Number 4. Reuters. Rogue communication devices found in Chinese solar power inverters.
The combination of US-subsidized wind and solar power with Chinese-sourced technology is a match made for an international terrorist plot. Green initiatives have exploded in the last 15 years, and at last it seems that some Americans are waking up to the threat.
Something most of us have never considered is that wind generators and large-array solar energy collectors need centralized digital control mechanisms. Part of that system is the power inverter, which changes the DC power generated by the collector device into AC power suitable for use in the conventional electric grid.
You can get a small inexpensive power inverter for your car, plug it into the cigarette lighter outlet and use it to charge up your laptop or run a TV for the kids. Handy for the road trip.
A more hefty device is required for commercial power collector systems. The inverter comes as a single component with internal circuitry and is designed around certain specifications. A lot of inverters are required to supply the growing green energy industry, and there is a robust field of manufacturers competing to sell their products.
Nobody who buys inverters reverse engineers the devices to see what’s under the hood. So what, exactly, might lurk therein?
Many of these devices include sophisticated features allowing a central operator, such as the electric utility, to control the flow of electricity into their grid. This is a legitimate routine to balance power generation and availability to customers, and requires that the inverter be remotely accessible.
What is blindingly obvious has now been acknowledged by many electric utilities: If I can access the control circuitry remotely across a web interface, someone who built the circuitry can leave a back door open so that someone else can hack it.
Utilities are discovering that some Chinese manufacturers have deliberately left such back doors wide open. This allows an operator half-way around the globe — and who is likely acting on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party — to shut down portions of electric grids supplied by wind and solar.
Huawei supplies 29% of the international inverter market. About 10% of Europe’s electric grid is dependent on solar and wind; an unknown — and unknowable — portion of that power is now susceptible to Chinese control.
In November 2024, says the article, commercial inverters across the US and elsewhere were suddenly disabled on command from China. There is no detail in this article as to what the effects were, or how long the interruption lasted. Neither has there been any comment from the US Department of Energy.
To a conspiracy-minded writer, this has the feel of a trial run.
So, enjoy your electric grid! This country, and every other country on the planet, relies on constant, dependable and affordable electricity. We may not like it, but there it is.
Earlier this week the power went off at our house during a thunderstorm. It was off for about 3 hours in the middle of the night.
No problem at all. I was just glad the computer and the coffee pot came on in time to write The Alligator News Roundup.
Number 3. Daily Mail. Trump launches crackdown on China for stealing DNA of American babies.
This one is a little confusing because the writer leaves some gaps in the storyline, but basically there is concern that Chinese manufacturers — read, the CCP — may be collecting personal DNA profiles on American infants. The reason for this is not clear, but if China wants a sample of your baby’s DNA, you should probably assume it will not be a long-term benefit to your child.
Also not clear in the article, perhaps because the writer is delicately skirting an unpolite issue, is how exactly China is gaining access to American infant DNA. It apparently has to do with stool samples, acquired — somehow — by Chinese baby formula manufacturers. Presumably, the reason they want the sample is to determine the effect of their baby formula on the child’s health… although how the DNA would be useful remains a mystery.
I thought DNA was DNA, whether you have an ear infection or not. But what do I know?
The matter of China acquiring US infant DNA samples is made more troubling because of the interconnectedness of various laboratories in the US and other parts of the world. If a US firm shares data with a European facility, that data can eventually make its way to a lab located in China.
The article makes clear that a condition of any company doing business in China is that they submit to the CCP’s intelligence regulations. Those regulations require “full cooperation” with Chinese surveillance procedures.
Maybe the worst outcome of Americans purchasing baby formula of unknown origin is not the ingredients the baby swallows; maybe the worst part is the highly personal and highly targetable data the baby surrenders.
This is one more rich field for US Health & Human Services to investigate and chase down.
Number 2. The Auto Wire. EPA Chief: Auto Start/Stop Technology is Done.
That incredibly annoying propensity for the car’s engine to kill itself at a red traffic light may soon be coming to an end. Lee Zeldin, the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency, has announced plans to curtail the spread of such devices.
