Watching America https://watchingamerica.com/WA Discover What the World Thinks of U.S. Mon, 18 Mar 2024 20:23:20 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Artificial Intelligence Drinks Too Much Water https://watchingamerica.com/WA/2024/03/18/artificial-intelligence-drinks-too-much-water/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=artificial-intelligence-drinks-too-much-water https://watchingamerica.com/WA/2024/03/18/artificial-intelligence-drinks-too-much-water/#respond Mon, 18 Mar 2024 20:23:20 +0000 http://watchingamerica.com/WA/?p=434277 [...]]]>

Energy and water consumption are becoming one of the problems with AI. It is estimated that, between now and 2027, searches powered by artificial intelligence will burn through half the water of a country the size of Great Britain.

After its hunger for energy, artificial intelligence’s thirst for water has exploded, resulting in a lawsuit in Des Moines, Iowa. The address near the small town on Interstate 35 is not just another address; this is where ChatGPT-4 was literally “born”: The most advanced version emerging from OpenAI’s generative algorithm was trained right here, where Microsoft has amassed several of its data centers to take advantage of water from the Raccoon River. Records from the case reveal that AI consumes the same amount of water as 30,000 houses. This is not insignificant, given that Des Moines has 60,000 inhabitants. Neither is Kate Crawford, the person who revealed in the journal Nature how energy and water consumption are becoming AI’s Achille’s heel, just another name.

While there was already some suspicion, fed in part by Big Tech’s reluctance to give exact figures, Crawford’s word is proof: The professor, former director of research at the AI Now Institute at New York University, is, in fact, also a principal researcher at Microsoft Research. In other words, her research is also funded in part by OpenAI’s main backer.

It is estimated that, between now and 2027, searches using AI will burn through half the water of a country the size of Great Britain. Even today, for every 10-50 searches, ChatGPT guzzles one pint of water. Is there nothing we can do? Maybe there is: Why don’t we begin by trying to avoid asking AI useless, not to mention stupid, questions.

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Life without TikTok Is Possible https://watchingamerica.com/WA/2024/03/18/life-without-tiktok-is-possible/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=life-without-tiktok-is-possible https://watchingamerica.com/WA/2024/03/18/life-without-tiktok-is-possible/#respond Mon, 18 Mar 2024 15:15:55 +0000 http://watchingamerica.com/WA/?p=434245 [...]]]>

The U.S. wants to ban TikTok because it fears large-scale data espionage. It’s the right call. The U.S. should ban the social network as long as Beijing has access to it.

The United States has a habit of using national security interests to justify crude protectionism. Some free trade advocates will vividly remember an attempt by Republican senators to stop importing Chinese garlic for precisely this reason. Import taxes and quotas for steel and aluminum, even from allied Europe, are a real and costly frustration.

Why import restrictions on solar panels serve national security remains a mystery known only to politicians.

But things look different with TikTok. No one should trust that Beijing’s state apparatus is keeping its hands off the powerful social media platform that has 1 billion users worldwide.

The idea that the Chinese Communist Party is taking control of TikTok algorithms to push content it prefers and to mislead especially young users is simply unbearable. Life without TikTok is possible. India is proof of that. After India banned the platform, less threatening media stepped in to fill the gap.

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‘Paris Is Well Worth a Mass’ https://watchingamerica.com/WA/2024/03/17/paris-is-well-worth-a-mass/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=paris-is-well-worth-a-mass https://watchingamerica.com/WA/2024/03/17/paris-is-well-worth-a-mass/#respond Sun, 17 Mar 2024 15:48:20 +0000 http://watchingamerica.com/WA/?p=434242 [...]]]>

It will be important to see what Biden does to overcome perceptions of weakness and old age; more interesting will be the challenge facing Trump

The U.S. Super Tuesday, when Democratic or Republican activists in 15 or 16 states — depending on the count — vote or make public their preferences for this or that candidate, had a predictable but also surprising result.

Predictable because both President Joe Biden, for the Democrats, and former President Donald Trump, for the Republicans, literally swept the process.

But in the game of expectations, serious weaknesses were revealed, especially in Trump’s case. And one fact: His problem will be less about winning votes than how to avoid losing them.

True: Biden only lost one primary, in American Samoa, a Pacific territory where he competed with a local politician named Jason Palmer and lost by 51% to 40%.

