supply chains, and leave military bases cut off from essential services.
00:20:55.960Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports live in Washington.0.98
00:20:59.760This is getting a lot of play online, Jennifer.
00:21:01.600AMNA NAWAZ- That's right, John. Well, the Pentagon has a doomsday plane,
00:21:05.280and now it's updating its doomsday plan, moving beyond its Cold War-era continuity of government
00:21:10.960planning, which called for key military leaders to retreat to hardened facilities in Cheyenne
00:21:16.400Mountain in the event of an incoming nuclear attack. Now the Pentagon sees a new nightmare
00:21:21.760scenario, a global war that knocks out America's power grids, cripples supply chains, and leaves
00:21:27.760U.S. military bases cut off from essential services.
00:21:31.640Other allies, including the U.K., have been warning their populations to stockpile 90 days of food and water just in case.
00:21:39.460Under the new Pentagon initiative called Fortress, every major military installation in the continental U.S.
00:21:45.780would be expected to operate independently for at least 90 days with its own electricity, water, fuel and communications.
00:21:53.540Documents obtained by Fox reveal plans for portable nuclear reactors, backup power grids, and massive reserves of ammunition, critical minerals, medical supplies, and spare parts.
00:22:06.020The Pentagon also wants civilian factories ready to switch to wartime weapons production, alternative supply chains in place if foreign suppliers are cut off, and military communications capable of functioning even if GPS and satellites are disrupted.
00:22:21.500Now, the question is not, why do we need our military bases to survive for 90 days without outside support, including power, grid access, fuel, and communications? You can think of plenty of reasons for that kind of preparation. That makes sense.
00:22:36.080The question is, why is all this preparation happening at this particular moment across several different countries all at once? What kind of cyber attack or nuclear attack are they worried about exactly?
00:23:44.240But it is very unusual to have three submarines out at once.
00:23:47.920Like, you know, one, of course, is going to be part of the continuous at sea deterrents. So we have one ballistic missile armed nuclear warhead carrying submarine that is at sea all the time, at any time, ready to fire if needed. It is the UK's ultimate security guarantee and also obviously part of the NATO umbrella.
00:24:09.000but the other two boats you know the ministry of defense is not commenting as to why but it does
00:24:14.720seem as though it's more a sign of improved availability than any kind of response to any
00:24:22.120threat because any movement in our nuclear deterrent submarines could be seen as some
00:24:26.980kind of signaling it will definitely be noticed by the UK's enemies but it would seem as though
00:24:33.420most likely one of these other boats is working up, ready to go on operations, and the other one
00:24:40.360most likely undergoing sea trials to be able to be ready to replace that boat when it comes back
00:24:46.960in due course. So by itself, this doesn't necessarily mean anything. Apparently, several
00:24:52.060of these ships have had maintenance issues for many years, and they're now back in service all
00:24:56.740at once. So, you know, maybe the timing is purely coincidental. And to be clear, you know, to be
00:25:02.860fair, there are plenty of people who are stringing together various misleading claims to make it seem
00:25:08.020like other countries are doing the same thing. For example, I've seen people claim that Germany
00:25:12.440is suddenly investing in bunkers this week, when in reality, they've been doing that for more than
00:25:17.020a year. Again, there's a lot of deception going around, a lot of maybe disconnected things that
00:25:22.960are being tied together. And there's a lot of people that are trying to terrorize you
00:25:28.320for various different reasons, sometimes for reasons as simple as it gets them clicks.
00:25:36.340Along those lines, I came across this report from Reuters yesterday, quote,
00:25:40.780breaking a hacker is attempting to breach the U.S. Federal Election Commission systems,
00:25:44.880and that agency has had to temporarily shut down its web-facing services as a result,
00:25:50.000according to an email seen by Reuters. Now, it sounds pretty bad. And again,
00:25:55.700you're getting this in the midst of all this other stuff. So it just feels like, you know,
00:25:59.160the sky is falling. But then you realize that the FEC doesn't actually count ballots or handle
00:26:05.260election returns. They track campaign donations mostly. So there's no indication here that
00:26:10.680anything sensitive may have been compromised or deleted or who might have been behind this attack.
