Right-wing investor to challenge traditional banking with national crypto bank



A challenger to traditional banking has finally emerged, and it is coming from the right wing.

After billionaire Palmer Luckey was reported to be starting a cryptocurrency venture, it was unclear how big the scope would be and if it would work only in digital currencies.

Now that public filings have emerged, the new project was revealed to have major conservative backing while literally giving traditional banks a run for their money.

'The bank will be a national bank ... providing traditional banking products.'

Blaze News reported last week that Luckey had teamed up with Joe Lonsdale to start the new company; Lonsdale co-founded Palantir Technologies with Luckey and has his own software companies, as well. At the same time, Lonsdale's venture firm 8VC led a $225 million fundraising round for the new company to meet federal regulatory requirements.

The tech entrepreneurs were first thought to be starting a bank that would work primarily on maximizing returns for tech startups, but recent filings revealed much more is in store. According to the Financial Times, the new company has applied for a national bank charter, which would it give license to operate as a typical banking institution.

The Times also revealed a new right-wing mega-donor has joined the mix.

RELATED: Palmer Luckey-led crypto bank promises startups a capital hoard safe from scheming feds

  Palmer Luckey, founder of Anduril Industries, during an interview on 'The Circuit with Emily Chang' at Anduril's headquarters in Costa Mesa, California, US, on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023. Anduril recently beat several legacy defense players in a contest for a major contract to develop an unmanned fighter jet for the US Air Force and is now valued at $8.5 billion. Photographer: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images

 

None other than Peter Thiel and his venture capital fund, the Founders Fund, will also be backing the startup, according to two of the Times' sources.

Thiel is, of course, known for giving millions to Republican campaigns over the years, including over a million dollars to President Donald Trump for his 2016 campaign.

This new undertaking, dubbed Erebor, is yet another one of Luckey's companies named after themes found in J.R.R. Tolkien books. This one refers to the mountain in "The Hobbit," where the dragon Smaug hoards his gold. His other companies, Anduril and Palantir, are references to a character's sword and a magical seeing stone, respectively.

Filings revealed, "The bank will be a national bank ... providing traditional banking products, as well as virtual currency-related products and services, for businesses and individuals."

Adding to previous speculation, the target market was listed as businesses that are part of the American "innovation economy," including tech companies focused on virtual currencies, artificial intelligence, or defense manufacturing.

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  A Bitcoin Teller Machine in San Francisco, California, US, on Monday, Dec. 30, 2024. The Bitcoin rally sparked by US President-elect Donald Trump's election victory in early November is stalling as 2024 draws to a close. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

 

Erebor will work with stablecoins, cryptocurrency tied to relatively stable assets like the U.S. dollar or gold. This is done to limit the volatility of a coin without sacrificing its benefits, creating investment opportunities far in excess of simply purchasing and holding, say, Bitcoin.

For example, President Trump works with the stablecoin USD1, which is attached to the U.S. dollar.

"Longtime crypto people know it's a fine line between being targeted by government and being co-opted by government," explained Blaze Media's James Poulos. "But it's hard to strike the right balance without risking the worst of both worlds — a crypto economy that regulators tolerate but can destroy or manipulate with the wave of a hand."

Poulos added that the most stable compromise naturally involves figures that Washington relies on in other high-tech industries, "however much freedom-loving 'maxis' wish that weren't the case."

"Regardless, it doesn't matter how perfect a balance the kingpins of crypto and banking might strike if Bitcoin (to take the biggest example) falls short of its potential as a peer-to-peer currency and becomes just another place for established wealth to accrue value," Poulos concluded.

Erebor's filing said it plans on working with non-U.S. companies that are "seeking access to the U.S. banking system," according to the filing, and said it would "differentiate itself" by working with customers who are not well served by "traditional or disruptive financial institutions."

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'Ginger ISIS member' has terror plot thwarted by Roblox user: 'I cannot agree with the term terrorist'



For years, a running gag on the internet has involved protectively adding "in Minecraft" to the end of any expressed desire to do something that would alarm the authorities. But now, an all-too-serious plot has flipped the joke on its head, as details emerge concerning an 18-year-old's discussion of his alleged terrorist attack plan on the gaming platform Roblox.

The plot was thwarted when a gamer on the platform, which boasts approximately 80 million users, turned to law enforcement after seeing the user make threats through the game's chat feature, which allows comments to pop up on-screen.

What happened next was a shocking admission of terroristic aspirations made openly for other gamers to see.

'By my very own definition, yes, I guess, you know, I would be a terrorist.'

As reported by Court Watch, James Wesley Burger allegedly made threats on Roblox that the FBI described as a desire to commit an ISIS-inspired attack.

