ThisPersonDoesNotExist.com uses AI to generate endless fake faces

The ability of AI to generate fake visuals is not yet mainstream knowledge, but a new website — ThisPersonDoesNotExist.com — offers a quick and persuasive education. The site is the creation of Philip Wang, a software engineer at Uber, and uses research released last year by chip designer Nvidia to create an endless stream of fake portraits. The algorithm behind it is trained on a huge dataset of real images, then uses a type of neural network known as a generative adversarial network (or GAN) to fabricate new examples. “Each time you refresh the site, the network will generate a new facial image from scratch,” wrote Wang in a Facebook post. He added in a statement to Motherboard: “Most people do not understand how good AIs will be at synthesizing images in the future.”

The underlying AI framework powering the site was originally invented by a researcher named Ian Goodfellow. Nvidia’s take on the algorithm, named StyleGAN, was made open source recently and has proven to be incredibly flexible. Although this version of the model is trained to generate human faces, it can, in theory, mimic any source. Researchers are already experimenting with other targets. including anime characters, fonts, and graffiti.

As we’ve discussed before at The Verge, the power of algorithms like StyleGAN raise a lot of questions. On the one hand there are obvious creative applications for this technology. Programs like this could create endless virtual worlds, as well as help designers and illustrators. They’re already leading to new types of artwork. Then there are the downsides. As we’ve seen in discussions about deepfakes (which use GANs to paste people’s faces onto target videos, often in order to create non-consensual pornography), the ability to manipulate and generate realistic imagery at scale is going to have a huge effect on how modern societies think about evidence and trust. Such software could also be extremely useful for creating political propaganda and influence campaigns. In other words, ThisPersonDoesNotExist.com is just the polite introduction to this new technology. The rude awakening comes later.

https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2019/2/15/18226005/ai-generated-fake-people-portraits-thispersondoesnotexist-stylegan

L.A. Skyscraper Shown Exploding in New ISIS 'Promise Fulfilled' Threat

An ISIS-supporting group posted an image online depicting an explosion at the top of the third-tallest office tower in downtown Los Angeles. Though ISIS backers operating under a number of media alliances regularly craft and circulate threats and recruitment propaganda in the form of posters and video, Los Angeles is rarely featured as a target. The online jihadists trend toward threatening New York, Washington, Las Vegas, and large European cities. The new image shows a camouflage-clad jihadist holding an ISIS flag with the evening L.A. skyline in the background and the glow of flames photoshopped coming from the hillside beneath his feet. An explosion is photoshopped onto the top of the Aon Center, the 62-story tower at 707 Wilshire Blvd. in the city's financial district. The original photo used appears to be from Shutterstock. The words above the image: "Our promise will soon be fulfilled."

The city of Los Angeles routinely reminds residents that landmarks and transportation hubs – such as Los Angeles International Airport, targeted in a foiled 2000 al-Qaeda plot – are potential terrorist targets. Terror groups have always routinely complained about products from Hollywood making their way into popular culture in Muslim-majority nations. The U.S. Bank Tower, which is the second-tallest building in L.A., was discussed as a potential target by Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in 1999 as they planned the 9/11 attacks. In 2006, President George W. Bush said that Mohammed, in October 2001, "had already set in motion a plan to have terrorist operatives hijack an airplane using shoe bombs to breach the cockpit door, and fly the plane into the tallest building on the West Coast" – at the time, the U.S. Bank Tower, then known as Library Tower.

After the complex coordinated terror attacks in Paris in November 2015, L.A. officials realized that "iconic and symbolic targets are not as high on terrorists' priority list as killing high numbers of people," Michael Downing, the Los Angeles Police Department's anti-terrorism deputy chief, said at the time. In the wake of the Paris attacks, the LAPD increased security at a Justin Bieber concert and increased outreach on security procedures at soft targets such as malls, restaurants and movie theaters. L.A. was included in a 2016 ISIS July 4 threat that warned "there will be a device placed in either Heathrow, LAX or JFK airports." The threat coincided with another ISIS attack on a soft target: the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where 22 civilians and two police officers were killed by five terrorists.

https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/l-a-skyscraper-shown-exploding-in-new-isis-promise-fulfilled-threat/

>>5202677

Or it's just getting old and predictable, so somewhere less predictable and less ready to handle the impact,or consequences.

DIA: China to Deploy ASAT Laser by 2020

China's military is expected to deploy a laser weapon capable of destroying or damaging U.S. military satellites in low earth orbit in the next year, the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency disclosed in a report on space threats. The Chinese directed energy weapon is among an array of space warfare tools that include ground-based anti-satellite (ASAT) missiles, electronic jammers, cyber attacks, and small satellites Beijing plans to use in attacks on U.S. satellites in a future conflict. "China likely is pursuing laser weapons to disrupt, degrade, or damage sat­ellites and their sensors and possibly already has a limited capability to employ laser systems against satellite sensors," the unclassified intelligence report said. "China likely will field a ground-based laser weapon that can counter low-orbit space-based sensors by 2020, and by the mid-to-late 2020s, it may field higher power systems that extend the threat to the structures of non-optical satellites."

It was the first time a U.S. intelligence agency disclosed details of the ASAT laser deployment plans. China's ASAT laser weapons have been known since at least 2006, when China used a ground based laser to "dazzle" an orbiting U.S. satellite in what was viewed as a test attack. The laser incident came a year before the 2007 Chinese ASAT missile test against an orbiting weather satellite that created a dangerous orbiting debris field. China plans to use high-energy ground-based lasers in a future war to disrupt Global Positioning System satellites that provide pinpoint targeting of U.S. missiles.

In addition to lasers, China has worked on other directed energy arms, including high-powered microwave, radio frequency, railgun, and particle beam weapons. Lasers are regarded as ideal ASAT weapons because their effects can be more easily masked. A high energy laser beam can destroy electro-optical detectors, optical systems, control surfaces, solar panels, and other satellite components. An intense laser strike of 300 watts per square centimeter can melt the surface of satellite optical glass and cause optics to fail. Ground-based lasers are believed to have a range of between 310 miles and 620 miles and require an average power greater than 1,000 watts.

Lower powered lasers are used to interfere or temporarily blind satellite optical sensors, and can also interfere or blind infrared detectors on early warning satellites used to detect missile launches, and the electro-optical transducers on electro-optical reconnaissance satellites. The Pentagon intelligence agency also outlined space threats posed by Russia, North Korea, and Iran that along with China were identified as states that regard attacks against U.S. satellites as warfighting capabilities designed to counter precision targeting of American weapons and their communications and intelligence links. The four enemies also could detonate nuclear weapons in space to destroy satellites and conduct air or missile strikes against satellite ground control stations, the report said. "China and Russia, in particular, have taken steps to challenge the United States," the report said, noting military doctrines of both states' militaries regard satellite attacks "as a means to reduce U.S. and allied military effectiveness."

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/dia-china-to-deploy-asat-laser-by-2020/

>>5202813

>>5202870

Not to mention this is Dianne Feinstien territory..she and her cohorts want the news to be about anyone or anything other than them.

>>5203029

Indeed, some anon posted interesting shoot happening last night in LA.. I wouldn't doubt it for a minute..that and the fact that this is Feinstein territory. Nice narrative change if you can really make people believe it.

>>5203067

Very interesting….indeed.. the reptilian factor brought about.