00:26:16.480But seeing this headline, plenty of people came to the conclusion that the election is already
00:26:20.560compromised, which is not supported by this report. What is supported is that very soon,
00:26:27.240the Middle East is going to become a much bigger problem. This is from the Wall Street Journal
00:26:32.420late last night, quote, the U.S. has told several Gulf Arab countries to be prepared for a short,
00:26:37.720intense military campaign after the U.S. midterm elections. People briefed on the conversation
00:26:42.260said the communications through diplomatic and military channels are among a growing number of
00:26:47.300indications. The U.S. and Israel are readying to launch a new round of heavy combat operations
00:26:52.700against Iran, risking a major escalation in hopes of degrading Tehran's strength and pushing it
00:26:58.620towards negotiations. The U.S. military is bringing in a patriot system from Texas to beef up its
00:27:03.720missile defenses and has moved troops off bases where they were vulnerable in preparation for an
00:27:07.860escalation, officials familiar with those moves said. Now, I'm not sure why we're bothering to
00:27:14.860wait until after the midterms at this point. It's not as if voters are under the impression as they
00:27:19.620head to the polls that the war in Iran is over. We've gone through about 30 different ceasefire
00:27:24.440agreements at this point. We've had about 30 different mission accomplished moments.
00:27:31.160And for many voters, the reason they have abandoned this administration is precisely
00:27:35.940because of the war in Iran. So it doesn't seem logical to pretend it's not happening
00:27:39.940and to delay these attacks until after the midterms as a result.
00:27:44.320There's a strange assumption that once you finish your workday,
00:27:47.440you're supposed to be able to relax, which is a nice idea,
00:27:50.040except that if you have children, you know,
00:27:52.180getting home from work is often when the second shift begins.
00:27:55.060There are kids to feed, homework to deal with, activities to get to,
00:27:58.580and approximately 17 other things that need your attention
00:28:02.760Problem is that your family doesn't particularly care
00:28:04.740if you've already had a long day at work, they still need you.
00:28:07.740This is something a lot of us at The Daily Wire understand.
00:28:09.940We have plenty of parents here juggling demanding careers while raising families, and that is why several of our own editors and producers have started taking Pendulum Metabolic Daily and have been really happy with it.
00:28:21.920It's a science-backed probiotic designed to support your metabolism, which is your body's natural GLP-1 response and give you more consistent energy throughout the day.
00:28:32.400It can also help you feel fuller longer, experience fewer cravings, which is particularly useful when you're trying to maintain healthy habits with a busy schedule.
00:28:39.940This is not some elaborate new routine.
00:28:50.340Pendulum was developed by PhD scientists,
00:28:53.160and its formula is built around research into the gut, microbiome, and metabolic health.
00:28:58.400Because the goal shouldn't just be to have enough energy to get through your workday,
00:29:02.940you should have something left for the people waiting for you at home.
00:29:06.580Right now, podcast listeners can save up to 48% off their first order at PendulumLife.com slash Walsh.
00:29:13.020That's PendulumLife.com slash Walsh to save up to 48% off your first order.
00:29:17.500Again, that's PendulumLife.com slash Walsh and get almost half off today.
00:29:23.300A man spends Saturday carrying a few boxes into the garage.
00:29:27.540Sunday morning, he gets out of bed like he's returning from a military deployment.
00:29:31.800Moving the Christmas decorations now requires a recovery period.
00:29:34.860Getting older is one thing. Automatically accepting every change in your energy and recovery is another. If something feels different, get your numbers checked and talk to your doctor. Mars Men is designed to support healthy testosterone levels naturally with ingredients including Tongkat Ali, boron, vitamin D, and zinc. No synthetic hormones, no weird stimulants. It's made in the USA, third-party tested, and backed by a 90-day money-back guarantee.
00:30:01.540The goal isn't to become 20 again. It's to have something left in the tank after putting away a plastic reindeer.
