Hindsight is always 20/20. Maybe it’s even clearer than that, especially with cars.

The auto industry took forever and a day to accept and embrace the crossover concept that dominates the market today. In 1980, they pretty much dismissed the American Motors Eagle as a Hornet on stilts, a freakish half-car, half-Jeep. When Subaru revived the formula years later, the public finally took notice, but it took giants like General Motors far too long to adequately counter this onslaught.

What’s even sadder is that GM had just the product to go head-to-head with the new breed of what would be called “crossovers” sitting right in front of them, albeit thousands of miles from Detroit. Even more disappointing, this early crossover was dropped before it even had a chance to succeed in its home country. Worst of all, it just might have been the imported machine to save Pontiac from extinction. And did I mention it had a 5.7-liter V8?

What About Bob?

No matter how many years the Big Three carry on, it’s doubtful that we’ll see the likes of Bob Lutz ever again. Few auto executives will fly fighter jets and helicopters or take on the challenge of a car being called “roll proof” by promptly going out and putting one on its roof. However, there’s a big quandary in my mind about the legacy of “Maximum Bob.”

You see, on one hand, Lutz championed many iconic sporting machines over the years, from the Opel GT to the Merkur XR4Ti to the Saturn Sky and Cadillac V-series; all awesome products that almost certainly wouldn’t have existed without his support. On the other hand, the vast majority of these cars failed in the marketplace at anything other than “image building.” They were poor-selling niche products, inadvertently proving to the large automaker’s bean counters that sinking money into seriously enthusiast-oriented cars was a colossal waste of time.

The most egregious example of this might be Pontiac in the 2000s. Bob brought the fierce Australian Holden Monaro over to the US as a revived Pontiac GTO; with a 400-horsepower Corvette motor and a stick, this was the exceptional latter-day muscle machine that some believed “car people” had been waiting for.

Welp, it barely sold over 11,000 units in each of the two years it was available. Did Bob give up? No! Lutz’s seemingly unimaginable answer to save the profit-challenged Pontiac division was to double down and import the V8-powered, rear-drive Holden Commodore sedan to replace all of the division’s mid- and full-sized front-drive sedans. Called the G8, it could rightfully be called the best Pontiac-branded product in the history of the nameplate from an enthusiast’s standpoint – take a look at The Pontiac G8 Was Genuinely Too Good For Us for more.

If that Holden-based GTO coupe failed to find buyers, would you think that a slightly bigger VE Holden Commodore four-door version of the same formula could work as a mainstream Pontiac product? Of course you wouldn’t, and it didn’t.

It pains me to say it, but the G8 also failed miserably, selling a mere 23,000 units in its best (and last) year; in the process, it took away any chance of Pontiac surviving when the financiapocolypse hit. Instead, The General saved a brand of redundant trucks (GMC) and one that my 86-year-old mom thinks is for “old people” (Buick), reportedly because they made money. Lutz’s plan for an all-rear-wheel-drive lineup of American BMWs was one of those car guy wet dreams that anyone could tell you wasn’t going to work. Again, you might be like me and love the products that Lutz gave us and despise much of the fodder which Lee Iacocca foisted on the American public, but I can tell you the ones that sold and which executive I’d trust my budget with. Bob once was quoted as saying, “… the G8 was a great car. I should have bought one when I had the chance.” Geez, Bob, you didn’t even buy one either!

Ironically, while this miscalculation was happening, Holden had a product in the lineup that was on the cutting edge of what American buyers were starting to gravitate towards, and it was also unquestionably an enthusiast’s vehicle. The trouble was, nobody seemed to be able to see the potential until it was too late.

Soobie Do Right

Here at the Autopian, we might have missed the thirtieth birthday of what might be considered one of the industry’s most influential vehicles. I’m not sure why we’ve ignored it, but maybe because it’s a car that a lot of enthusiasts act as if they’re too cool to like.

