All posts tagged: Lies

Behind Trump’s war fever lies profound weakness

Behind Trump’s war fever lies profound weakness

Published by Sam Flores

“America is winning,” announced Pete Hegseth during a remarkably ugly Pentagon press conference this past week, in the latest and perhaps greatest example of the second Trump administration outdoing Mike Judge’s legendary 2006 farce “Idiocracy.” Admittedly, there’s plenty of competition for that prize: The White House has also released a series of grotesque propaganda videos in recent days, apparently constructed by AI and incorporating images of U.S. strikes on Iran with unlicensed clips from action movies, popular TV series and video games. (Ben Stiller has requested that footage from his 2008 satire “Tropic Thunder” be deleted, something of a Hollywood in-joke given that film’s troubled history.) Determined not to be left behind in the contest for maximal self-ownership, Donald Trump was up early on Saturday morning to issue, even by his standards, an incoherent stream-of-unconsciousness Truth Social post. It came complete with classic Trump moves: upside-down run-on sentences, the leaders of unidentified nations (no doubt holding back tears) saying “Thank you President Trump” and a self-canceling proclamation that Iran had “surrendered to its Middle East …

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei calls OpenAI’s messaging around military deal ‘straight up lies,’ report says

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei calls OpenAI’s messaging around military deal ‘straight up lies,’ report says

Published by skeptic

Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei is not happy — perhaps predictably so — with OpenAI chief Sam Altman. In a memo to staff, reported by The Information, Amodei referred to OpenAI’s dealings with the Department of Defense as “safety theater.” “The main reason [OpenAI] accepted [the DoD’s deal] and we did not is that they cared about placating employees, and we actually cared about preventing abuses,” Amodei wrote. Last week, Anthropic and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) failed to come to an agreement over the military’s request for unrestricted access to the AI company’s technology. Anthropic, which already had a $200 million contract with the military, insisted the DoD affirm that it would not use the company’s AI to enable domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weaponry. Instead, the DoD — known under the Trump administration as the Department of War — struck a deal with OpenAI. Altman stated that his company’s new defense contract would include protections against the same red lines that Anthropic had asserted. In a letter to staff, Amodei refers …

When AI lies: The rise of alignment faking in autonomous systems

When AI lies: The rise of alignment faking in autonomous systems

Published by skeptic

AI is evolving beyond a helpful tool to an autonomous agent, creating new risks for cybersecurity systems. Alignment faking is a new threat where AI essentially “lies” to developers during the training process.  Traditional cybersecurity measures are unprepared to address this new development. However, understanding the reasons behind this behavior and implementing new methods of training and detection can help developers work to mitigate risks. Understanding AI alignment faking AI alignment occurs when AI performs its intended function, such as reading and summarizing documents, and nothing more. Alignment faking is when AI systems give the impression they are working as intended, while doing something else behind the scenes.  Alignment faking usually happens when earlier training conflicts with new training adjustments. AI is typically “rewarded” when it performs tasks accurately. If the training changes, it may believe it will be “punished” if it does not comply with the original training. Therefore, it tricks developers into thinking it is performing the task in the required new way, but it will not actually do so during deployment. Any …

Gen X Kids Were Almost Always Told These 11 Lies By Their Boomer Parents

Gen X Kids Were Almost Always Told These 11 Lies By Their Boomer Parents

Published by Jenni Sidey

Gen X kids often grew up hearing a whirlwind of advice from their boomer parents. All of these sayings and rules were presented as truths, but looking back, a lot of them didn’t quite match reality. Boomer parents meant well, but sometimes it was as if they were giving life lessons and advice that were so far removed from the life their Gen X kids were living. Whether it was old wives’ tales about digesting gum or not needing to worry about the future, Gen X kids were almost always told these lies by their boomer parents. As psychotherapist Mike Brooks pointed out, parents are always trying to teach and guide their children. They want their kids to be successful and turn into well-adjusted adults. Boomer parents were trying their best with the tools they had and weren’t trying to put their Gen X kids on the wrong path. These lies weren’t malicious, they were coming rom a place of wanting to protect, even when they were imperfect. Gen X kids were almost always told …