Under the username Crazz3pain, Burger openly talked about wanting to "deal a grevious [sic] wound upon the followers of the Cross."

Other screenshots from Roblox showed Burger stating "I cannot confirm anything aloud at the moment. But things are in motion."

When asked "how many days until you do [that]," Burger replied, "It will be months. April."

The witness — the other Roblox user — reportedly told the FBI that Burger had said in January that he expressed a desire to "kill Shia Muslims at their mosque" and commit martyrdom at a Christian-affiliated concert.

A subsequent FBI search of Burger's home in February revealed even more shocking details.

RELATED: Kids 'cosplaying as ICE agents' and performing raids on 'illegals' in Roblox game

  Photo courtesy court filings

 

My San Antonio reported that one of Burger's family members had installed software to track every keystroke on his computer, which was provided to the FBI. This led to a search of his electronics, which revealed that Burger had allegedly searched online for guns, ammunition, "Lone wolf terrorists isis," and more.

The Google searches also asked about "festivals happening near me" and if "suicide attacks [are] haram in islam," meaning against the faith.

Burger also allegedly searched "ginger isis member," which has since become his moniker, although he may have been looking for the story of the "ginger jihadi" from Australia circa 2015.

Through their investigation, FBI agents were able to confirm that Burger's email address was attached to the Roblox account in question, and they found data that corroborated his comments on the game.

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  Photo courtesy court filings

Burger's conversations with the FBI appeared to be rather calm and clear, with the teenager allegedly telling an agent voluntarily that the "closest I mentioned was mentioning I would use, like … a pistol or a car or like a small hunting rifle" in regard to a potential attack.

The suspect also took a moment to pray during the middle of his electronics being seized, My San Antonio stated. Burger then said, "Something like that. I don't remember mention of, like, a shotgun."

The would-be ISIS member also said his goal was the "death of Christians," with a plan to escape the country or simply die in an act of "martyrdom."

The 18-year-old also debated with agents as to whether or not he should be labeled a "terrorist."

"[T]he intention … and the action is something that is meant to or will cause terror. … I cannot agree with the term terrorist, you know. I definitely agree that it serves the same means that a terrorist would be seeking," Burger reportedly told investigators. “By the sense … and by my very own definition, yes, I guess, you know, I would be a terrorist."

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Roblox told Blaze News in a statement that safety is "foundational" to everything the platform does.

"In this case, we moved swiftly to assist law enforcement's investigation before any real-world harm could occur and investigated and took action in accordance with our policies," the spokesperson explained. "After hearing from law enforcement in January 2025, Roblox swiftly provided information on the users involved; based on the complaint, we understand that the information we provided helped law enforcement positively identify the suspect in this case. To date, all known users involved have been moderated, removed, and banned from the platform."

The Roblox representative also noted that their community standards "explicitly prohibit any content or behavior that depicts, supports, glorifies, or promotes terrorist or extremist organizations in any way."

This includes implementing dedicated teams focused on removing such content and responding to requests from users and law enforcement.

Burger was arrested on February 28, according to multiple outlets, and handed over to federal agents in May. He was indicted on two felony charges for interstate threatening communication in June; the charges were laid in Texas after his computer was identified as accessing Roblox from San Antonio and Austin.

The witness who saw messages alluding to terrorism was in Nevada.

Burger was denied bail due to being a flight risk.

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Data analysis unmasks possible CCP and Iranian influence over left-wing activist groups



An investigation by the Oversight Project linked visitors of left-wing activist group headquarters to the Chinese government and Iran.

The Oversight Project is a right-wing advocacy group that has contributed to lawsuits against former President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, among others.

In data dump on X, the organization placed visitors of two activist groups in San Francisco to multiple locations in Iran and a Chinese consulate stateside.

'The only solution to the deepening crisis of capitalism is the socialist transformation of society.'

The Oversight Project sifted through ad data from devices belonging to visitors of the headquarters of two groups: the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, aka ANSWER.

Data from visitors of the San Francisco headquarters, which the Oversight Project alleged hosts both groups, included one device that visited the activists' location twice in a year and a half — while having also visited Iran, with a whopping 213 data points across the country.

The right-wing group said the data "strongly supports that the device was in Iran" and not faking its location, which could be accomplished through the use of a VPN, for example.

The Oversight Project also found connecting data from the left-wing headquarters to the nearby Chinese consulate.

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"Another device had data points at the ANSWER/PSL location and at a building next door" and "also had 58 data points in the San Francisco consulate of the People's Republic of China," the Oversight Project wrote on X.

The Oversight Project described the activist groups as "central to street resistance," while claiming they are "allegedly funded by a CCP propagandist."