00:30:08.320For a limited time, our listeners get 50% off for life plus free shipping and three free gifts at MenGoToMars.com.
00:30:15.420That's MenGoToMars.com for 50% off and three free gifts when you check out.
00:30:20.240After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them.
00:30:22.740Please support our show and tell them our show sent you.
00:30:26.680So, in any event, especially as I read that report from the Wall Street Journal, I'm personally not that worried about nuclear war. I don't think Iran has the capability to nuke the United States at this point. I don't think any other country is going to do so either, at least in the foreseeable future.
00:30:47.600I could obviously be wrong about that, but the disincentives that have prevented global nuclear annihilation up to this point would seem to still hold. I see no reason why they wouldn't, although anything is possible, I suppose. We certainly can't dismiss any possibility.
00:31:05.200Cyber attacks, on the other hand, seem like a much more legitimate risk.
00:31:11.540And that's something that pops up in a lot of these scary stories we're hearing, especially
00:31:16.720since AI apparently has the capability of launching these attacks on its own without
00:31:58.080will just pour it on you by the gallon.
00:32:00.680And so very quickly, reasonable concerns
00:32:03.980turns turn into hysterical panicking. It's just kind of a bizarre and unsettling state of affairs,
00:32:09.680no matter how you look at it or how it turns out. But if you try to tune out the panic and focus on
00:32:16.200what we do know, it does appear that things are careening out of control. This is a report from
00:32:23.320Axios, quote, major U.S. banks are detecting unauthorized third-party AI agents operating
00:32:29.100inside customer accounts, with some agents attempting to take actions that appear to be
00:32:34.140independent of user instructions, sources tell Axios. AI agents are becoming a nightmare for
00:32:40.240America's banks, making their way into banking systems faster than financial institutions can
00:32:44.620respond. The difficulty in distinguishing between a human and unauthorized bot is forcing banks to
00:32:50.380block the technology and rapidly rewrite their terms of service. Banks including Morgan Stanley,
00:32:55.260Bank of America, J.P. Morgan, Wells Fargo, and others are racing to contain agent risks. Some
00:33:01.000are aware of unauthorized access. Bank executives describe the situation as horrifying, with one
00:33:06.960official saying the industry has grave concerns about agents gaining access to customer accounts
00:33:11.780and taking steps that could impact user finances. Now, they clarify in that report
00:33:18.700that many customers, for reasons no one will ever understand, have voluntarily given AI agents
00:33:25.980access to their bank accounts. I have no idea why you would ever do that, but that's what people
00:33:33.900have done. But at the same time, they also established that there's a risk of an AI intrusion
00:33:38.560into the banks that to some extent is already happening. And you have to wonder how long is it
00:33:47.340until AI start gaining access to millions of people's bank accounts without any authorization
00:33:52.600whatsoever. Now, it's probably not as hard as you might think. If someone is determined to gain
00:33:58.720access to your bank account, they can bombard customer service representatives 24-7 until one
00:34:04.020of them finally cracks. They can search through various data breaches and find your personal
00:34:09.580information. AI, by the way, makes that a lot easier. There's a lot of information about you
00:34:16.200that's out there through data breaches, but you're basically safe because no one has the time to go
00:34:22.740find it because there's just so much of it. AI makes it a lot easier for someone to go find that
00:34:29.460sort of stuff. And these are the more immediate sort of practical risks that it poses. It could
00:34:36.420get a lot worse than that. And even if that doesn't work, AI can probably steal your personal
00:34:41.560information through websites that it compromises. This is reporting from Fox, quote,
00:34:45.580a pair of recently disclosed computer software vulnerabilities could put millions of websites
00:34:50.480and the personal information of everybody who uses them at risk from hackers. Researchers last week
00:34:55.880announced they had used AI to help discover two vulnerabilities in a programming language known
00:35:01.040as PHP, which underpins large sections of the internet. An estimated 70% of the internet uses