What is serious, though, is the number of votes, especially from leftist and Arab-American groups who abandoned him because of his support for Israel’s invasion of Gaza to persecute the Palestinian group Hamas. An estimated 100,000 Democrats, especially in Michigan, abstained from voting*.

Otherwise, it was just him all the way, accompanied by concerns about his age, health and political weaknesses.

Trump won everything except Vermont, where he was defeated by Nikki Haley, who dropped out of the race on Wednesday. But in doing so, the former governor and former ambassador made Trump’s problems visible.

According to one estimate, just over 2.2 million Republican activists have participated in the primaries so far. But while Trump won almost everything with more than 1.5 million votes, his rival got more than 700,000 votes, which implies that a third of Republicans did not vote for him and, in some cases, never will.

Apart from that, he also faces problems because of the Republican positions on abortion, his legal situation, his stance on minorities and his money problems.

For both, virtually certain candidates, the unity of their party is important, but they do not have it.

That loyalty is of the utmost importance. One need only recall Biden’s margins of victory over Trump four years ago — Arizona by 10,457 votes, Georgia by 12,670, Nevada by 33,500 and Wisconsin by 28,882.

What is certain is that the two candidates must now begin efforts not only to consolidate their bases but also to start to win over the voters who consider themselves independent and are the force that will give the victory to one or the other.

It will be important to see what Biden does to overcome perceptions of weakness, old age and decision-making; more interesting, perhaps, will be the challenge Trump faces: moderating his rhetoric, overcoming his image as a cheat and fraudster, marginalizing his current legal problems and fundraising.

Making adjustments will have costs for both. But after all, as Huguenot King Henry III of Navarre said in 1593 when he converted to Catholicism to become Henry IV of France: “Paris is well worth a mass.”

*Editor’s Note: In the Feb. 27 Michigan primary, 100,000 people voted “uncommitted” rather than for Joe Biden. They did not abstain from voting.

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US Intends To Have Denuclearization Dialogue with North Korea, South Korea Must Prepare https://watchingamerica.com/WA/2024/03/17/us-intends-to-have-denuclearization-dialogue-with-north-korea-south-korea-must-prepare/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=us-intends-to-have-denuclearization-dialogue-with-north-korea-south-korea-must-prepare https://watchingamerica.com/WA/2024/03/17/us-intends-to-have-denuclearization-dialogue-with-north-korea-south-korea-must-prepare/#respond Sun, 17 Mar 2024 14:59:21 +0000 http://watchingamerica.com/WA/?p=434121 [...]]]>

A White House national security officer has said, “[W]e are … going to consider interim steps on that pathway to denuclearization, provided that these steps will make the region and the world safer.” Mira Rapp-Hooper, the special assistant and senior director for East Asia and Oceania at the White House National Security Council, said at the JoongAng Ilbo- Center for Strategic and International Studies Forum four days ago, “The United States remains committed to the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,” and “We are ready and willing to engage in discussions with the DPRK about threat reduction, especially currently in light of the situation on the Korean peninsula … the United States will continue to work closely with our ROK allies and with the wide variety of other partners to pursue greater and more regularized communications with the DPRK, particularly on military deconfliction and de-escalation activities, and other stabilizing exchanges that could reduce the risk of misperception and inadvertent escalation on the peninsula.” This reflects the possibility of phased negotiations in which the U.S. will take appropriate steps to freeze or reduce North Korea’s nuclear weapons before complete denuclearization.

When the U.S. negotiated with North Korea in the past, it established a system of taking intermediary steps, and considering that dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea will likely continue in this manner in the future, Rapp-Hooper’s statement is not surprising. It is unlikely that conversations with North Korea will be in full swing before the U.S. presidential election in November. In this regard, the remarks seemed to have originated from an intent to reduce rising tensions throughout the Korean peninsula, which have been heightened recently due to the intense confrontation between North and South Korea. Nevertheless, notably, this is the first time a White House official from the Joe Biden administration has spoken on the issue. No matter who the next president will be, the U.S. is feeling the need to negotiate with North Korea, and the core of that dialogue is how to realize the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and peacebuilding.