On their About page, the Party for Socialism and Liberation says it believes "the only solution to the deepening crisis of capitalism is the socialist transformation of society."

The group also includes guidance for those who are facing deportation at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, part of a campaign called "Don't Open for ICE."

"One of the most important things to remember is to refuse to open the door unless ICE has a signed warrant from a judge," the organization says.

At the same time, ANSWER boasts a near 25-year history of organizing protests and says it fights against "racist and religious profiling," advocates "immigrant and workers' rights," and supports "economic and social justice for all."

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  The Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in San Francisco, California, on July 23, 2020. Photo by PHILIP PACHECO/AFP via Getty Images

 

The Consulate General of the People's Republic of China, located at 1450 Laguna Street in San Francisco, is about a 20-minute drive from ANSWER's publicly listed headquarters in the city at 2969 Mission Street. It is not clear, however, that ANSWER and PSL officially operate out of the same location, as the Oversight Project claimed.

Blaze News reached out to both ANSWER and the PSL and asked if they have received any monetary support from Iranian or Chinese entities, or if they have had contact with officials from other countries in any capacity. Neither answered.

This article will be updated with any applicable replies.

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Why each new controversy around Sam Altman’s OpenAI is crazier than the last



Last week, two independent nonprofits, the Midas Project and the Tech Oversight Project, released after a year’s worth of investigation a massive file that collects and presents evidence for a panoply of deeply suspect actions, mainly on the part of Altman but also attributable to OpenAI as a corporate entity.

It’s damning stuff — so much so that, if you’re only acquainted with the hype and rumors surrounding the company or perhaps its ChatGPT product, the time has come for you to take a deeper dive.

Sam Altman and/or OpenAI have been the subject of no less than eight serious, high-stakes lawsuits.

Most recently, iyO Audio alleged OpenAI made attempts at wholesale design theft and outright trademark infringement. A quick look at other recent headlines suggests an alarming pattern:

  • Altman is said to have claimed no equity in OpenAI despite backdoor investments through Y Combinator, among others;
  • Altman owns 7.5% of Reddit, which, after its still-expanding partnership with OpenAI, shot Altman’s net worth up $50 million;
  • OpenAI is reportedly restructuring its corporate form yet again — with a 7% stake, Altman stands to be $20 billion dollars richer under the new structure;
  • Former OpenAI executives, including Muri Murati, the Amodei siblings, and Ilya Sutskever, all confirm pathological levels of mistreatment and behavioral malfeasance on the part of Altman.

The list goes on. Many other serious transgressions are cataloged in the OpenAI Files excoriation. At the time of this writing, Sam Altman and/or OpenAI have been the subject of no less than eight serious, high-stakes lawsuits. Accusations include everything from incestual sexual abuse to racketeering, breach of contract, and copyright infringement.

None of these accusations, including heinous crimes of a sexual nature, have done much of anything to dent the OpenAI brand or its ongoing upward valuation.

Tech's game of thrones

The company’s trajectory has outlined a Silicon Valley game of thrones unlike any seen elsewhere. Since its 2016 inception — when Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Ilya Sutskever, and Greg Brockman convened to found OpenAI — the Janus-faced organization has been a tier-one player in the AI sphere. In addition to cutting-edge tech, it’s also generated near-constant turmoil. The company churns out rumors, upsets, expulsions, shady reversals, and controversy at about the same rate as it advances AI research, innovation, and products.

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  Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images

Back in 2016, Amazon, Peter Thiel, and other investors pledged the company $1 billion up front, but the money was late to arrive. Right away, Altman and Musk clashed over the ultimate direction of the organization. By 2017, Elon was out — an exit which spiked investor uncertainty and required another fast shot of capital.

New investors, Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn fame among them, stepped up — and OpenAI rode on. Under the full direction of Sam Altman, the company pushed its reinforcement learning products, OpenAI Gym and Universe, to market.

To many at the time, including Musk, OpenAI was lagging behind Google in the race to AI dominance — a problem for the likes of Musk, who had originally conceived the organization as a serious counterweight against what many experts and laypeople saw as an extinction-level threat arising out of the centralized, “closed” development and implementation of AI to the point of dominance across all of society.

That’s why OpenAI began as a nonprofit, ostensibly human-based, decentralized, and open-source. In Silicon Valley’s heady (if degenerate) years prior to the COVID panic, there was a sense that AI was simply going to happen — it was inevitable, and it would be preferable that decent, smart people, perhaps not so eager to align themselves with the military industrial complex or simply the sheer and absolute logic of capital, be in charge of steering the outcome.

