Putin, drones over Moscow, and artificial intelligence

He said it directly: "You can imagine, for example, some bad actor like Putin decided to give robots the ability to create their own sub-goals… like 'I need to get more power'.”

Hinton is wrong to worry about the fate of AI because of Putin. Both the Kremlin hermit and a whole legion of his propagandists have long been creating a parallel reality as good as ChatGPT. Russian hybrid special operations, based on Orwellian plots, are currently surpassing what artificial intelligence is capable of. And most importantly, the Russians do not look back at any moral principles, hate speech, or other ethical "trifles" that I hope a smart machine takes into account.

For example, here's how Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Russian State Duma, reacted to the mysterious explosion of an allegedly Ukrainian drone over the Kremlin. First, he called the incident a "terrorist act," and second, accusing the "Ukrainian regime" of being responsible, he compared Kyiv politicians to the leaders of al-Qaeda, ISIS, and even Jabhat al-Nusra.

Volodin is probably not a character from Medvedev's cohort who would not hesitate to "use" Russian nuclear weapons. And, of course, the explosion over the residence of the Russian president in the capital cannot be compared to the real terrorist attacks that Russians have been systematically carrying out for a year and a half, shelling Ukrainian homes. But the deep familiarity of the head of the Russian legislature with the network of terrorist organizations is very interesting.

“Volodin is probably not a character from Medvedev's cohort who would not hesitate to "use" Russian nuclear weapons. And, of course, the explosion over the residence of the Russian president in the capital cannot be compared to the real terrorist attacks that Russians have been systematically carrying out for a year and a half, shelling Ukrainian homes. But the deep familiarity of the head of the Russian legislature with the network of terrorist organizations is very interesting”

First of all, because the Russians are trying to press on the trigger points of Western societies, for which both al-Qaeda and ISIS after the September 11 attacks in the United States were the embodiment of absolute evil. And a series of smaller "retaliatory actions" by Islamists in Europe only added fuel to the fire of passion, strengthening the position of the far-right, which was fed by the Kremlin (for example, in France, Marine Le Pen's party after the Charlie Hebdo attack).

Another aspect. Volodin's goal is not only to equate Ukrainian attempts to attack the occupiers on their own territory in an open, full-scale war with the more or less organized, networked, but marginal (in terms of global scale) structures of Islamists. Volodin is manipulating the obvious fact that Russia has been recognized as a terrorist state, which is already enshrined in international legal acts. ChatGPT would probably not have "thought" of such a cynical way to turn things round.

“Volodin is manipulating the obvious fact that Russia has been recognized as a terrorist state, which is already enshrined in international legal acts. ChatGPT would probably not have "thought" of such a cynical way to turn things round”

But this is not the main thing. The main thing that the Russian speaker prefers to keep silent about is the sources of Islamic terrorism. Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and Lebanon, and Jabhat al-Nusra are all by-products of Russian imperialism, and are often sponsored by Moscow to receive "bonuses."

At one time, natives of the North Caucasus, who were forced to flee after the defeats in the Chechen wars, became a reserve for al-Qaeda. In one way or another, Moscow declared them terrorists, and, by the way, did not shy away from the dastardly assassinations of Ichkerian leaders in other countries.

“Russia's state terrorism has long been pursuing a goal identical to ISIS, only instead of a global caliphate, Putin and his gang were building a "Russian world." But they failed in Ukraine”

The story of ISIS is an interesting one. Experts have long paralleled the ideology of this jihadist movement with Bolshevik doctrines in Russia. But not only that. The fight against the jihadists opened the door for Putin to invade Syria, where Russian soldiers were trained before invading Ukraine. By "defeating" ISIS, Moscow has become an organizer and regulator of refugee flows to Europe. It was the same in the 2010s, when the EU proclaimed its "openness" with the assistance of Merkel, and it is the same now, when the President of the European Council Donald Tusk openly says that Russia's actions in Syria are only making the situation worse... Thousands of refugees are fleeing to Turkey and Europe. And among this destitute mass of people, one always notices trained and situation-oriented "leaders", usually from the ISIS environment.

This has been the case, and it is still the case. Russia's state terrorism has long been pursuing a goal identical to ISIS, only instead of a global caliphate, Putin and his gang were building a "Russian world." But they failed in Ukraine.

And the "salutes" over the Kremlin, whether they were Ukrainian drones or some other force, are unambiguous "black swans" to Russian terrorists, harbingers of Ukraine's victory. And when the "Russian world" collapses, it is likely that a significant number of "mujahideen" will return to the ruins of the empire to reclaim their own states oppressed by Moscow. And we will witness such tectonic shifts on the geopolitical map of the world that AI has never even dreamed of.

About the author. Ihor Hulyk is a journalist, editor-in-chief of the Espreso.West website.

The editorial staff do not always share the opinions expressed by the blog authors.