Many of us back in 1995 thought the idea of taking a Subaru Legacy wagon, raising the ride height, and putting a bunch of body cladding on it was a sort of silly way to make a mock “tough” soft-roader. Others thought it was just a rehash of the AMC Eagle idea a decade and a half later and resented the fact that Soobie’s granola reboot was getting the recognition that the Kenosha Kadillac deserved.

Regardless of our opinions, I bet even Subaru had no idea that the 1995 Outback was going to launch a booming “crossover” sector. By the early 2000s, it was clear that the trend was unstoppable, and while Ford and GM reaped the benefits with their truck-based sport utilities during this time, the more car-like options took longer to gel. Even worse, the brands that historically never really had an off-roader presence seemed doomed. Mercury and Oldsmobile had rebadged Ford or Chevy SUVs in their lineups, while Saturn eventually showed up with the Vue, but it wasn’t enough; they ran out of runway to evolve and adapt. Unfortunately, Pontiac was in the same situation.

GM’s first attempts at making crossovers included the all-wheel drive Montana van with an extended snout and, most infamously, the distorted-looking Aztek.

The Chevy Equinox with a Pontiac grille that replaced these was way too little too late – do you even remember the Pontiac Torrent? This was that aforementioned era when Lutz was decorating Pontiac showrooms with legendary Holden sedans which, in retrospect, the buying public didn’t want. Meanwhile, the Europeans were grabbing onto the Outback trend and introducing solid (and expensive) performance crossovers like the Audi Allroad, Volvo XC70, and Porsche Cayenne.

Could General Motors possibly have offered this kind of fast, low-profile, but still capable off-road machine through the “excitement” division when even other members of the Big Three and the Japanese still had few crossovers at all? Actually, thousands of miles away and literally on the other side of the globe, the General already had it.

Don’t Put So Much Vegamite On That Toast, Mate

Not all General Motors cars are created equal. We know that, over the years, the Americans might have gotten GM’s small-block-equipped muscle machines while the Europeans got the better-looking and handling products. What if you wanted all of those qualities in your GM car? Well, you’d have to head to the land of shrimp on the barbie and Tame Impala, where the Holden brand received the best of both worlds.

Most GM divisions were, at least on the surface, content with taking whatever platform Detroit gave them and working with it. Cadillac took the 1997 Opel Omega B and rebranded it as the doomed Cadillac Catera, a failure resulting from trying to sell German austerity to a pool of consumers that wanted a bit of glitz and performance.

Way Down Under, the Holden division refused to meekly accept the take-it-or-leave-it policy. For the new Commodore model that would debut in 1997, Holden began with the same rear-drive Omega B platform. The scrappy brand felt their cars needed to be attuned to “Australian driving conditions.” As an American, I would assume that meant guys with mohawk haircuts dressed in leather jumping onto your bonnet from rusty tanker trucks, but I’m told that’s just in movies. Regardless, Melbourne and Munich are about as different as can be, so I can’t blame them for wanting to make alterations. In addition to this beefing up of the suspension and the addition of more powerful motors, Holden also widened the body slightly to create what was called the “VT” Commodore, as Aussies tend to refer to variations of their home-grown cars in series of letters.

This generation of the Commodore line continued for the updated 2000 “VX” model and subsequent 2002 “VY” edition. It looks a lot like the related Omega/Catera, but the detailing is a bit nicer and more aggressive to match the stonking performance. A longer wheelbase station wagon was available as well.

About this same time, Subaru was introducing its Outback model Legacy. Could Aussies really let a Japanese company name a car for their home turf and not do their own?

You Call That An Outback? This Is An Outback

The Outback adjacent offering they came up with was the new-for-2003 Adventra, one of the more phonetically fabricated names you can imagine. Holden’s first all-wheel-drive car took a Commodore wagon and added a center differential to split 38 percent of the power to front drive axles and 62 to the rear; a rear drive bias that enthusiasts would embrace. On the outside, Holden did the same tricks that the Japanese company employed on their Legacy soft-roader by raising the ride height and installing more aggressive-looking bumpers and rocker trim (but not going all-in on the full grey lower body trim route).

