Exploiting/Radicalizing Youth (merged thread)

[brihard]

use of AI to create the games and the characters personalities that are in them. It also identifies the vulnerable and is available 24/7 to talk with them. It is possible, in some cases, that the perpetrator is live on line but that would only be after the candidate has been hooked by the electronics.

No, this is incorrect. This isn’t getting fed by AI. While the inroad is indeed through gaming - Roblox in particular, as well as Minecraft, but some others - it’s mostly kids preying on kids in the initial stages.

Even in this case, the teen in jail didn't come up with these thoughts on his own; they were planted and nurtured. In some respects he is as much a victim as the children he assaulted and no, I don't have any sympathy for him or his parents who should have been watching.

They’re identified, hooked, and groomed by other real people, yes. Mostly they operate on discord servers and semi or fully private telegram chats. Absolutely in many cases there’s a path to offending that starts with being victims themselves.

There are ‘handbooks’ that these groups publish for others to see and read and follow- basically guides to victimize others. It’s sick shit. The pst year has, at least, seen a ton of success in picking them off and taking many of the known players down. A lot of the less serious ones have quietly faded out rather than having the FBI kick in their door. But that just leaves room for some of the more serious up and comers to fill in. This stuff is far from over.

 

[YZT580]

No, this is incorrect. This isn’t getting fed by AI. While the inroad is indeed through gaming - Roblox in particular, as well as Minecraft, but some others - it’s mostly kids preying on kids in the initial stages.



They’re identified, hooked, and groomed by other real people, yes. Mostly they operate on discord servers and semi or fully private telegram chats. Absolutely in many cases there’s a path to offending that starts with being victims themselves.

There are ‘handbooks’ that these groups publish for others to see and read and follow- basically guides to victimize others. It’s sick shit. The pst year has, at least, seen a ton of success in picking them off and taking many of the known players down. A lot of the less serious ones have quietly faded out rather than having the FBI kick in their door. But that just leaves room for some of the more serious up and comers to fill in. This stuff is far from over.

If you really believe that kids are thinking up this stuff then I have a deal for you on waterfront in Florida. There are some very sick minds that are taking advantage of modern technology to first of all assess the actions/reactions of susceptible candidates and that is one use for the AI. Next step is to customize a candidate programme for those kids and then monitor their behaviour and modify as required. All of that is the application of computer power and wasn't possible or practical until the software was created. And you are correct in your last statements. It is far from over and it is the pros that are taking over.

 

[brihard]

If you really believe that kids are thinking up this stuff then I have a deal for you on waterfront in Florida. There are some very sick minds that are taking advantage of modern technology to first of all assess the actions/reactions of susceptible candidates and that is one use for the AI. Next step is to customize a candidate programme for those kids and then monitor their behaviour and modify as required. All of that is the application of computer power and wasn't possible or practical until the software was created. And you are correct in your last statements. It is far from over and it is the pros that are taking over.

From firsthand experience in investigating some of this stuff and talking with people who know the subject matter inside and out, yes, I’m confident in what I’ve described and that this started organically and was not spawned by AI. Not all of the kids are 13 or 14, though a concerning number are. Others are late teens, or early 20s, and there are a smattering of much older adults too. If you want to read up on where this has emerged from, look up Bradley Cadenhead- he was 15 when he basically kicked this all off, although was inspired but other ugly shit that’s been around longer such as neo-Satanism of the ‘order of Nine Angles’ bent. In the past couple years a slew of them have been arrested and their devices forensically examined. There’s also been a ton of capture of their chat contents.

Mark-Andre Argentino has published a lot of very accessible and digestible material on all this in the last few years; I believe his website is called From The Depths if you want to read up further. Pretty sure one or more of his articles are among those I posted upthread.

As unbelievable as it is - and as much as I wish it wasn’t kids originating this and doing it to each other - that’s the bleak reality of this small subset of terminally and unsupervised teenagers. Though many start getting preyed upon much earlier than their teen years.