End Times
As Amazon’s Alexa Passes 100 Million Units Sold, It Will Now Be Always-On And Always Recording And Storing All Conversations In Your Home
Amazon’s patent application for an always-on feature for Alexa, its popular voice-activated personal assistant, has raised a lot of concern.
Amazon’s patent application for an always-on feature for Alexa, its popular voice-activated personal assistant, has raised a lot of concern.
Understanding of Bible prophecy is a lot like driving into a smog-filled city like Los Angeles, where I lived for a time before getting saved back in the last 1980’s. When you view LA from a distance, it is very obvious that the whole city is ringed with a dark, brownish-gray layer of smog. But as you get closer, a funny thing happens. That same smog that was crystal-clear from a distance virtually disappears as you drive into it, and once inside, is nearly invisible. So it is with Bible prophecy as it gets closer to the time of its fulfillment.
“And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” Revelation 13:11,13-18 (KJV)
When I got saved and started doing Bible study, prophecy in particular, it seemed to me that nearly all of the Church was acutely aware of things like the coming Mark of the Beast. Writers like Hal Lindsey wrote and warned against the creep of technology, as did many movies of the time. We wondered would our televisions start spying on us, and really had a great awareness of things. Not so in 2019. In our day, billions of us wear and carrying global tracking devices which we call our mobile devices, and millions of us have put spy gear like Alexa and Google into our homes. Gone is the nervousness and apprehension of the One World Government and the Mark of the Beast. Now we openly embrace these things. And yes, our televisions are spying on us.
The reason why this is happening is because in the 28 years since I got saved, we are now right on the very edge of Bible prophecy and its fulfillment. The Pretribulation Rapture of the Church, the event that will kickoff the end times officially, remains as of this writing only a kitten’s whisker away from taking place. An unsaved world is right now wholeheartedly embracing these end times tracking devices, just as they will fervently adopt the Mark of the Beast in the days when Antichrist shall rise and rule. Getting all that, Alexa?
To the computers that now surround us, speech is just another form of data.
FROM BLOOMBERG: “If you’re already freaked out by the privacy implications of smart speakers like Amazon’s Echo,” says Gizmodo, “we have some bad news.” A headline in ScienceAlert is even more direct: “Newly Released Amazon Patent Shows Just How Much Creepier Alexa Can Get.” You get the idea.
But the anxiety is much ado about nothing. An Alexa that’s always listening will likely prove more useful than an Alexa that isn’t; and, in any case, always-on devices are certainly our future.
As of January 2019, Amazon had sold more than 100 million devices that include Alexa. That number is certainly dwarfed by the billions of devices that include Siri and Google Assistant. But the difference is, those features come bundled with your smartphone, which has many other uses. When you purchase an Alexa device, you are choosing to invite Amazon into your home to listen to you.
Even those who have no interest in obtaining an Alexa-linked device know how the thing works, if only from Amazon’s flood of television commercials. You say “Alexa, what’s today’s weather?” — and it tells you. Whenever Alexa hears its “wake word,” the software assumes that the user wants its attention. Thus Alexa “wakes,” listens and processes the words that follow as a command.
The difficulty arises because, in the words of the patent application, a wake word “may not always precede a spoken command, and may sometimes be included in the middle of a spoken command.” The application gives an example: “Play ‘Mother’s Little Helper’ by the Rolling Stones.” As currently configured, the system will respond if the user prefaces the request with “Alexa” (that is, “Alexa, play ‘Mother’s Little Helper’”) but not if the wake word comes at the end (that is, “Play ‘Mother’s Little Helper,’ Alexa”).
Put otherwise, Alexa as currently configured does not match the way people speak. The user must structure each command around a relatively formal grammar. The invention described in the patent application would deformalize the means for addressing the device, thus enabling Alexa to fit more easily and naturally into everyday life.