Listed as a “full sized” car, the Adventra was still not massive. It was about 14 inches longer than the 1995 Subaru Outback, though the current 2025 Outback model is now only a mere five to six inches shorter than that Holden. Note the trailer hitch, since I bet this would tow far more than that Outback:

Under the hood, the Adventra was about as un-Subaru as could be with an American-made Generation III 5.7-liter eight that pumped out 315 horsepower; a four-speed automatic was the only gearbox option. Four-wheel independent suspension included a self-leveling system in back. All of us Autopians dream of a V8-powered AMC Eagle restomod, but the transfer case and exhaust setup make that impossible (plus, you’d still have a live axle on cart springs in back). This Adventra was like that dream come true.

Naturally, the extra weight and higher center of gravity did the handling no favors, but reviewers were pleased with the road manners. Performance was not as neck-snapping as you’d hope, but it wasn’t a slouch either. Contemporary tests showed zero to sixty times of around 7.8 seconds; you’d be able to challenge at least several lower levels of Porsche Cayenne with those figures. Sadly, the Adventra liked to “hit the terps” as they might say down there with a sub-15 mpg thirst.

Inside, you found a rather spacious interior appointed with decent quality materials, and the Adventra had an added trick: a front-facing small third row. At the time, the Volvo XC70 was the only other crossover wagon with an available (pretty crappy) seat in the cargo area, and it faced rearward (the Mercedes E-Class 4MATIC also had rear-facing folding third row, but that wasn’t really a crossover and was far more expensive). Apologies, this was the highest-res image I could get:

When the barely facelifted “VZ” version of the Commodore and Adventra debuted for the 2005 model year, Holden made a welcome change for many potential buyers: a more efficient twin-cam 3.6-liter V6 became standard. Packing 222 horsepower, it still offered decent motivation without as much of the pain at the pump you’d get with the still-available V8.

Ah, but that’s not all. You might be aware that Holden had a performance division called HSV. If so, you’re probably wondering if these people got their hands on an Adventra. Wonder no more.

Here’s The GM Avalanche You Really Want

Holden Special Vehicles started in 1987 and effectively replaced the Holden Dealer Team range after controversies and strained relations with HDT manager and racing legend Peter Brock started to endorse the bizarre “energy polarizer” in his cars and adding things like an independent rear suspension without GM’s consent. With this crossover Adventra, HSV developed a more powerful model called the Avalanche with an uprated 360 horsepower 5.7-liter V8, different wheels, and reshaped front and rear fascias.

To be honest, the Avalanche was a bit of a paper tiger, offering only 26 horsepower more than the standard Adventra at a price that was around $8,000 to $12,000 more (in 2004 U.S. dollars). Zero to sixty time dropped to around seven seconds, so it wasn’t really that much faster.

Sadly, the Adventra was never a strong seller in Australia. I’m honestly not too surprised by that. People down under seem to have very good taste and common sense when it comes to cars, and unlike Americans, they likely saw no need for a jacked-up station wagon to combat snow and ice that never existed, or sit higher to go head-to-head with giant SUVs that didn’t clog their urban roads at the time. You wanna go off-roading? Australia is the real Outback: better get a (Toyota Land) Croowsah, mate! Holden saw no need to upgrade the V8 to the next generation 6.0 liter, and the crossover wagon format wasn’t offered in the next generation new-for-2008 “VE” series of Commodore that, ironically, came to the United States as that doomed-to-failure Pontiac G8.

Ah, but just because Australians didn’t go nuts for crossovers didn’t mean that Americans, even in the sunbel,t weren’t eating them up. Let’s imagine bringing the Adventra over to the US instead and see if it could have helped give Pontiac a new lease on life.

You Need To Have “Fire” Or “Bird” In The Name

The conversion from a Holden Adventra to what I’d call the Pontiac Firetrail would be painfully easy in terms of appearance. All I had to do was flip the image of the right-hand drive car, add side marker lights, and a signature twin-nostril grille. It looks great and makes me miss my dear departed BMW E61 station wagon even more.

