Hacker News with Generative AI: Intelligence

Son of CIA deputy director was killed while fighting for Russia, report says (theguardian.com)
An American man identified as the son of a deputy director of the CIA was killed in eastern Ukraine in 2024 while fighting under contract for the Russian military, according to an investigation by independent Russian media.
War, Russia, Ukraine, Intelligence, Military
17 points by n1b0m 10 hours ago | 10 comments
Smart People Can Stop Being Miserable (theatlantic.com)
Intelligence can make you happier, but only if you see it as more than a tool to get ahead.
Happiness, Intelligence, Psychology
28 points by handfuloflight 6 days ago | 8 comments
Germany suspects Russian cyber attack on research group (dw.com)
German intelligence services have said they are investigating a suspected Russian cyberattack against a Berlin-based research network.
Cybersecurity, Russia, Germany, Intelligence
9 points by _tk_ 13 days ago | 0 comments
Generative AI is learning to spy for the US military (technologyreview.com)
In a test run, a unit of Marines in the Pacific used generative AI not just to collect intelligence but to interpret it. Routine intel work is only the start.
Generative AI, Military, Artificial Intelligence, Intelligence
9 points by gnabgib 15 days ago | 1 comments
Intelligence Evolved at Least Twice in Vertebrate Animals (quantamagazine.org)
Humans tend to put our own intelligence on a pedestal. Our brains can do math, employ logic, explore abstractions and think critically. But we can’t claim a monopoly on thought. Among a variety of nonhuman species known to display intelligent behavior, birds have been shown time and again to have advanced cognitive abilities.
Intelligence, Evolution, Animals, Cognition, Birds
247 points by rbanffy 18 days ago | 184 comments
Head of NSA and Cybercommand Is Ousted (nytimes.com)
The head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command was removed from his job on Thursday, according to the top Democrats on the congressional intelligence committees.
National Security, Cybersecurity, Government, Intelligence, Leadership
112 points by pmags 22 days ago | 82 comments
Limits of Smart: Molecules and Chaos (dynomight.substack.com)
Take me. Now take someone with the combined talents of Von Neumann, Archimedes, Ramanujan, and Mozart. Now take someone smarter again by the same margin and repeat that a few times.
Intelligence, Science, Philosophy, Math, Music
18 points by crescit_eundo 30 days ago | 6 comments
Ex-US Attorney Jessica Aber Investigated Russia, CIA Leaker Before Death (newsweek.com)
Former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Jessica Aber, who was found dead at the age of 43 by Virginia authorities on Saturday, was at the helm of high-profile investigations into intelligence leaks, allegations of war crimes against Russian-linked individuals and people suspected of providing sensitive U.S. technology to Moscow before she stepped down at the start of the year.
Law Enforcement, Intelligence, Russia, Espionage, Death
34 points by doener 33 days ago | 2 comments
Ex-US Attorney Jessica Aber Investigated Russia, CIA Leaker Before Death (newsweek.com)
Former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Jessica Aber, who was found dead at the age of 43 by Virginia authorities on Saturday, was at the helm of high-profile investigations into intelligence leaks, allegations of war crimes against Russian-linked individuals and people suspected of providing sensitive U.S. technology to Moscow before she stepped down at the start of the year.
Law Enforcement, Russia, Intelligence, Death
8 points by throwaway5752 34 days ago | 1 comments
German Intelligence Agency Concluded COVID19 Likely Originated from Lab Accident (dw.com)
Germany's spy agency thinks an accident in a Chinese lab likely led to the COVID-19 pandemic, media say. Evidence it collected allegedly indicates negligence at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Germany, COVID-19, Intelligence, Science, China
7 points by _tk_ 45 days ago | 1 comments
CIA Begins Firing Recently Hired Officers (nytimes.com)
The government cuts ordered by the Trump administration have hit the C.I.A.
Government, Politics, Employment, Intelligence
9 points by belter 51 days ago | 1 comments
CIA director says US has paused sharing intelligence with Ukraine (techcrunch.com)
CIA director John Ratcliffe has confirmed the Trump administration has paused its intelligence sharing operation with Ukraine, following a heated exchange between the two countries’ leaders on Friday.
Politics, Intelligence, International Relations, Ukraine, United States
12 points by josefresco 52 days ago | 1 comments
CIA Director Says U.S. Has Paused Intelligence Sharing with Ukraine (nytimes.com)
The C.I.A. director John Ratcliffe said on Wednesday that intelligence sharing with Ukraine had been paused alongside military aid to pressure its government to cooperate with the Trump administration’s plans to end the country’s war with Russia.
Politics, International Relations, Ukraine, Russia, Intelligence
25 points by doener 52 days ago | 21 comments
A CIA informant stopped Taiwan from developing nuclear weapons (cnn.com)
Taiwan, Nuclear Weapons, Intelligence, History, Cold War
16 points by cwwc 54 days ago | 12 comments
Elon Musk and Spiky Intelligence (natesilver.net)
Like a lot of successful people, he’s world-class in some dimensions of intelligence but deficient in others.