While hailed as a fuel-saving feature of newer vehicles, it is pretty clear that it puts more stress on your car’s starter, which no doubt has a shelf life. So why do manufacturers install it?
It appears that Lee Zeldin has discovered the answer: Fuel economy credits.
The auto-die feature is not subject to a federal requirement to provide it, but there is a federal incentive that promotes it. For automobile fleets that can boast lower overall fuel efficiency — whether theoretical or real — the manufacturer receives fuel economy credits.
The fuel economy credits are worth real money to auto manufacturers, because of a 1975 federal law that established now-famous CAFE standards: Corporate Average Fuel Economy.
If a car fleet’s CAFE rating falls below an EPA mandated level, the manufacturer faces fines that regularly run into multi-millions of dollars per year. They can use fuel economy credits to buy down their fine.
If you’d like to dig deeper into how the fines are calculated and relieved, it makes fascinating reading. The University of North Carolina has made available a publication from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that explains it in gory detail.
It reads like a mind-warped parody of an emotionally disturbed bureaucrat racing to create a system that no one needs for a document that no one reads. Except that ignoring it comes with federal penalties and the force of law.
Besides the already-mentioned stress of the die-at-the-light feature on the starter and other engine-related components, there is this possibility: While you are waiting the 1 or 2 seconds for your engine to roar back to life when you take your foot off the brake, the drivers behind you at the traffic light may miss their chance to make it through the intersection. That means more cars waiting longer in traffic, which uses up more gas.
I suppose as long as they are using the gas efficiently, it does not reduce the fuel economy reward; in fact, waiting longer at a red light might even INCREASE the fuel economy reward.
It would be easy to ridicule the idiocy of unintended consequences, but this may not be idiocy. This may be more like the exercise of control. Just because we can.
It is time for Mr. Zeldin to put a stop to it.
Number 1. Futurism. Professors Staffed a Fake Company Entirely with AI Agents.
And this delightful story of just how far AI has to go in taking over the world.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, which arguably turns out some of the most competent thinkers in the world, recently tested the limits of various commercially available AI bots. Creations of Google, OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta were brought together to staff a fictitious enterprise.
Each bot was assigned various tasks emulating jobs of actual human employees: Financial analysts, software engineers, project managers, HR workers. Tasks included looking up information in file directories, touring virtual office spaces, collecting performance metrics on fictitious employees and writing performance reviews.
Each bot was measured in terms of how many steps they had to go through, how many tasks they were able to complete, and how much each cost in terms of dollars.
Results were dismal, and in some cases, laughable. The best performing character, from Anthropic, finished less than one-fourth of the assigned tasks at a cost of $6 per task, which was characterized as “prohibitively expensive” when compared to the real world. Others ranged downward from there, with the Google entrant completing 11 percent of assigned tasks.
On balance, that sounds like some mid-level managers I used to work with.
One particularly endearing AI effort identified a bot who was unable to initiate a chat session with a co-worker bot. The information required was important to finishing his task, but first he had to establish communication. Simple: He simply re-named a different co-working bot to the name of the intended bot, and then conducted the conversation.
I can’t reach the HR woman to find the average days of sick leave last year, so I’ll just ask the shipping clerk instead. AI will generally always provide an answer, even if it has to be made up.
On the other hand, a very bright IT guru I know once told me, in words to the effect: “I’ve been using ChatGPT for years. I could write code without it, but it saves an enormous amount of time and allows me to take on projects I would never be able to finish on my own.”
AI is here to stay and will probably transform about everything we touch. It ought to be used for things where it makes sense, and not for other things.
I recall that the economist Friedrich Hayek, in The Road to Serfdom, made mention of something very similar about federal regulations. After attempting to hack my way through that intimidating tome, about the only thought that stuck with me was this: Laws should be passed to control behavior only in cases where the laws will benefit society, and not in any other cases.
Good advice, but once someone has power, it’s hard to follow.
Thanks for joining The Alligator News Roundup for Friday, May 23, 2025. Watch where you dispose of that infant’s diaper; you never know who may be interested in the contents. No telling what the AI researcher will do with it, or how he will decide to make use of it during your child’s lifetime.
Have a good weekend!
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