Certainly it is like P.T. Barnum claimed: "You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time." "but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."
The problem is when enough people are fooled long enough to make unfortunate changes.
That "Fuel Shortage" was only a shortage of cheap fuel, I observed. Plenty of expensive fuel available. Amazing how that worked.

Hi,

Thanks for that amusing quote, I love that one.

Apparently, PT Barnum did not know much about politics. We can use that quote some of the time, but not all of the time, such as in politics

 

Now this is a new twist that I've never heard of before! Some guy had an AI on 10 meters sideband handling calls! Unbelievable! EA8BW in the Canary Islands on 28.345MHz. "My name is Engine how copy my human friend". A distinctly computerized voice that caught my attention. Sounded like he was the using old TI voice chip from their Speak N Spell. It was completely reactive and not just spewing the same recorded message. Responding to callsigns, giving signal reports, using the calling station operators name, making comments, and responding to comments. Even throwing in a few jokes about AI taking over the world. And handling traffic one call after another nonstop! Working quite a pileup! The human operator did come on once to tell the calling stations to use standard call sign formats so the AI could understand who the calling station was and respond. Shame I don't have an amplifier and set of beams or I'd have worked him as well. My 200 watts on a vertical omnidirectional antenna just didn't quite cut the mustard... Although I have worked the Canaries previously...

 

Now this is a new twist that I've never heard of before! Some guy had an AI on 10 meters sideband handling calls! Unbelievable! EA8BW in the Canary Islands on 28.345MHz. "My name is Engine how copy my human friend". A distinctly computerized voice that caught my attention. Sounded like he was the using old TI voice chip from their Speak N Spell. It was completely reactive and not just spewing the same recorded message. Responding to callsigns, giving signal reports, using the calling station operators name, making comments, and responding to comments. Even throwing in a few jokes about AI taking over the world. And handling traffic one call after another nonstop! Working quite a pileup! The human operator did come on once to tell the calling stations to use standard call sign formats so the AI could understand who the calling station was and respond. Shame I don't have an amplifier and set of beams or I'd have worked him as well. My 200 watts on a vertical omnidirectional antenna just didn't quite cut the mustard... Although I have worked the Canaries previously...

Hi,

Wow that's strange, but I guess that follows from the evolution theme we've been seeing.

So the question is, when do we see 'ai' appear on the ballet for governor or president for example. Not joking this time. 'ai' is bleeding into all areas little by little.

If we take this to the limit, the only thing that might stop 'ai' is running out of materials to make more hosts for the software. Also not kidding this time.

 

One good step would be to enact rules that make the users of AI legally responsible for any and all damage that it does. I "kick in the cash-box" will be more likely to get people's attention!. That would be good for a starter. Then, Next, as a public service to all of humanity, make it totally illegal for any AI assisted system to make phone calls at any body, ever. AND, enforce that law diligently!!

 

I don't think it is AI assisted but the latest bulk caller system waits until the called number is actually answered by a person (that may be AI driven?) before switching in the live salesperson to handle the call. We had a phone company supplied filter on our line that said "The person you are calling does not accept any sales calls and to continue press 1" but they upgraded their digital switches at the phone company, and it is not compatible with their new switches. So we're back to being inundated with robo sales calls.

 

One good step would be to enact rules that make the users of AI legally responsible for any and all damage that it does. I "kick in the cash-box" will be more likely to get people's attention!. That would be good for a starter. Then, Next, as a public service to all of humanity, make it totally illegal for any AI assisted system to make phone calls at any body, ever. AND, enforce that law diligently!!

Enforcement... all good laws and intentions always stall at enforcement ...

 

I don't think it is AI assisted but the latest bulk caller system waits until the called number is actually answered by a person (that may be AI driven?) before switching in the live salesperson to handle the call. We had a phone company supplied filter on our line that said "The person you are calling does not accept any sales calls and to continue press 1" but they upgraded their digital switches at the phone company, and it is not compatible with their new switches. So we're back to being inundated with robo sales calls.

The calls that I get are all with criminal intent to defraud! That is obvious because of the spoofed caller IDs that come thru.
So they are not even legitimate businesses. Honest business does not hide it's ID.
As for enforcement, simply cancelling their phone access would be a good start.
And there is NEVER a live person, it is always a computer. Probably not AI.

 

Down here in Mexico, call spoofing is out of control. Is there tech out there to prevent that?

 

There is probably a way to detect a spoofed caller ID, what is needed is a way to discover the actual number.
OR, better yet, a way for the phone service to simply not allow them to make any more calls. Block their internet access totally.