Elon Musk, Intelligence, Success, Human Behavior
5 points by doener 55 days ago | 3 comments
White House official pushes to axe Canada from Five Eyes intelligence group (ft.com)
International Relations, Intelligence, Canada, United States, Politics
18 points by anigbrowl 57 days ago | 5 comments
Elon Musk and Spiky Intelligence (natesilver.net)
Like a lot of successful people, he’s world-class in some dimensions of intelligence but deficient in others.
Elon Musk, Intelligence, Success, Personalities
18 points by robinhouston 59 days ago | 10 comments
Agency > Intelligence (twitter.com)
Something went wrong, but don’t fret — let’s give it another shot.
Agency, Intelligence, Twitter
6 points by tosh 60 days ago | 1 comments
White House official pushes to axe Canada from Five Eyes intelligence group (ft.com)
Politics, International Relations, Intelligence, Canada, United States
20 points by r721 60 days ago | 16 comments
(ODNI) the Games They Play: Russian Strategic Political Deceptions (2008) [pdf] (governmentattic.org)
Politics, Russia, Intelligence, Espionage, Government Documents
5 points by sans_souse 60 days ago | 1 comments
US asked to kick UK out of Five Eyes (computerweekly.com)
An unprecedented letter from the US Congress, released today, accuses the UK of “a foreign cyber attack waged through political means”.
Politics, International Relations, Cybersecurity, Intelligence, Five Eyes
49 points by dmitrygr 60 days ago | 40 comments
Studies correlating IQ to genius are mostly bad science (theseedsofscience.pub)
Stratospheric IQs are about as real as leprechauns, unicorns, mermaids—they’re fun to tell tales about, but the evidence for them being a repeatedly measurable phenomenon that matters in any meaningful sense of the word is zip, zero, zilch.
Intelligence, Science, Psychology
113 points by paulpauper 62 days ago | 155 comments
How to Understand Things (bigthink.com)
True intelligence isn’t just about raw ability — it’s about the discipline to investigate things creatively and directly rather than settling for shallow explanations.
Intelligence, Learning, Curiosity, Knowledge
4 points by galaxyLogic 65 days ago | 0 comments
Elon Musk's DOGE Posts Classified Data on Its New Website (huffpost.com)
Elon Musk’s team at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency has posted classified information about the size and staff of a U.S. intelligence agency on its new website, raising bigger concerns about where Musk’s programmers got this information and what they are doing with it.
Elon Musk, Government, Security, Privacy, Intelligence
94 points by f38zf5vdt 71 days ago | 33 comments
The 'Mosaic' Method and the Value of CIA Names to U.S. Adversaries (lawfaremedia.org)
CIA, Intelligence, Espionage, National Security, Methodology
19 points by hn_acker 75 days ago | 3 comments
NSA employees offered deferred resignation, early retirement (therecord.media)
The National Security Agency is the latest intelligence community entity to offer its workforce the ability to leave their jobs in exchange for a paycheck for several months, according to two sources familiar with the move.
Government, Intelligence, Retirement
17 points by namenumber 79 days ago | 7 comments
CIA Sends White House an Unclassified Email With Names of Employees (nytimes.com)
The C.I.A. sent the White House an unclassified email listing all employees hired by the spy agency over the last two years to comply with an executive order to shrink the federal work force, in a move that former officials say risked the list leaking to adversaries.
Politics, National Security, Government, Intelligence
14 points by jbegley 80 days ago | 2 comments
A Spy Satellite You've Never Heard of Helped Win the Cold War (ieee.org)
In the early 1970s, the Cold War had reached a particularly frigid moment, and U.S. military and intelligence officials had a problem.
Cold War, Military, Space, Intelligence
71 points by Brajeshwar 94 days ago | 17 comments
IQ is largely a pseudoscientific swindle (2019) (medium.com)
“IQ” is a stale test meant to measure mental capacity but in fact mostly measures extreme unintelligence (learning difficulties), as well as, to a lesser extent (with a lot of noise), a form of intelligence, stripped of 2nd order effects — how good someone is at taking some type of exams designed by unsophisticated nerds.
Intelligence, Pseudoscience, Education, Testing
4 points by doener 96 days ago | 0 comments
Genetics, not shared envs, drives parent-child similarities in intelligence (psypost.org)
How much of your cognitive ability is shaped by your genetic inheritance compared to the environment you grow up in? A new study published in Research in Social Stratification and Mobility suggests that the transmission of cognitive ability from parents to children is primarily driven by genetics, with little influence from shared environmental factors like family resources. The findings challenge traditional assumptions in social mobility research that often attribute these correlations primarily to socio-economic status.
Genetics, Intelligence, Family, Social Mobility, Research
42 points by amichail 100 days ago | 16 comments