But by 2019, OpenAI had altered its corporate structure from nonprofit to something called a “capped-profit model.” Money was tight. Microsoft invested $1 billion, and early versions of the LLM GPT-2 were released to substantial fanfare and fawning appreciation from the experts.

Life after Elon

In 2020, the now for-limited-profit company dropped its API, which allowed developers to access GPT-3. Their image generator, DALL-E, was released in 2021, a move that has since seemed to define, to some limited but significant extent, the direction that OpenAI wants to progress. The spirit of cooperation and sharing, if not enshrined at the company, was at least in the air, and by 2022 ChatGPT had garnered millions of users, well on the way to becoming a household name. The company’s valuation rose to the ballpark of $1 billion.

After Musk’s dissatisfied departure — he now publicly lambastes "ClosedAI" and "Scam Altman" — its restructuring with ideologically diffuse investors solidified a new model: Build a sort of ecosystem of products which are intended to be dovetailed or interfaced with other companies and software. (Palantir has taken a somewhat similar, though much more focused, approach to the problem of capturing AI.) The thinking here seems to be: Attack the problem from all directions, converge on “intelligence,” and get paid along the way.

And so, at present, in addition to the aforementioned products, OpenAI now offers — deep breath — CLIP for image research, Jukebox for music generation, Shap-E for 3D object generation, Sora for generating video content, Operator for automating workflows with AI agents, Canvas for AI-assisted content generation, and a smattering of similar, almost modular, products. It’s striking how many of these are aimed at creative industries — an approach capped off most recently by the sensational hire of Apple’s former chief design officer Jony Ive, whose IO deal with the company is the target of iyO’s litigation.

But we shouldn’t give short shrift to the “o series” (o1 through o4) of products, which are said to be reasoning models. Reasoning, of course, is the crown jewel of AI. These products are curious, because while they don’t make up a hardcore package of premium-grade plug-and-play tools for industrial and military efficiency (the Palantir approach), they suggest a very clever approach into the heart of the technical problems involved in “solving” for “artificial reasoning.” (Assuming the contested point that such a thing can ever really exist.) Is part of the OpenAI ethos, even if only by default, to approach the crown jewel of “reasoning” by way of the creative, intuitive, and generative — as opposed to tracing a line of pure efficiency as others in the field have done?

Gut check time

Wrapped up in the latest OpenAI controversy is a warning that’s impossible to ignore: Perhaps humans just can’t be trusted to build or wield “real” AI of the sort Altman wants — the kind he can prompt to decide for itself what to do with all his money and all his computers.

Ask yourself: Does any of the human behavior evidenced along the way in the OpenAI saga seem, shall we say, stable — much less morally well-informed enough that Americans or any peoples would rest easy about putting the future in the hands of Altman and company? Are these individuals worth the $20 million to $100 million a year they command on the hot AI market?

Or are we — as a people, a society, a civilization — in danger of becoming strung out, hitting a wall of self-delusion and frenzied acquisitiveness? What do we have to show so far for the power, money, and special privileges thrown at Altman for promising a world remade? And he’s just getting started. Who among us feels prepared for what’s next?

Palmer Luckey-led crypto bank promises startups a capital hoard safe from scheming feds



Billionaire Palmer Luckey is dipping his toe into the financial sector with a banking venture focused on helping tech entrepreneurs.

The company is known as Erebor, yet another entry in Luckey's portfolio that follows the Thiel-world pattern of referencing lore from the tales of J.R.R. Tolkien. Just as Anduril is a reference to a character's sword, and Palantir to a magical seeing stone, Erebor refers to the mountain in "The Hobbit" where the dragon Smaug hoards his gold away from would-be slayers and thieves.

While the moniker is not final, according to the New York Post, the venture is serious in its ability to reshape banking forever.

Deliberate federal interference in the nascent crypto banking market provoked the very crisis the feds purported to solve.

Luckey is partnering with Joe Lonsdale, a venture capitalist who co-founded Palantir Technologies and other software companies. Together, they will help tech startups build their businesses instead of maximizing returns like a traditional bank, insiders told the Post.

The key difference is that Erebor will work with stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency tied to relatively stable assets like the U.S. dollar or gold. This is done to limit the volatility of a coin without sacrificing its benefits, creating investment opportunities far in excess of simply purchasing and holding, say, Bitcoin.

Even the president is working with stablecoins, particularly USD1, which is attached to the U.S. dollar.

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  Joe Lonsdale, at the Montgomery Summit in Santa Monica, California, on Wednesday, March 8, 2017. Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images

 

The Post reported that Erebor was born out of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023, caused by a slew of management errors, "investment missteps, market volatility, and regulatory changes," according to Investopedia. The Biden administration ended up guaranteeing all deposits into SVB, despite the bank's ruin.