 

We put caller ID on our line years ago because we had some problems with nuisance calls. But spoofed calls are something else entirely. Not only bogus numbers but voice changers as well that can make a gruff old man sound like a sweet young lady. Usually made from a computer with spoofing software. Most commonly it makes the call appear to be coming from a fairly local number in the same area code so calling it back is useless. It could even be coming from another country.

 

I use Truecaller in my phone (mods beware, feel free to remove my reference if you judge it to be against policy) ... it ain't perfect, but it's simplified my life exponentially

 

One good step would be to enact rules that make the users of AI legally responsible for any and all damage that it does. I "kick in the cash-box" will be more likely to get people's attention!. That would be good for a starter. Then, Next, as a public service to all of humanity, make it totally illegal for any AI assisted system to make phone calls at any body, ever. AND, enforce that law diligently!!

The problem there is we rarely see government take the side against the corporations.

 

Certainly that is an issue: " The problem there is we rarely see government take the side against the corporations. "
I do not think that any of those calls come from legal organizations.
Faking identity is primarily done to mask criminal intent,

(The rest of this rant is deleted. )

 

I can say this, the Federal No Call List is a joke. Simply unenforced...

 

I can say this, the Federal No Call List is a joke. Simply unenforced...

Hi,

Oh yes, thanks for the reminder as I meant to say something about that too, but you just said it

 

Yup, another piece of US "feel good" but "do nothing" legislation but let's not get into politics!

 

Enforcement... all good laws and intentions always stall at enforcement ...

Exactly!
The after mentioned "do not call" list is one excellent example.

 

I can say this, the Federal No Call List is a joke. Simply unenforced...

That's not been my experience. Back when the Colorado No Call and the Federal No Call came into being some thirty-odd years ago I was receiving more than two dozen junk calls a night (and who knows how many more during the day) with a peak of just under fifty one day. I signed up for both and the calls stopped; they didn't taper off, they stopped -- I would now go weeks without an unallowed calls (would still get non-profit and political calls, since those were still allowed, but even those were reduced dramatically as many of those organizations voluntarily screen their lists knowing that someone on the no-call list is far less likely to react well to being called). Every time I moved and got a new number, the calls would start immediately (literally the same day that phone service started -- thank you phone company) and would drop to a trickle after I added my new number to the lists. After we moved this last time, and kept the same number, they started up again. Turns out that moving had removed us from the No Call lists even though the number didn't change. So I signed up for the Federal No Call and the calls largely stopped again (I haven't signed up for the Colorado list because I keep forgetting to do so). Now we go for months without any junk calls but then will go through a spate of them, often related. The latest round was people wanting to do a free roof inspection. We got five or six of those a week for about three weeks, then they stopped. Usually when I get a junk call, all I have to do is say, "Are you familiar with the Federal No Call list?" and they do one of two things, just hang up, or apologize and say they will remove my name from their system (whether they do or not seems hit and miss). Sometimes they claim ignorance and I explain it to them. Very occasionally they become belligerent and rude, at which point I hang up.

 

all I have to do is say, "Are you familiar with the Federal No Call list?"

Glad it works for somebody. Yeah, I do that also and, like you, most of the time it works but I'm again (since they removed the filter) getting multiple calls most days. Haven't re-upped on the list but then I haven't moved in over 40 years now and had the same landline number almost 50 years. Same with our cell numbers though but I rarely answer calls on it unless I know who's calling me.

 

Glad it works for somebody. Yeah, I do that also and, like you, most of the time it works but I'm again (since they removed the filter) getting multiple calls most days. Haven't re-upped on the list but then I haven't moved in over 40 years now and had the same landline number almost 50 years. Same with our cell numbers though but I rarely answer calls on it unless I know who's calling me.

You might re-enroll. Originally, registration was only for five years, but they became permanent in 2007. So if you enrolled prior to that, you aren't on the list.

I didn't enroll my cell phone originally (which I got in the 2009 time frame) until I started getting a slew of "car warranty" scam calls. I then enrolled it and I don't know if it stopped them or if that scam just ran its course. I get almost no spam calls on my cell phone. I just checked the log and I got two from the same number on 19 Dec and the one prior to that was back on 09 Oct.

Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of not answering calls just because it's from an unknown or blocked number. I could never forgive myself if my wife or, especially, my daughter were using someone else's phone to call me in an urgent situation and something bad happened to them that I could have done something about had I just answered the phone. As I see it, my obligations to them far exceed whatever inconveniences and frustrations are associated with junk calls. This very scenario occurred about a decade ago when my wife rolled her car twice in a blizzard. Her purse and cell phone when sailing out through where there used to be a windshield, never to be seen again. It was violent enough that the car's battery was ejected through the hood (bent the corner of the hood up, even though the hood itself stayed latched). She called me using the phone of a passing motorist that stopped to help. I answered the phone, even though I expected it to be a junk call. I'm so very glad that I did.