Here’s Amazon’s solution: Alexa already stores what it hears in a buffer. Under the new configuration, according to the application, once Alexa detects a wake word, “the device will go backwards through the audio in the buffer to determine the start of the utterance that includes the wakeword.” After finding what it scores as the most likely start of the command, Alexa will perform a similar calculation to find the end. The command will then be processed exactly like one that was preceded by the wake word.
It all makes a great deal of sense. Why then the concern? It seems to me that there are two potential issues.
One is a worry about what happens to the information from the audio buffer. Alexa currently retains recordings for a period of time, helping it model the user’s needs and wants. This feature, which can be partially disabled, has already caused privacy problems. Courts have issued subpoenas for Alexa recordings. And as Bloomberg News has reported, human beings at Amazon already listen to much of what Alexa hears, in an effort to improve the algorithm. But no always-on feature was necessary for those recordings to survive.
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The second concern might be that an Alexa which listens more closely, responding to natural language commands, will soon become an Alexa that fades into the background. The relative formality with which the device must be addressed serves as a reminder that we are addressing just that — a device. The more casually we can speak, the more casual we will likely be about using it. We might, quite literally, forget that Alexa is there. Only the consumer can decide whether that is a feature or a bug.
Amazon says that it has no current plan to change the way Alexa listens, but bear in mind that the always-on feature can be implemented whether or not it is ever patented. In other words, if the notion of a device that is always awake worries you, the fact that a patent application has been filed shouldn’t cause you to worry more. Any device that listens to you can already be made always-on. (Including, by the way, your smartphone.)
We accept that our laptops and smart televisions are recording the choices we make and sending them we know not where. The only reason we imagine that our spoken words are safe is that speech is an older, more instinctive technology. We still think of speech as special, a distinctively human function, and when we are in spaces we consider private, we consider our voice as something heard only by our most intimate and trusted acquaintances.
But to the computers that now surround us, speech is just another form of data. The various voice-commanded devices of today, whether in our homes, smartphones or cars, work just like keyboards or touchscreens. The only difference is that the human input is a voice. And the only way they can get that input is to listen for it.
So let’s calm down. Yes, it can be fun to imagine a future in which our homes are entirely connected and yet we’re able to keep private everything we want to keep private. But that ship sailed long before Amazon decided to seek a patent on a minor and welcome change to Alexa. READ MORE
Amazon Alexa Echo Recorded Conversation And Then Sent To Contact
A woman in Portland, Oregon, says her Amazon Echo secretly recorded her conversation and sent the recording to a contact on her husband’s phone. Amazon said it was the result of an “unlikely” series of events.
Amazon workers reportedly listening to your conversations with Alexa
ROBO Global CIO Bill Studebaker discusses the report that thousands of Amazon employees are listening to people’s conversations with Alexa.
Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last days before the Rapture of the Church
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“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJV)
“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB
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End Times
Monster Energy Drink Company Launches ‘The Beast Unleashed’ Hard Seltzer Alcoholic Beverage Complete With 666 And The All-Seeing Eye On Every Can
Monster Energy Drink company has launched ‘The Beast Unleashed’ with 666 on every can to remind you of the rising spirit of the coming Antichrist
There has never been more information so readily available at the touch, swipe or tap of a smart device screen as there is right here right now in 2023. And yet, from a spiritual perspective, we are heartbreakingly ignorant of basic Bible truths. Paul tells us that our eyes and ears aren’t working right and our hearts have ‘waxed gross’. Habakkuk tells us that we are watching prophecy coming true and not believing what we’re seeing. The Monster Energy Drink company last month launched ‘The Beast Unleashed’ with the Illuminati all-seeing eye of Horus and 666 on every can, and it didn’t even cause a minor stir. How could that be? Because this world is preparing itself to receive Antichrist, that’s how.
“Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.” 2 Corinthians 2:11 (KJB)
Satanism in America is literally all around you, it permeates social media, advertising, marketing, television, music and movies. For every one gospel witness billboard up on the highway, there are 100 advertisements for the things of Satan like smoking, the consumption of alcohol, fornication, perversion and gambling. The Monster Energy Drink logo is designed to look like the claw marks of an animal, but is actually 3 instances of the number 6 in Hebrew. There’s your first 666. With ‘The Beast Unleashed’ drink, they’ve set the alcohol percentage level firmly at 6 percent, and place next to it a second instance of their 666 logo. What does that give you? It gives you an alcoholic drink called ‘The Beast’ with 666 on every can 3 times, with the all-seeing eye in the background watching you while you drink it. Wake up, Christian, awake from your slumber and get something done for the Lord Jesus Christ while you still can.
‘The Beast Unleashed’ is the latest 666 offering from the Monster Energy Drink company
FROM CRAFTJACKS: The Beast Unleashed is a flavored malt alcoholic beverage designed to ensure you never leave the house, nor your screen or controller, ever again. The Ready-to-Drink Hard Seltzer is being sold 21 years after the release of Monster’s immensely popular energy drink.
21+ Gamers, Pros and Noobs alike, are rejoicing from the comfort of their parents converted-to-a-living-quarters basements as they remind their mothers to come home with a 12 pack of The Beast next time she goes to the grocery store.
Either way, Monster Energy drinks just got hard. Make no mistake about it though, 6% ABV isn’t a crushing amount, considering most contemporary IPAs fall around that range. Even at 16 fl oz, The Beast won’t unleash any demons within you until you’re on your third, fourth or even fifth go-round.
The Beast Unleashed will be targeting lifestyle enthusiasts, social media influencers, programmers, engineers, developers, Bro Culturists, Gamers, E-Sports players, and anyone who is normally into having a good time with synthetic tasting flavors. READ MORE
Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church
- HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page
When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.
But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)
“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB
End Times
New TikTok Trend Of ‘Trad Wife’ Catches On As More And More Women Showing Interest In Traditional And Biblical Marriage Roles For Men And Women
A trad wife, short for traditional wife, according to TikTok creator Estee Williams, is ‘a woman who prefers to take a traditional or ultra-traditional role in marriage, including the beliefs that a woman’s place is in the home.’
It’s quite interesting to see how that, in this plastic and highly-artificial world we’ve created for ourselves, from time to time there is a stirring to return to purity and wholesomeness even if it’s just a temporary trend on TikTok. How well I can recall how different mothers were when I was growing up, and the strong emphasis placed on family and making a house into a home. That time period wasn’t perfect, but it was a whole lot less scary than life is here in 2023. I would much rather have a ‘trad wife’ who cherishes her husband than a ‘hot mom’ who’s overly-focused on self-care and self-love. Mary Hatch in ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ comes immediately to mind, as does the Proverbs 31 woman.
“Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.” Proverbs 31:10-12 (KJB)
While we’re on the subject of social media and the Communist Chinese-owned TikTok, does it disturb you that people are now living their lives in group think? The influence and sway that social media exerts on the minds of people, especially young people, is astounding. The whole world is preparing itself for the events laid out in places like Revelation 13, where AI will create floating images that will speak and receive worship. In the meantime, the dividing line between humans and the smart devices that control us continues to disintegrate.
The TikTok viral ‘trad wife’ trend accused of ‘romanticizing an era where sexism and racism ruled’
FROM THE NY POST: While these women channel the structure of a stereotypical 1950s household in which the husband goes to work while their wives stay home to cook, clean, and care for any children, those behind the trend say it’s so much more – particularly in the age of burnout and struggles to maintain a work-life balance in the post-COVID age.
“It doesn’t mean that we are trying to take away what women fought for,” Williams said in a TikTok video from September. “There are a lot of people trying to make this a sinister thing or put some other, darker meaning behind the term ‘trad wife.’ Nobody is doing that.
“No trad wife TikToker is saying every woman’s place is in their home. We, as individuals are just choosing to be homemakers. That’s all.”
Williams argues that being a trad wife is not a movement but rather a lifestyle. She also, in her September TikTok, argued that those behind the lifestyle don’t see women as less important than men just because they are submissive to their husbands.