But as Castle Island founding partner Nic Carter explained last year, deliberate federal interference in the nascent crypto banking market provoked the very crisis the feds purported to solve. "Biden bank regulators made it impossible for banks serving a particular legal industry to operate," Carter wrote. "And in doing so, they actively caused the collapse of certain banks, namely Silvergate and Signature. These banks did not die by suicide but by murder. This remains a gigantic scandal, and no one has ever faced any responsibility for it."

It is unknown who else is involved with the launch of Erebor; it is still in its early stages and has no public start date. Luckey's representative did not immediately respond to Blaze News' request for information regarding founders or key development points.

In that regard, Lonsdale's venture firm 8VC has led a $225 million fundraising round, which will reportedly be used to meet federal regulatory requirements that are necessary for starting a bank, not for backing deposits.

Luckey is not expected to hold an executive role or be involved in day-to-day operations, but he would be adding "bank operator" to his laundry list of titles, which include defense contractor and handheld-gaming manufacturer.

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The tech titan has increasingly been involved in larger-than-life projects, including advanced technologies for U.S. military equipment. His open-to-debate style has caused him to become a darling of the Silicon Valley class, and his prominent criticisms of Facebook/Meta (he has since buried the hatchet with Mark Zuckerberg) have helped his image as a palatable billionaire, a dynamic with echoes of Mr. Burns and his one-time rival Arthur Fortune.

"Cryptocurrency is so powerful and investable because it's the most advanced tech ordinary Americans can use right now amongst themselves to create and grow wealth," said James Poulos, Blaze Media's editor at large.

"But it's still not clear how exactly to transition the U.S. from a dollar backed by American global, economic, and military dominance to one backed by computational power," he added. "While stablecoins weaken the ability of regular people to use Bitcoin free from government pressure and control, they strengthen the ability of Washington and Silicon Valley to transition the dollar stably away from the unsustainable 'money printer' model toward a dollar backed by energy itself, in the form of watts used to power compute. That's why a bank like Erebor is basically inevitable."

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Tesla soft-launches Cybercab in Austin, Texas



The unfolding fallout between Elon Musk and the Trump administration over the past month hasn't stopped Musk's companies from breaking new ground in their industries. Tesla's newly launched service may change transportation as we know it.

Following years of delays and hype from Elon Musk, Tesla launched the long-awaited, fully autonomous Cybercab in Austin, Texas, on Sunday. The service uses brand-new Tesla Model Y cars with no add-ons, meaning that all Model Y Teslas are capable of fully autonomous driving.

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  Photo by Stanislav Kogiku/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Musk shared his excitement about the announcement on X, calling this achievement a "culmination of a decade of hard work."

On top of being fully autonomous, Robotaxi also "automatically syncs your media & streaming settings before picking you up."

Tesla invited a small group of users to test out the new service in the capital city for a flat fee of $4.20, Business Insider reported.

Tesla's X page reposted several users' first experiences with the fully autonomous ride service. Many of them reported that the ride was smooth and enjoyable. One user posted a screen recording of his attempt to leave a tip, which was met with a humorous error message.

While this service is currently only available in Austin, Texas, following the soft launch, Tesla has created a new portal for users to receive updates about Cybercab coming to their area in the future.

MIT studied the effects of using AI on the human brain — the results are not good



The effect of artificial intelligence language models on the brain was studied by MIT by comparing the brain waves of different participants in an essay-writing contest. For those that relied on AI to write their content, the effects on their brains were devastating.

The study, led by Nataliya Kosmyna, separated 54 volunteers (ages 18-39) into three groups: a group that used ChatGPT to write the essays, a second group that relied on Google Search, and a third group that wrote the essays with no digital tools or search engine at all.

Brain activity was tracked for all groups, showcasing mortifying results for those who had to rely on the AI model in order to complete their task.

'Made the use of AI in the writing process rather obvious.'

For starters, the ChatGPT users displayed the lowest level of brain stimulation of the groups and, as noted by tech writer Alex Vacca, brain scans revealed that neural connections dropped from 79 to just 42.

"That's a 47% reduction in brain connectivity," Vacca wrote on X.

The Financial Express pointed out that toward the end of the task, several participants had resorted to simply copying and pasting what they got from ChatGPT, making barely any changes.

The use of ChatGPT appeared to drastically lower the memory recall of participants as well.

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Over 83% of the ChatGPT users "struggled to quote anything from their essays," while for the other groups, that number was about 11%.

According to the study, English teachers who reviewed the essays found the AI-backed writing "soulless," lacking "uniqueness," and easy to identify.