The back I’d keep essentially the same, save for badging and taillamps. Inside, one of the bigger issues with the GTO and the G8 was the relative lack of available equipment compared to what might be considered competitors in the US. The GTO didn’t even offer a sunroof option, and neither of these Holden transplants had any kind of screen for an optional navigation system; rather unheard of at the price (OnStar “turn by turn” audible navigation was available, but that isn’t close to the same thing).

For the Pontiac version of the Adventra, you can see that I’ve replaced the center stack with a more upscale-looking design, complete with a large screen to solve that issue and make the Australian car more competitive. The vents are relocated to the metal finished sides, and red Pontiac illumination is used in place of the odd Holden orange lighting.

GM could have possibly offered a GXP version equivalent to the Avalanche model. I’d love to find a way to get that Generation IV 6.0-liter V8 into the thing, or maybe just a supercharger onto the existing Gen III motor.

Regardless, we’re talking about an Outback with the cool factor turned way up, but even more practicality. If Subaru’s “LOVE” campaign and eco-loving-safe-car image turned your stomach, this would have been the crossover for you. Or me.

El Camino Los Baja

Ah, but there’s another twist to the story. You might remember that Mr. Lutz came this close to bringing the Commodore VE  pickup truck to America, essentially giving us the first coupe-ute since the El Camino passed away in 1987. Performance would have been blistering in the horsepower GXE version that we were teased with.

As poorly as the Pontiac G8 GXP sedan sold (only 1,600 over two years) and the limited appeal of the El Camino two decades before, I would imagine the sum total of pickup versions that found buyers here would have been in the dozens. As always, I’d never deny the cool factor of a Lutz product, but it’s easy to see where he failed.

However, just as Holden had a great alternative to the Outback with this Adventra, they also had a far cooler and more practical alternative to Subaru’s strange neo-BRAT, the Baja. Holden’s was called the Crewman. It’s got the same decent-sized cabin as the Adventra and a far more usable bed than the Baja’s pointlessly short cargo area. Dare I say it looked cooler than that funky Baja, too?

You think they made an HSV version of this odd sedan-pickup? You bet they did! Called the HSV Avalanche XUV, I can see it being a Subaru Baja with some serious beans.

No, our Pontiac “El Catalina” would not have been a monster seller, but I can virtually guarantee it would have attracted more buyers than a two-seater G8 ute or that bizarre Baja. Again, four-door trucks were just coming into their own then, so why not a more car-like one? Sadly, we’ll never know.

Holden On To Pontiac?

Reportedly, the Adventra wasn’t perfect. Besides the fuel economy of the V8 dipping into the low teens, quality control issues were frequent, and the purchase price was rather steep at the equivalent of around $32,000 to $40,000 US dollars in the mid-2000s. Still, you would think that some, if not all of these problems could have been rectified; the important question is if a Pontiac Firetrail might have found an audience that the Bob Lutz-backed GTO and G8 didn’t.

To me, the answer would have been a resounding “yes.” Essentially what you’d have is a slightly larger Subaru Outback wagon with a V6 engine standard or optional bruising V8 power. You’d have performance to match far more expensive machines from the Black Forest or Gothenburg; I’d take one over an Audi Allroad or Volvo XC. For a large segment of the population before the financial crisis of the late 2000s, that was exactly what they were looking for, but obviously couldn’t find at the time. I’m not an automotive product planner from the early aughts, but doesn’t that sound like printing money?

At the very least, it might have allowed our man Bob Lutz to make a case for keeping The Excitement Brand alive for another day.

Top graphic image: GM/The Bishop

The post Here’s How Pontiac Could Have Been Saved Using A Car GM Already Had appeared first on The Autopian.

The Universe Browser makes some big promises to its potential users. Its online advertisements claim it’s the “fastest browser,” that people using it will “avoid privacy leaks” and that the software will help “keep you away from danger.” However, everything likely isn’t as it seems.

