AI to Monitor Foreign Press for Threats

jefu writes "According to the New York Times, the US Department of Homeland Security is funding AI tools to monitor the foreign press in order to detect threats to the United States. While the article says there are restrictions on doing this kind of monitoring within the US, there are no restrictions on media outside the US. (No hint is given as to how this would apply to syndicated articles written in the US and published abroad.) This is as yet experimental."

Comments

Obligatory

[paranode]

And so, SkyNet became self-aware and bombed al Jazeera and the New York Times.

Re:Obligatory

[tbone1]

And so, SkyNet became self-aware and bombed al Jazeera and the New York Times.

Throw in Sam Donaldson and I'll hold its coat and applaud.

We keep adjusting it, Sir

[ackthpt]

According to the New York Times, the US Department of Homeland Security is funding AI tools to monitor the foreign press in order to detect threats to the United States.

"We keep it, Sir, but it still comes up with the number one threat to the US is Donald Rumsfeld."

Legality?

[tbone1]

So let me get this straight: It's illegal to do, basically, a 'grep -i "Kill the infidel"' on newspaper articles that are freely available to every Tom, Dick, and Achmed around the world?

Remember, when grep is outlawed, only outlaws will have grep

Re:Legality?

[joe 155]

Firstly, the serious; how often have you known a government organisation (who would be the ones most interested in this) to obey the law when it comes to "saving the children from the evil terrorists"... if they weren't so close to the RIAA they could claim fair use anyway.

Secondly; Remember, when grep is outlawed, only outlaws will have grep

First they came for grep, but I did not speak out because I didn't use grep
Then they came for egrep, but I did not speak out because I never look at extended regular expressions
Then they came for fgrep, and there was no one left to speak out for me!... or the set of newline-separated strings

Re:Legality?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like a lot more people need to get a grep than already are.

Who?

[venicebeach]

Who is this Al fellow and why is slashdot following his career moves?

Re:What about real terrorist threats?

[thebdj]

No...all those foreign papers have them...you know the personals for terrorists...

SMET seeking like minded individuals for cave expeditions, vigorous exercise, and praying to Allah. Enjoys long nights plotting together and holding hostages.

For those who missed it, Single Middle Eastern Terrorist (SMET).

Re:So, who is NOT for this?

[Instine]

Server 986762 has red flaggged the following sir. It's a little old but I think it may be highly relevent: Top Secret Report

CIA v. Homeland Security

[geoff lane]

Isn't that exactly what the CIA was set up to do?

I wonder if they are doing anything more than searching Google News each morning.

Damn sans-serif fonts...

[geobeck]

The first thing I thought on reading this headline was "Who the hell is Al? You mean the sidekick from Home Improvement?"

I guess he would occupy the flannel office.