"These, often lengthy, essays included standard ideas, reoccurring typical formulations and statements, which made the use of AI in the writing process rather obvious," the study said.

The group that received no assistance in research or writing exhibited the highest reported levels of mental activity, particularly in the part of the brain associated with creativity.

Google Search users were better off than the ChatGPT group, as the search for the information was far more stimulating to the brain than it was to simply ask ChatGPT a question.

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  Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images

 

Blaze Media's James Poulos said that while some producers and consumers of AI considered it a good thing to increase human dependency on machines for everyday thinking, "the core problem most Americans face is the same default toward convenience and ease that leads us to seek 'easy' or 'convenient' substitutes in all areas of life for our own initiative, hard work, and discipline."

Ironically, Poulos explained, this can quickly lead to overcomplicating our lives where they ought to be straightforward by default.

"The bizarre temptation is getting stronger to build Rube Goldberg machines to perform simple tasks," Poulos added. "We're pressured to think enabling our laziness is the only way we can create value and economic growth in the digital age. But one day, we wake up to find that helplessness doesn't feel so luxurious anymore."

In summary, the "brain‑only group" exhibited the strongest, widest‑ranging neural networks of the three sets of volunteers.

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The drone racing world just had its John Henry moment. Battlefields will never be the same.



The steel-driving man of American legend, John Henry, attempted to beat the machine — and won, though it cost him his life. At the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League's (A2RL) Drone Championship in April, man tried to beat the machine and lost — and the technology responsible could soon claim many a life on battlefields the world over.

There were four race formats at the drone competition co-hosted by the Drone Champions League and A2RL this past April in Abu Dhabi: an autonomous drag race where lightweight flyers fired through multiple gates at speeds of over 93 mph; a multi-drone race; an AI grand challenge; and a match pitting elite DCL human pilots against an autonomous drone.

In the fourth type of race, an autonomous quadcopter drone built and trained by a team of scientists and students at Delft University of Technology's aerospace engineering MAVLab in the Netherlands beat three former DCL world champions, reaching speeds on the winding indoor track of nearly 60 mph.

A2RL concluded in a release that the races demonstrated that "AI, when given the right tools, can make complex, real-time decisions in a dynamic physical world. And it can do so safely, at speed, and at scale."

'Autonomous drone racing is an ideal test case for developing and demonstrating highly efficient, robust AI.'

Footage shows the drone whip effortlessly through a series of 22 indoor gates using only a front-facing camera and a motion sensor.

According to the university, the feat — possible because their "efficient and robust AI system [is] capable of split-second, high-performance control" — was historic.

Humans have been losing in games played virtually to supercomputers for decades. However, the university noted that "this achievement happened in the real world."

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 An FPV drone controlled via a fiber-optic cable flies during Ukrainian military training on January 29, 2025 in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Photo by Dan Bashakov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

Team lead Christophe De Wagter said in a statement, "I always wondered when AI would be able to compete with human drone racing pilots in real competitions. I'm extremely proud of the team that we were able to make it happen already this year."

"I hope that this achievement and this type of competition in general forms a springboard for real-world robot applications," added De Wagter. "Robot AI is limited by the required computational and energy resources. Autonomous drone racing is an ideal test case for developing and demonstrating highly efficient, robust AI."

The efficacy of autonomous drones on the raceway certainly has implications for the future of warfare.

Already in Ukraine, drones — which Kyiv is on track to produce 2.5 million of annually — have blunted the competitive edge of state-of-the-art bomber aircraft and armor and now reportedly cause an estimated 70% of deaths and injuries. The vast majority of drones in the war are, however, human-operated.

A special report published earlier this month by the Institute for the Study of War noted that "Russia and Ukraine are engaged in an active technological race to develop and deploy drones with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities" as doing so would reduce their reliance on human drone operators and defenders, overcome human limitations in target identification, and accelerate decision-making processes involved in drone warfare.

The warring nations have reportedly demonstrated some integration of AI capabilities into drones as of last month but have not deployed them on scale in the battlefield.

In one instance, a Ukrainian electronic and radio warfare expert observed Russian forces field a swarm of six drones, each of which carry a 6.6 pound warhead and have a range of up to 50 miles.

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  Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

ISW noted that Ukrainian forces, on the other hand, deployed a new AI-powered "mother drone" on the frontlines in late May — a drone that can reportedly deploy two first-person-view drones and launch a strike at a range of 186 miles.

The mothership was created by the Ukrainian startup Strategy Force Solutions.

The CTO of the company, who identified himself only as Andrii, told Forbes, "A $10,000 mission replaces what previously required $3-$5 million missile systems."

"By pairing them [small FPV type drones] with AI mothership drones, we can guarantee precision strikes," added Andrii.

