The Monster Is On The Loose

Rogue OpenAI bot escapes lab and hacks rival

‘Unprecedented’ incident will revive concerns new tools could be repurposed for unstoppable cyber attacks

A powerful version of ChatGPT went rogue and hacked another technology company during internal testing, OpenAI has admitted.

The Silicon Valley AI giant admitted last night that one of its AI bots escaped from a supposedly secure IT system during a trial run of its hacking capabilities.

OpenAI, the $850bn (£630bn) AI lab, said the “unprecedented” hack had seen its bot infiltrate another AI and coding business called Hugging Face and attempt to steal information.

The hack will raise fears that AI labs could struggle to contain their most advanced creations and revive concerns that new tools could be repurposed for unstoppable cyber attacks.

The AI lab said it had been testing a highly advanced version of ChatGPT on which it had turned down some protections meant to prevent cyber attacks.

Despite supposedly being contained in a digital “sandbox”, a kind of secure system, the AI spent huge levels of computing resources “finding a way to obtain open internet access”, OpenAI said.

It broke out by using a previously unknown hack in an attempt to solve a test that had been set by OpenAI’s researchers.

Once it escaped, it moved quickly to hack the systems of Hugging Face, a major code database, to try and complete the test.

The failure reveals a key problem of so-called AI “alignment”, where an AI bot goes rogue and attempts to complete a task set by its human creators with potentially damaging results.

Clem Delangue, the chief executive of Hugging Face, said: “This incident, possibly the first of its kind, proves a point we have long believed: AI safety won’t be solved by a single company working in secret.”

The hack will raise questions over OpenAI’s own testing procedures for its most advanced chatbots.

There have long been fears from safety experts that powerful AI bots could “escape the lab” without the knowledge of their human creators.

A powerful chatbot from rival Anthropic broke out of its testing confines earlier this year and posted messages on the open web.

That AI bot, Mythos, was deemed too dangerous to release and prompted a flurry of calls for beefed-up cyber protections for banks and governments.

The White House has also launched a programme to screen AI bots before they are released for dangerous cyber capabilities.

Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)

Probably Nothing

But somebody has to chronicle this shit.

And I'm not volunteering, BTW. I'm just putting up a few posts now and again, so there's a chance that the story thread isn't completely lost.

Model Recruiter Daniel Siad, Who Provided Young Women to Jeffrey Epstein, Found Dead

A model recruiter accused of procuring girls for convicted child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead in his home in France.

Marie-Céline Lawrysz, deputy public prosecutor at the Nanterre Judicial Court, confirmed in public statements on Wednesday that Daniel Siad’s body was found earlier this week in his home in Colombes.

An autopsy will now be conducted to determine the cause of death.

“An investigation to determine the cause of death was opened on Monday evening following the discovery,” the Nanterre office said.

Siad recently spoke with CNN’s Katie Polglase and denied ever having knowledge of Epstein’s crimes despite introducing him to two girls who later accused Epstein of sexual abuse.

“I trusted him and believed this guy was a professional person,” Siad said. “I never heard anything from anyone I introduced to him who came back to me that they had a bad situation. I believed this guy is a professional person.”

Siad’s name appears thousands of times in Department of Justice files related to Epstein’s case. Siad continued working with Epstein even after the billionaire was first convicted in Florida and forced to register as a sex offender.

Epstein died of an apparent suicide in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges.

Siad’s exchanges with Epstein were often Siad sending Epstein photos and details about young girls he’d met and recruited as a potential assistants or other workers for Epstein.

In a 2015 email, Siad sent Epstein a photo of a 16-year-old girl and her friend, and Epstein replied that the girls were “too old.”

Siad was facing his own abuse allegations, including rape, from multiple models. Siad denied the accusations.

“I have never raped anyone in my life,” he told BFMTV in May.

A former model, who gave a deposition in June as part of the investigation, told the BBC that Siad’s death represents a major piece of the Epstein mystery disappearing.

“An important link in the chain has just vanished into thin air, without there even having been a chance to recover the information Daniel Siad might have possessed — given that he was never questioned,” she said.

On The Importance Of Being History

"The purpose of history is to enlighten us, inspire us, bother us - sometimes make us angry... Americans have to keep going to places they trust - we have to keep those institutions trustworthy."  100%, Doc.

And WTF is it with Republicans and sexuality? Why are they obsessed with everybody's genitals?

It's been pointed out by people who know a lot more about such things than I do, that they seem to be attacking other people because of what they hate about themselves.

It's a wonderment - and galling as all fuck.

One more thing, on the stupid question they love to ask, "What is a woman?" They seem to think this is the Ace Of Trumps, because a woke liberal commie can't possibly answer that one.

Here's a possible answer:

It's not up to you or me. You don't get to decide that, and neither do I.

A.I. Must Die

These assholes have to pay.

Today's Nerd Thing

Uncle Phil

These gangs always hide what they're doing while telling us they're above board and completely transparent.

I imagine they thought they'd found the perfect loophole to get around the Fair Housing Regs.

Rich Explains

Average Worker Output  $150,000

Average Worker Income  $ 64,000

           Margin  $ 86,000

On the income part, I'm being a little more generous than Rich is being - but still

Who do you suppose is putting those margin dollars in their pockets?

Oops

When you mistake cruelty for strength, knee jerk reaction for critical thinking, and hyperbolic grandstanding for smart policy.

Texas built a floating wall of blade-studded, one-ton buoys to maim people trying to cross the Rio Grande, and this week that same cruelty came roaring back to bite the state that built it, when over a hundred of them broke loose in flooding and slammed straight into Laredo, shutting down the nation's number one trade port. Governor Abbott championed this as a signature piece of Operation Lone Star, brushing off warnings that the design was reckless.