The browser, which is linked to Chinese online gambling websites and is thought to have been downloaded millions of times, actually routes all Internet traffic through servers in China and “covertly installs several programs that run silently in the background,” according to new findings from network security company Infoblox. The researchers say the “hidden” elements include features similar to malware—including “key logging, surreptitious connections,” and changing a device’s network connections.

Perhaps most significantly, the Infoblox researchers who collaborated with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on the work, found links between the browser’s operation and Southeast Asia’s sprawling, multibillion-dollar cybercrime ecosystem, which has connections to money-laundering, illegal online gambling, human trafficking, and scam operations that use forced labor. The browser itself, the researchers says, is directly linked to a network around major online gambling company BBIN, which the researchers have labeled a threat group they call Vault Viper.

The researchers say the discovery of the browser—plus its suspicious and risky behavior—indicates that criminals in the region are becoming increasingly sophisticated. “These criminal groups, particularly Chinese organized crimes syndicates, are increasingly diversifying and evolving into cyber enabled fraud, pig butchering, impersonation, scams, that whole ecosystem,” says John Wojcik, a senior threat researcher at Infoblox, who also worked on the project when he was a staff member at the UNODC.

“They’re going to continue to double down, reinvest profits, develop new capabilities,” Wojcik says. “The threat is ultimately becoming more serious and concerning, and this is one example of where we see that.”

Under the hood

The Universe Browser was first spotted—and mentioned by name—by Infoblox and UNODC at the start of this year when they began unpacking the digital systems around an online casino operation based in Cambodia, which was previously raided by law enforcement officials. Infoblox, which specializes in domain name system (DNS) management and security, detected a unique DNS fingerprint from those systems that they linked to Vault Viper, making it possible for the researchers to trace and map websites and infrastructure linked to the group.

Tens of thousands of web domains, plus various command-and-control infrastructure and registered companies, are linked to Vault Viper activity, Infoblox researchers say in a report shared with WIRED. They also say they examined hundreds of pages of corporate documents, legal records, and court filings with links to BBIN or other subsidiaries. Time and time again, they came across the Universe Browser online.

“We haven’t seen the Universe Browser advertised outside of the domains Vault Viper controls,” says Maël Le Touz, a threat researcher at Infoblox. The Infoblox report says the browser was “specifically” designed to help people in Asia—where online gambling is largely illegal—bypass restrictions. “Each of the casino websites they operate seem to contain a link and advertisement to it,” Le Touz says.

The Universe Browser itself is mostly offered for direct download from these casino websites—often being linked at the bottom of the websites, next to the logo of BBIN. There are desktop versions available for Windows, as well as an app version in Apple’s App Store. And while it is not in Google’s Play Store, there are Android APK files that allow the app to be directly installed on Android phones. The researchers say multiple parts of the Universe Browser and the code for its apps reference BBIN, and other technical details also reference the company.

The researchers reverse-engineered the Windows version of the browser. They say that while they have been unable to “verify malicious intent,” elements of the browser that they uncovered include many features that are similar to those found malware and tries to evade detection by antivirus tools. When the browser is launched, it “immediately” checks for the user’s location, language, and whether it is running in a virtual machine. The app also installs two browser extensions: one of which can allow screenshots to be uploaded to domains linked to the browser.

While online gambling in China is largely illegal, the country also runs some of the world’s strictest online censorship operations and has taken action against illegal gambling rings. While the browser may most often be being used by those trying to take part in illegal gambling, it also puts their data at risk, the researchers say. “In the hands of a malicious actor—a Triad for example—this browser would serve as the perfect tool to identify wealthy players and obtain access to their machine,” the Infoblox report says.

Beyond connecting to China, running key logging, and other programs that run in the background, Infoblox’s report also says multiple functions have been disabled. “The right click, settings access and developer tools, for instance, have all been removed, while the browser itself is run with several flags disabling major security features including sandboxing, and the removal of legacy SSL protocols, greatly increasing risk when compared with typical mainstream browsers,” the company’s report says. (SSL, also known as Secure Sockets Layer, is a historic type of web encryption that protected some data transfers.)