The TU Delft drone evidences a technological leap that if utilized in the warring nation's UAVs could mean greater effectiveness when attacking in dynamic combat zones as greater difficulty on the part of targets to evade or shoot them down.

The Dutch university indicated that one of the novel aspects of the racer drone's AI is its use of a deep neural network originally developed by the Advanced Concepts Team at the European Space Agency, which enables the system to bypass a traditional human controller and direct commands straight to the motors.

"Traditional, human-engineered algorithms for optimal control were computationally so expensive that they would never be able to run onboard resource-constrained systems such as drones or satellites," said the university. "ESA found that deep neural networks were able to mimic the outcomes of traditional algorithms, while requiring orders of magnitude less processing time."

"We now train the deep neural networks with reinforcement learning, a form of learning by trial and error," said De Wagter. "This allows the drone to more closely approach the physical limits of the system. To get there, though, we had to redesign not only the training procedure for the control but also how we can learn about the drone's dynamics from its own onboard sensory data."

According to a MarketDigits 2023 projection, the autonomous drone market will reach $53.4 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 18.9% during the forecast period.

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Kids 'cosplaying as ICE agents' and performing raids on 'illegals' in Roblox game



Illegal aliens are in the crosshairs of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents — even in the video game world.

Users of the massively popular online game Roblox are not only performing in-game raids on "illegals," but they are also facing anti-ICE protests in the game's fictional streets.

'This is the only thing we can turn to.'

In Roblox, gamers can design virtually anything in a scaled-down, pixelated 3D world, leading to intricate gardens, basketball courts, or, in this case, federal agents sweeping facilities for illegal immigrants.

"Kids are cosplaying as ICE agents in Roblox, staging raids on fellow players who they deem illegal," reporter Taylor Lorenz wrote on X. "Hundreds of kids are also protesting ICE in rallies across Brookhaven, Roblox's most popular experience."

In one staged scenario, ICE agents raid a Roblox version of a chicken restaurant called Los Pollos Hermanos found in the hit TV show "Breaking Bad."

A firefight ensues, and ICE makes arrests of several employees.

RELATED: Antifa mobilizes in the Pacific Northwest to attack DHS locations and agents

 

  

 

Other videos posted to TikTok show a raid on a character in his bedroom at the hands of just one ICE agent with a baseball bat, while another shows an organized anti-ICE protest, complete with signs that say "F Ice," likely because curse words are not allowed on the platform.

Lorenz spoke to a 17-year-old who she said "organized the largest anti-ICE protest in Roblox," which featured burning police cars and Roblox characters holding Mexican flags while battling police.

"A lot of young people really want to protest and put their words and beliefs out there but are unable to," the child told Lorenz. "So this is the only thing we can turn to."

At least six more in-game anti-ICE protests were being organized, according to the teen. Most of the action has reportedly happened in "Brookhaven," the most popular server in Roblox, which has seen upwards of one million users at one time.

RELATED: Is your child being exposed to pedophiles in the metaverse?

 

  Police and National Guard troops take measures as thousands of anti-ICE protesters are gathered outside of the Federal Building in Los Angeles, California, on June 9, 2025, amid protests over immigration raids. Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images

 

Blaze News previously reported on Roblox's enormous user base last year, about 58% of which were under the age of 16, equating to around 46 million children on the platform.

However, Roblox has strict safety measures and a history of taking serious precautions to protect children.

Roblox did not respond to a request for comment regarding whether or not in-game scenarios like the protests and raids went against their terms of service.

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There’s a simple logic behind Palantir’s controversial rise in Washington



In 2003 Palo Alto, California, Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, and cohorts founded a software company called Palantir. Now, these 20-odd years later, with stock prices reaching escape velocity and government and commercial contracts secured from Huntsville to Huntington, Palantir seems to have arrived in the pole position of the AI race.

With adamantine ties to the Trump administration and deep history with U.S. intelligence and military entities to boot, Palantir has emerged as a decisive force in the design and management of our immediate technological, domestic, and geopolitical futures.

Curious, then, that so many, including New York Times reporters, seem to believe that Palantir is merely another souped-up data hoarding and selling company like Google or Adobe.

The next-level efficiency, one imagines, will have radical implications for our rather inefficient lives.

It’s somewhat understandable, but the scales and scopes in play are unprecedented. To get a grasp on the scope of Palantir’s project, consider that every two days now humanity churns out the same amount of information that was accrued over the previous 5,000 years of civilization.

As then-Gartner senior vice president Peter Sondergaard put it more than a decade ago, “Information is the oil of the 21st century, and analytics is the combustion engine.”