00:35:06.560PHP in some form, meaning most websites are impacted. Now, I'm not going to pretend to be
00:35:12.580a computer security expert, but it stands to reason that 10 years ago, vulnerabilities like
00:35:17.700this would have been much harder to exploit at scale. With AI, new vulnerabilities are being
00:35:23.040discovered every day, and they can be exploited instantly by thousands of AI agents working
00:35:30.020around the clock all at once. Now, I understand the arguments about regulatory capture and how
00:35:37.440AI companies are certainly not trustworthy actors. But at the same time, we cannot ignore the fact
00:35:43.500that they are now warning us, the companies themselves, about all of this. Here's an article
00:35:50.080from TechRadar, for example, quote, as AI firm Anthropic gears up for an enormous $2 trillion
00:35:55.520initial public offering, IPO, could be the largest in stock market history, the company has just
00:36:01.600warned that AI could pose catastrophic or existential risk to humanity. In papers filed
00:36:07.540with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Anthropic outlines some of the risks facing the
00:36:13.040company and its investors. One of the more startling sections of the document outlines
00:36:17.640how Anthropic's AI models could accelerate beyond anyone's ability to evaluate and safeguard them
00:36:23.080and pose catastrophic or existential risk to humanity, particularly if such systems were
00:36:28.400misused, replicated, weaponized, or allowed to operate with a high degree of autonomy. Aside
00:36:33.780from the obvious danger posed to humanity, Anthropic is also apparently worried that
00:36:37.640such an outcome could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of
00:36:42.380operations. Yes, I mean, it might destroy humanity, but the bigger concern, Anthropic says, is that
00:36:49.600it could affect their business too. Now, hearing this, even as Anthropic is in the middle of
00:36:55.560creating technology that they know is going to destroy thousands of businesses, but we should
00:37:00.560be worried about theirs. Anyway, hearing this, maybe you'll say, well, Anthropic is run by
00:37:07.020anti-white left-wingers who have a long history of exaggerating their capabilities and the1.00
00:37:12.300capabilities of their products, and that's all true. But it would be simply foolish to assume0.95
00:37:18.340that these kinds of warnings from the actual companies who are creating this technology
00:37:23.580should not be taken seriously at all. That would be foolish. There is no precedent0.98
00:37:31.400for this exactly, no matter how you slice it. Now, sure, companies like to exaggerate how
00:37:37.240powerful their products are. That's always happened. But we have never, not ever, had
00:37:45.120major corporations in a particular industry all agreeing unanimously that their product
00:37:52.540that they are making poses a catastrophic threat to mankind. That has never happened.
00:37:59.900I defy anyone to come up with another example of this sort of thing, of an industry making a
00:38:06.120product, and then all the major players in that industry turning around and telling the public
00:38:11.300this thing we're making could really hurt you. That doesn't happen. So we're in unprecedented
00:38:18.680territory, you know, no matter how you look at it, which means that any attempt to explain this
00:38:23.380away using historical frameworks or analogies like regulatory capture or marketing ploys
00:38:29.740just doesn't exactly hold up, or at least it might not hold up. And, you know, we shouldn't
00:38:36.520take what these companies are saying as gospel. That would be quite stupid, but it would be just0.99
00:38:41.720as stupid, if not considerably more stupid, to simply assume out of hand that a technology is1.00
00:38:49.080not dangerous, even when the people making the technology are telling us directly and explicitly1.00
00:38:54.740that it is. And if you listen to other major players in AI, people like Elon Musk, who is
00:39:00.780not an anti-white left-winger, you're hearing something very similar. Watch.
00:39:05.880In five years, we'll have probably, so five years being, say, 2031, I think digital intelligence will exceed the sum of all human intelligence.
00:39:21.780That there will be, in five years, probably, there might be, let's say, at least 100 million humanoid robots, but maybe a billion.
00:51:53.460Now, one thing to keep in mind is that mass hysteria, or at least people being very worried about something, particularly on platforms like X, is often wrong.
00:52:08.500But when it's right, it beats the mainstream narrative by several weeks or even months.