It is unclear whether these same suspicious behaviors are present in the iOS and Android versions of the app. A Google spokesperson says the company is looking into the app and confirmed it was not available through its Google Play store. Apple did not respond to requests for comment about the app.

Connect the dots

The web infrastructure around the Universe Browser led the researchers back to BBIN, a company that has existed since 1999. While it was originally founded in Taiwan, the company now has a large base in the Philippines.

BBIN, which also goes by the name Baoying Group and has multiple subsidies, describes itself as a “leading” supplier of iGaming software in Asia. A UNODC report from April, which links BBIN to the Universe Browser but does not formally name the company as Vault Viper, says the firm runs several hotels and casinos in Southeast Asia as well as providing “one of the largest and most successful” iGaming platforms in the region. Over the last decade, BBIN has sponsored or partnered with multiple major European soccer teams, such as Spain’s Atlético de Madrid, Germany’s Borussia Dortmund, and Dutch team AFC Ajax.

In recent years, multiple football clubs in England’s Premier League have faced scrutiny over sponsorship by Asian gambling companies—including by TGP Europe which was owned by Alvin Chau, the chairman and founder of SunCity Group who was sentenced in January 2023 to 18 years in prison after being found guilty of running illegal gambling operations. TGP Europe left the UK earlier this year after being fined by the country’s gambling regulator. Atlético Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, and AFC Ajax did not respond to WIRED requests for comment.

The iGaming industry develops online gambling software, such as virtual poker or other online casino games, that can easily be played on the web or on phones. “BBIN Baoying is officially an online casino game developer or ‘white label’ online casino platform, meaning it outsources its online gambling technology to other sites,” says Lindsey Kennedy, research director at The EyeWitness Project, which investigates corruption and organized crime. “The only languages it offers are Korean, Japanese and Chinese, which isn’t a great sign as online gambling is either banned or heavily restricted in all three countries.”

“Baoying and BBIN are what I would call a multi-billion dollar gray-area international conglomerate with deep criminal connections, backstopping and providing services to online gambling businesses, scams and cybercrime actors,” alleges Jeremy Douglas, chief of staff at the UNODC and its former regional representative for Southeast Asia. “Aside from what has been estimated at a two-thirds ownership by Alvin Chau of SunCity—arguably the biggest money launderer in the history of Asia—law enforcement partners have documented direct connections with Triad groups including the Bamboo Union, Four Seas, Tian Dao,” Douglas says of BBIN. (When Chau was sentenced in January 2023, court documents pointed to him allegedly owning a 66.67 percent share of Baoying).

BBIN did not respond to multiple requests for comment from WIRED. The firm’s primary contact email address it lists on its website bounced back, while questions sent to another email address and online contact forms, plus attempts to contact two alleged staff members on LinkedIn were not answered by the time of publication. A company Telegram account pointed WIRED to one of the contact forms that did not provide any answers.

The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) in the Philippines, which tackles organized and international crimes, did not respond to a request for comment from WIRED about BBIN.

Over the last decade, online crime in Southeast Asia has massively surged, driven partially by illegal online gambling and also a series of scam compoundsthat have been set up across Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia. Hundreds of thousands of people from more than 60 countries have been tricked into working in these compounds, where they operate scams day and night, stealing billions of dollars from people around the world.

“Scam parks and compounds across the region generally host both online gambling and online scam operations, and the methodology used to lure individuals into opening online gambling accounts parallels that associated with pig-butchering scams,” says Jason Tower, a senior expert at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

Last week, US law enforcement seized $15 billion in Bitcoin from one giant Cambodian organization, which publicly dealt in real estate but allegedly ran scam facilities in “secret.” One of the sanctioned entities, the Jin Bei Group in Cambodia, which US authorities accused of operating a series of scam compounds, also shows links to BBIN’s technology, Tower says. “There are multiple Telegram groups and casino websites indicating that BBIN partners with multiple entities inside the Jinbei casino,” Tower says, adding that one group on Telegram “posts daily advertisements indicating an official partnership between Jinbei and BBIN.”