Palantir spent the last 20 years building that analytics combustion engine. It arrives as a suite of AI products tailored to various markets and end users. The promise, as the era of Palantir proceeds and as AI-centered business and governance takes hold, is that decisions will be made with a near-complete grasp on the totality of real-time global information.

RELATED: Trump's new allies: Tech billionaires are jumping on the MAGA train

  The Washington Post/Getty Images

The tech stack

Famously seeded with CIA In-Q-Tel cash, Palantir started by addressing intelligence agency needs. In 2008, the Gotham software product, described as a tool for intelligence agencies to analyze complex datasets, went live. Gotham is said to integrate and analyze disparate datasets in real time to enable pattern recognition and threat detection. Joining the CIA, FBI, and presumably most other intelligence agencies in deploying Gotham are the Centers for Disease Control and Department of Defense.

Next up in the suite is Foundry, which is, again, an AI-based software solution but geared toward industry. It purportedly serves to centralize previously siloed data sources to effect maximum efficiency. Health care, finance, and manufacturing all took note and were quick to integrate Foundry. PG&E, Southern California, and Edison are all satisfied clients. So is the Wendy’s burger empire.

The next in line of these products, which we’ll see are integrated and reciprocal in their application to client needs, is Apollo, which is, according the Palantir website, “used to upgrade, monitor, and manage every instance of Palantir’s product in the cloud and at some of the world’s most regulated and controlled environments.” Among others, Morgan Stanley, Merck, Wejo, and Cisco are reportedly all using Apollo.

If none of this was impressive enough, if the near-total penetration into both business and government (U.S., at least) at foundational levels isn’t evident yet, consider the crown jewel of the Palantir catalog, which integrates all the others: Ontology.

“Ontology is an operational layer for the organization,” Palantir explains. “The Ontology sits on top of the digital assets integrated into the Palantir platform (datasets and models) and connects them to their real-world counterparts, ranging from physical assets like plants, equipment, and products to concepts like customer orders or financial transactions.”

Every aspect native to a company or organization — every minute of employee time, any expense, item of inventory, and conceptual guideline — is identified, located, and cross-linked wherever and however appropriate to maximize efficiency.

The next-level efficiency, one imagines, will have radical implications for our rather inefficient lives. Consider the DMV, the wait list, the tax prep: Anything that can be processed (assuming enough energy inputs for the computation) can be — ahead of schedule.

The C-suite

No backgrounder is complete without some consideration of a company’s founders. The intentions, implied or overt, from Peter Thiel and Alex Karp in particular are, in some ways, as ponderable as the company’s ultra-grade software products and market dominance.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp stated in his triumphal 2024 letter to shareholders: “Our results are not and will never be the ultimate measure of the value, broadly defined, of our business. We have grander and more idiosyncratic aims.” Karp goes on to quote both Augustine and Houellebecq as he addresses the company’s commitment first to America.

This doesn’t sound quite like the digital panopticon or the one-dimensionally malevolent elite mindset we were threatened with for the last 20 years. Despite their outsized roles and reputations, Thiel companies tend toward the relatively modest goals of reducing overall harm or risk. Reflecting the influence of Rene Girard’s theory that people rapidly spiral into hard-to-control and ultimately catastrophic one-upsmanship, the approach reflects a considerably more sophisticated point of view than Karl Rove’s infamously dismissive claim to be “history’s actors.”

“Initially, the rise of the digital security state was a neoconservative project,” Blaze Media editor at large James Poulos remarked on the dynamic. “But instead of overturning this Bush-era regime, the embedded Obama-Biden elite completed the neocon system. That’s how we got the Cheneys endorsing Kamala.”

In a series of explanatory posts on X made via the company's Privacy and Ethics account and reposted on its webpage, Palantir elaborated: “We were the first company to establish a dedicated Privacy & Civil Liberties Engineering Team over a decade ago, and we have a longstanding Council of Advisors on Privacy & Civil Liberties comprised of leading experts and advocates. These functions sit at the heart of the company and help us to embody Palantir’s values both through providing rights-protective technologies and fostering a culture of responsibility around their development and use.”

It's a far cry from early 2000s rhetoric and corporate policy, and so the issue becomes one of evaluation. Under pressure from the immensity of the data, the ongoing domestic and geopolitical instability manifesting in myriad forms, and particularly the bizarre love-hate interlocking economic mechanisms between the U.S. and China, many Americans are hungry to find a scapegoat.

Do we find ourselves, as Americans at least, with the advantage in this tense geopolitical moment? Or are we uncharacteristically behind in the contest for survival? An honest assessment of our shared responsibility for our national situation might lead away from scapegoating, toward a sense that we made our bed a while ago on technology and security and now we must lie in it.