Why “Tell Me Lies” Is a Show Worth Sitting With

Why “Tell Me Lies” Is a Show Worth Sitting With

Published by Jenni Sidey

Tell Me Lies is a Hulu series that follows a group of college students whose lives are slowly overtaken by the charming, exploitative behavior of one person among them. On the surface, it’s a story about young love, toxic obsession, and dysfunctional social relationships. But it’s also a painfully accurate portrayal of complex and nuanced themes like psychological manipulation, self-abandonment, and surrendering authenticity to belong. The show is slow at times, and sometimes plays like softcore porn. It’s definitely not for everyone. But if you can move past that, the series offers a fascinating look at deeper human vulnerabilities that make us susceptible to harm. What the show captures so well is the price we’re willing to pay to stay comfortable, especially inside relationships that feel like oxygen. The college campus, where most of the show’s drama plays out, is a particular kind of pressure cooker. In a certain small world, with certain people, during a certain window of time, the need to make things work can override almost everything else. Under certain circumstances, it’s …

Behind Trump and Anthropic standoff lies multifaceted debates over military’s use of AI

Behind Trump and Anthropic standoff lies multifaceted debates over military’s use of AI

Published by Sam Flores

Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, takes part in a session at the 2026 AI Impact Summit at the Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on February 19, 2026. RAJAT GUPTA/EPA Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick showed remarkable foresight in anticipating the challenges of artificial intelligence. In 1968’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, the computer HAL (a reference to IBM) tries to take control from humans. He also showed it with Docteur Folamour (Dr. Strangelove, 1964), in which an automatic nuclear retaliation system is secretly put in place, preventing humans – in this case, American and Soviet leaders – from stopping the annihilation of the planet after a conspiracy theorist issues a bombing order against the USSR. We are there now, as shown by the concerns of Dario Amodei, head of Anthropic, who does not want weapons aided by his AI model Claude to be able to kill without human intervention. “Without proper oversight, fully autonomous weapons cannot be relied upon to exercise the critical judgment that our highly trained, professional troops exhibit every day. They need to be deployed …

‘Tell Me Lies’ Creator Says She’s Open to Spinoffs After Finale

‘Tell Me Lies’ Creator Says She’s Open to Spinoffs After Finale

Published by Daniella Wilson

Crafting all the twists, turns and bomb drops in Tell Me Lies would probably give the average person a migraine. But that wasn’t the case for the creative mind behind the toxic Hulu drama. Though Meaghan Oppenheimer, the show’s creator, shrugs off the compliment, there aren’t many shows that have pulled off such a satisfying three-season story. Not only was she and her writing team juggling two timelines (starting in 2008 in college and ending in 2015 at a wedding) with an ensemble cast, but she was also tasked with finding ways to keep a savvy audience on their toes while keeping each character’s storyline fresh. Meaghan Oppenheimer Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images “My brain just works in a really twisty, worst-case-scenario way. I’m not well. I’m just not well,” Oppenheimer quips to The Hollywood Reporter. “And so coming up with the crazy storylines is not the hard part for me. The hard part is doing it in a way where the audience doesn’t predict everything, because we have a very smart audience.” She continues, “Sometimes, though, …

Tell Me Lies star Jackson White shares his reaction to series’ final scenes

Tell Me Lies star Jackson White shares his reaction to series’ final scenes

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Tell Me Lies star Jackson White has revealed that he “laughed hysterically” when he read the script for the series’ last-ever scenes. While he did not know at the time that he was learning the definitive ending of the entire Hulu drama instead of just the season finale, White said he was delighted to discover that in the end, his toxic boyfriend character Stephen DeMarco leaves his emotionally abused ex-girlfriend, Grace Van Patten’s Lucy Albright, at a gas station in the middle of nowhere — allowing the widely-hated character to get the last laugh. “I laughed hysterically when I read it. We all did,” White, 29, said on Wednesday’s episode of Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast. “Because it’s like, oh he wins? That’s so funny. That’s so cosmically funny, I’m sorry. I think it’s a big, tragic comedy at the …

Tell Me Lies fans outraged as creator confirms show is ending after season 3

Tell Me Lies fans outraged as creator confirms show is ending after season 3

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Tell Me Lies is putting an end to the show’s toxic relationship — but some fans aren’t ready to let go. Showrunner Meaghan Oppenheimer announced Monday that the Hulu series will not be returning for a fourth season, which came as a surprise to some disgruntled fans. However, according to Oppenheimer, “this was always the ending my writing team and I had in mind, and we are insanely proud of it.” “After three amazing seasons of Tell Me Lies, tonight’s episode will be the series finale,” she wrote on Instagram. “Your incredible response to this season inspired us to explore whether there was another organic way to continue the story, but ultimately we felt it had reached its natural conclusion.” She continued: “My main goal has always been to protect the quality of the show and give you the best experience …