Having already declared its nuclear armamentation, North Korea it has begun to restore relations not only with friendly nations such as Russia and China but also with Japan and Germany. Recently, the United Nation’s resident coordinator in North Korea, who was evacuated after the COVID-19 pandemic, has agreed to return to Pyongyang. There is a calculation behind North Korea’s actions to shed its isolationism and make its status as a nuclear power an indisputable fact. The more time passes, the more the international community’s sanctions on North Korea are slowly being relaxed. The longer the intervention of the U.S and South Korea continues, something that North Korea is closing the door of dialogue on, the more North Korea can solidify its status as a nuclear power.

I hope that the U.S. and North Korea will engage in substantial denuclearization talks as soon as possible as the National Security Council official stated. Yoon Suk-yeol’s government must also make thorough preparations. If we remain complacent in believing that ‘North Korea cannot go to Tokyo or Washington without passing through Seoul,” as Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho said, it may get serious. All foreign affairs and security ministries must consider how to achieve denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and take the initiative in communicating with the countries that are affected.

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The World Would Be Better without TikTok—But Is That a Reason To Ban It? https://watchingamerica.com/WA/2024/03/16/the-world-would-be-better-without-tiktok-but-is-that-a-reason-to-ban-it/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-world-would-be-better-without-tiktok-but-is-that-a-reason-to-ban-it https://watchingamerica.com/WA/2024/03/16/the-world-would-be-better-without-tiktok-but-is-that-a-reason-to-ban-it/#respond Sat, 16 Mar 2024 23:02:34 +0000 http://watchingamerica.com/WA/?p=434247 [...]]]>

The U.S. is threatening to ban the videoclip platform. It’s an idea that even a liberal can agree with.

Do you have teenage children or grandchildren? If so, read the headlines about TikTok that are coming out of the U.S., and not just with the eye of a political observer. Congress is debating a ban of the videoclip app. It belongs to a Chinese corporation but has become one of the most beloved social media platforms among young people in the West, too.

TikTok’s algorithm is perfidiously genius: it makes consuming videos addictive. The app does it by immediately delivering the next film after one clip, then another, and another. Young people end up staring passively at their cell phones for hours. Among adults, TikTok has made us dumber than any other platform in human history. Those who fall victim to it miss out on life. TikTok is not of use to anyone except to the few influencers who use it to make money.

Of course, that’s not the reason why the U.S. is considering a ban. It has security concerns that the Chinese are using the app to spy on and influence Americans. There is no evidence for this.

But there is plenty of evidence from daily life that TikTok is harming an entire generation. Liberals aware of TikTok’s diabolism who find themselves thinking, “ban it!” don’t need to worry. Bans for protecting youth are by all means liberal. After all, drugs aren’t allowed, either. The world would be better without TikTok.

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Will It Be Biden or Trump? https://watchingamerica.com/WA/2024/03/16/will-it-be-biden-or-trump/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=will-it-be-biden-or-trump https://watchingamerica.com/WA/2024/03/16/will-it-be-biden-or-trump/#respond Sat, 16 Mar 2024 19:36:07 +0000 http://watchingamerica.com/WA/?p=434258 [...]]]>

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The Pope’s White Flag Was Pitiful, but Just How Will the War in Ukraine End? https://watchingamerica.com/WA/2024/03/16/the-popes-white-flag-was-pitiful-but-just-how-will-the-war-in-ukraine-end/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-popes-white-flag-was-pitiful-but-just-how-will-the-war-in-ukraine-end https://watchingamerica.com/WA/2024/03/16/the-popes-white-flag-was-pitiful-but-just-how-will-the-war-in-ukraine-end/#respond Sat, 16 Mar 2024 19:31:21 +0000 http://watchingamerica.com/WA/?p=434256 [...]]]>

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The Main Narrative Will Be Confrontation with Russia* https://watchingamerica.com/WA/2024/03/16/the-main-narrative-will-be-confrontation-with-russia/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-main-narrative-will-be-confrontation-with-russia https://watchingamerica.com/WA/2024/03/16/the-main-narrative-will-be-confrontation-with-russia/#respond Sat, 16 Mar 2024 15:01:26 +0000 http://watchingamerica.com/WA/?p=434228 [...]]]>

*Editor’s note: On March 4, 2022, Russia enacted a law that criminalizes public opposition to, or independent news reporting about, the war in Ukraine. The law makes it a crime to call the war a “war” rather than a “special military operation” on social media or in a news article or broadcast. The law is understood to penalize any language that “discredits” Russia’s use of its military in Ukraine, calls for sanctions or protests Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It punishes anyone found to spread “false information” about the invasion with up to 15 years in prison.