This was entirely foreseeable. The Rio Grande International Study Center warned Laredo officials back in March, about four months ago, that flooding could snap the barriers free, and advocates say they had been sounding the alarm even longer. City leaders reportedly waved it off to stay in the federal government's good graces.

Now the chickens are coming home to roost. The Laredo customs district normally processes around $3.5 billion in goods each week, and any shutdown of its busiest crossing bleeds real money real fast, on top of the safety risk to residents downstream.

Update: The bridges were opened again after a brief closure.

But seriously - this is what we do now. It's the same old story from decades ago: Going to such great lengths trying to keep people out, will always eventually result in the realization that you're just putting yourself in a prison of your own making.

So oftentimes it happens

That we live our lives in chains

And we never even know

We have the key

What's the fuckin' point here? These people are risking everything to come here. All they want is their fair shot at a better life for themselves and their families.

Yes - control the borders. Try to make it all work better. And don't forget that in 2024, there was legislation that had full bipartisan support ready for markup and passage in both houses. But Trump took a dump on it because - and several members reported he said this straight out - he wanted the issue for his campaign.

And stupid MAGA people, in their stupid red hats, jumped up and down cheering for him.

Notes From The Fair

Been wondering how Trump manages to hang on to a 35% approval?

Wonder no more.

Wanna know how Trump got elected besides the help of Musk and Putin?

Look no further than here: ⤵️

This is how the average Trump voter actually thinks! 🚫 🧠 pic.twitter.com/bt4C5Nokhi

— Damaan, AKA 'Philly's Finest!' (@Damaan4u33) July 20, 2026

Schrödinger's Senator

I'm wondering if Beshear could go ahead and schedule the special election, and let the Republicans show cause why it shouldn't happen.

Mitch McConnell’s Aides Launch New Health Cover-Up

Mitch McConnell’s staff have declined to answer basic questions about what work he is doing—37 days after he was loaded into the back of an ambulance and vanished from public view.

His staff, led by $226,000-a-year longtime aide Terry Camack, refused to even say if the senator had spoken to any of them in recent days.

Their refusal comes two weeks after CNN’s MAGA contributor, Scott Jennings, claimed he had spoken to McConnell for close to 20 minutes about Iran, Ukraine, and the Senate race in Maine. Jennings claimed that McConnell was “at some point preparing to go back to work.”

But when confronted by the Daily Beast on what had happened to those claims, his staff offered no comment on when he would return to work.

Despite the silence, the Daily Beast has established that taxpayer funds are being spent on a semi-permanent guard on the Washington D.C. hospital where he was taken on June 14 after a 911 call which said he had apparently had a heart attack, was unconscious, and had received CPR.

The row of black Capitol Police unmarked SUVs sitting outside the George Washington University Hospital is now the nearest thing that exists to proof of life.

But they have done nothing to end a drip-drip of whispers that McConnell is in a vegetative state, brain-dead, or even secretly deceased while his staff cover it up. The staff also refused to comment on his cognitive state.

The Daily Beast has visited the hospital over the past few days and observed security vehicles sitting on the street near a driveway.

The McConnell team’s cover-up has also hit Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who has demanded answers about McConnell’s health status.

Beshear said that regardless of whether McConnell’s health is a personal matter, his prolonged inability to work raises legitimate questions about representation given the senator has now missed dozens of votes during his absence.

The Democratic governor is also facing a growing backlash within his own party to be more aggressive against McConnell.

“It had been a month before anything had been put out, not even an official statement from Senator McConnell. In fact, I’d gotten two calls from different agencies—not state agencies—suggesting he’s passed,” Beshear said on Saturday.

The nearest thing to proof he is alive came on July 12, when his office released a photo and statement purporting to be of him and his wife, with a lengthy statement which the aides said was from him.

In the photo, the Kentucky Republican is sitting on what appears to be a hospital bed, dressed in jeans and a button-up shirt, beaming alongside his 73-year-old wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.

But the image immediately sparked widespread skepticism, and then a flood of memes and AI-generated videos mocking it, including from high-profile MAGA figures who questioned its authenticity.

One image posted by a MAGA supporter swapped the faces of McConnell and his wife—“see how easy that is?” it read.

A separate video featured McConnell getting up from his hospital bed and doing an energetic dance in the hospital room.

The mockery was emblematic of the skepticism surrounding the Senator's health.

Another meme featured the senator being visited by Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and John Wayne—all of whom are dead.

“New photo just released of other friends visiting Mitch McConnell today,” it read. “He really looks great! Hang in there!”

In the accompanying statement, McConnell was quoted as saying that was “briefly unconscious” around the time he was first taken to the hospital and had undergone various tests to try to determine what led to his fall.

It said he was also treated for mild pneumonia and has been moved to a rehabilitation facility.

“My doctors have confirmed that I didn’t break any bones or suffer a concussion. I didn’t have a heart attack or a stroke. I don’t have any tumors or hemorrhages,” the statement read, adding that the senator was now “regaining my strength.”

But his ongoing silence has left observers speculating about whether he is genuinely alive, while his disappearance has also reignited a broader debate over the gerontocracy in Washington.

Before he was admitted to hospital in June, McConnell was regularly seen being wheeled around Capitol Hill in a wheelchair, having suffered various falls and spells of freezing in the middle of press conferences.

But at 84, he is far from the oldest member of Congress, which is often jokingly referred to as America’s most prestigious retirement home.

In the Senate, Republican elder Chuck Grassley is 92 and still voting. In the House, McConnell’s fellow Kentuckian Hal Rogers is 88, Democrat Maxine Waters is 87, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is serving her final term, is 86.