Other videos aligning with the #tradwife hashtag show women baking, sweeping floors, and trying on mid-century-style dresses as they rave about the liberating transition from their old way of life to their new one. Others focus on the biblical implications of being a homemaker and how being a trad wife allows them to fulfill the role. READ MORE
The real mid-century trad wife
‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ film classic
If you want to see what the perfect 1940’s trad wife looked like, Mary Hatch is your girl.
Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church
- HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page
When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.
But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)
“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB
Artificial Intelligence
Are You Ready To Receive Your ‘Digital Human’ Chatbot So Your Generative AI Software Will Make You Think You Are Interacting With A Real Person?
D-ID’s platform will utilize its already proven text-to-video software in order to turn an AI chatbot into a real fake person
Since the launch of the personal computer in the 1980’s to the advent of the internet in 1994, our global society has been on a collusion course with robots, aliens, and everything else dystopian movie classic ‘The Matrix’ warned us about. In 2023, the hottest new thing is called generative AI, and it will revolutionize how we live and conduct business every bit as much as air travel at the dawn of the 20th century. Of course, if you have a King James Bible, this little ‘newsflash’ we’re bringing you today is approximately 2,000 years old.
“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” Revelation 13:15 (KJB)
If you’re thinking of ‘getting off the grid’ you’ve missed your chance by about a decade now, so don’t waste your time trying to do that. No one gets off the grid now, the door is closed, and the only way out is up, as in Flight #777 up, as in 23 skidoo up. The robots are receiving brains now, brains that can think because they’re modeled on your brain. Remember that Twilight Zone episode of the couple living with robots who were convinced they were human? That’s you, baby, that’s what’s happening now. Tick, tick, people…and I don’t mean TikTok.
D-ID launches AI Digital Human platform so you can look your chatbot in the eyes
FROM THE JERUSALEM POST: Generative AI is one of the industry-defining technologies of the hi-tech world in 2023, and the recent popularity of platforms such as ChatGPT and DALL-E has led to a seemingly non-stop cavalcade of new AI innovations. Smart text chatbots have become an integral medium of interaction between consumers and brands, and D-ID hopes to alleviate some of the frustration associated with that interaction.
One of the latest comes by way of generative AI platform developer D-ID, which on Wednesday launched a chat platform that will enable face-to-face conversations with an “AI Digital Human,” made possible by the company’s proprietary text-to-video tech.
While the technology could be applied in several ways, from creative to educational, D-ID expects that it will be best utilized by enterprises and developers, allowing them to create photorealistic digital assistants who can interact with consumers in a more human, engaging, and effective way. These digital assistants can be used to improve customer support, sales, training, personal finance, and a host of other applications, and are likely to increase conversion and customer experience while lowering overall costs.
“Large language models like GPT-3 and LaMDA are changing the way we relate to and interact with technology, and we are not far off from all of us having our own personalized AI assistants and companions,” said Gil Perry, CEO and co-founder of D-ID. “We are making tech more human by giving it a face and making the interaction more natural. I am very proud of D-ID, which continues to be at the cutting edge of the emergent generative AI industry.”
There is currently buzz among experts regarding the ethical development of AI. As generative AI becomes more prevalent among consumers and businesses alike with each passing day, the need for its increased transparency becomes more relevant. READ MORE
You Are Now The ‘Obsolete Man’
The name of this episode is ‘The Obsolete Man’, and what makes him that is two things. One, he’s a human living in the time of technology, and two, he’s a Bible believer who reads the word and trusts in God. Do you really need a long explanation about this, or do you just get it? I really hope you do.
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Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church
- HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page
When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.
But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)
“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB
THE BIG STORY
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END TIMES
CHRISLAM
FALSE TEACHERS
THE METAVERSE
REAL UFOS
ISRAEL
THE MOTB
CATHOLIC CHURCH
FAKE NEWS
ABORTION
THE THIRD TEMPLE
BILL GATES
GEORGE SOROS
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