Joe Biden’s State of the Union address at the Capitol generated the largest influx of donations so far to his campaign fund, according to Axios, citing a member of the White House campaign headquarters. But Axios’ source didn’t say exactly how much money the speech raised. Biden delivered his annual State of the Union address on March 7 but, , as the media reported, this time the American leader focused on foreign policy unlike prior State of the Union speeches. The Republicans called the address an election campaign speech; newspapers reported that the president managed to change voter opinion about him and that his passionate presentation managed to shake off the “sleepy Joe” internet meme. Kommersant’s columnist Mikhail Gurevich listened to the speech by the leader of the White House and came to interesting conclusions.

Usually, the president’s State of the Union address to Congress has two parts. First, the president speaks about domestic problems and only then mentions foreign policy challenges. This time everything was different. Not only was the sequence of topics a surprise, but so was Biden’s demeanor. The unexpectedly flexible and even aggressive leader reacted aggressively to shouts from the audience, making jokes and commenting ironically to the heckling.

Commentators called the address one of the most political in U.S. history. Biden did not hold back on accusations leveled at Russia, terrorists and especially Republicans. He accused the Republican Party of undermining important initiatives and recalled the events of January three years ago, when pro-rump protesters broke into the Capitol building.

By the way, Biden never mentioned Donald Trump by name during the hour-long address. The former president, who is also his current campaign rival, appeared as his “predecessor,” who had never done a good thing in the past but could inflict a great deal of harm if Americans once again put their trust in old ideas. “My fellow Americans, the issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are; it’s how old are our ideas. Hate, anger, revenge, retribution are the oldest of ideas,” Biden said.

Although the speech contained more than enough angry notes, Biden defied tradition and began his remarks not with the state of the union, but with the situation in Europe and Ukraine. Biden compared himself to Franklin D. Roosevelt, who formulated the four main U.S. values in his address to Congress in January 1941: freedom of speech and of worship, as well as freedom from want and from fear. Biden said these values are once more threatened today, so Americans need to bolster NATO and support Kyiv. Concluding that part of his speech, the American leader directly addressed the Russian president, saying, “We will not walk away. We will not bow down. I will not bow down.”

As Biden concluded, we could safely assume that his message will form the foundation of the Democratic election campaign.

So it turns out that the main narrative will be the confrontation with Russia and support for Ukraine. In turn, the Democrats will charge the Republicans with mutinying against the democratic system, along with a host of domestic policy challenges, including women’s right to abortion, employment issues, the battle against inflation, the environment, social welfare health care, equal rights for transgender people, and, finally, the problem of immigration, including the reinforcements of the southern border with Mexico. And only afterward — supporting peace in the Middle East and the economic struggle against China.

It’s hard to say how such an agenda will satisfy Americans, since the Republicans, led by Trump, will also be fighting for their votes. The former president, naturally, was absent from the Capitol, but you could easily understand his reaction if you watched the face of House Speaker Mike Johnson. Johnson sat with Vice President Kamala Harris behind Biden, quite plainly grimacing throughout the speech. He rolled his eyes, pursed his lips, and looked bored with the Democrats, who regularly rose to applaud and shout “Four more years!”

Johnson and his boss obviously have different plans for the next four years.

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Free Speech Is Dying Whether or Not the US Bans TikTok https://watchingamerica.com/WA/2024/03/15/free-speech-is-dying-whether-or-not-the-us-bans-tiktok/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=free-speech-is-dying-whether-or-not-the-us-bans-tiktok https://watchingamerica.com/WA/2024/03/15/free-speech-is-dying-whether-or-not-the-us-bans-tiktok/#respond Fri, 15 Mar 2024 20:30:14 +0000 http://watchingamerica.com/WA/?p=434239 [...]]]>

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Israel Can’t Afford To Let Hamas Win, No Matter What Joe Biden Says https://watchingamerica.com/WA/2024/03/15/israel-cant-afford-to-let-hamas-win-no-matter-what-joe-biden-says/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=israel-cant-afford-to-let-hamas-win-no-matter-what-joe-biden-says https://watchingamerica.com/WA/2024/03/15/israel-cant-afford-to-let-hamas-win-no-matter-what-joe-biden-says/#respond Fri, 15 Mar 2024 20:27:21 +0000 http://watchingamerica.com/WA/?p=434237 [...]]]>

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