Over recent years, multiple government press releases and news reports fromcountries including China and Taiwan, have alleged how BBIN’s technology has been used within illegal gambling operations and linked to cybercrime. “There are hundreds of Telegram posts aggressively advertising various illegal Chinese facing gambling sites that say they either are, or are built on, BBIN/Baoying technology, many of them by individuals claiming to operate out of scam and illegal gambling compounds, or as part of the highly illegal, trafficking-driven industry in Cambodia and Northern Myanmar,” says Kennedy from The EyeWitness Project.

While the Universe Browser has most likely been downloaded by those accessing Chinese-language gambling websites, researchers say that its development indicates how pivotal and lucrative illegal online gambling operations are and exposing their links to scamming efforts that operate across the world. “As these operations continue to scale and diversify, they are marked by growing technical expertise, professionalization, operational resilience, and the ability to function under the radar with very limited scrutiny and oversight,” Infoblox’s report concludes.

This story originally appeared on wired.com.

Read full article

Comments

If you’re Italian or of Italian descent, I bet you’ve heard a grandparent or uncle or some relative use the expression “condividi i tuoi segreti con una mortadella,” which translates to “share your secrets with a mortadella.” In Spanish-speaking cultures, perhaps you’ve heard someone say “memoria como un chorizo” (“memory like a chorizo”) when they forget their keys, or how a French speaker may smack their foreheads and say “merguez!” when they forget things.  In American culture, there’s a similar expression you’ve probably heard: “tell it to a hot dog.” What all of these have in common is an idea that spans the globe: sausages have no memory.

That may have been true before, but I’m here to tell you, excitedly, that it is no longer true.

Yes, that’s right, I’m proud to announce that for the first time in recorded history, data has been stored to a common, everyday salami, proving once and for all that sausages can have memory. At least memory of a sort. Currently, that memory is pretty limited, just about 256 bytes per a 38mm diameter salami slice, but this is just a proof of concept. Currently, the data density we can store in cured meats is very low, but with future development the amount of data would currently take a salami six feet in diameter and 35 feet long could potentially be stored on a single Lunchable slice.

But that’s a long way off! Let me show you what Autopian Labs has accomplished so far!

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by The Autopian (@theautopian)

Did you see what happened there? I connected a slice of salami to my Macbook, where a special USB device allowed me to place a pair of probes into the salami matrix, where I encoded the phrase AUTOPIAN IS THE BEST! That’s 21 characters, so basically 21 bytes of storage, stored as ASCII data in the salami slice itself.

I then took that same slice of salami to another, very different machine – an old, 1982-vintage Apple II plus – and connected it to a similar (but much simpler) device, this one connected to the Apple II’s Game I/O port, specifically the four potentiometer inputs that can read values from 0-255, which is convenient when reading ASCII codes.

I used this same port to connect a DSLR camera for our member birthday drawings, if you recall:

The Apple II salami data reader, despite being an incredibly simple device, was able to read the encoded ASCII data on the salami slice and replay it back to the computer! Well, with one error: the output was AUTOPIAN IS THE BENT! instead of “best,” but I still call that a victory. The character “S” is ASCII code 83, and “N” is 78, which probably hints at what went wrong, but I’m not really sure what that is right now.

The data is encoded onto the salami (or, really any sort of sausage with a pretty coarse granular consistency) in a radial pattern:

The way it actually works is a little much to get into here in detail, but fundamentally it has to do with the nature of sausage/cured meat construction and all of the points inside the sausage matrix where lipids (bilipids, technically, but whatever) are in contact with other protein compounds. That “interface,” the points where the lipid/protein molecules actually contact, is a point where data can be stored, thanks to galvanic currents and lipid-free radical oxidation.

Sausages with finer matrices of ingredients (bologna, hot dogs, many wursts) will be more difficult to encode data onto and read from, but offer the best possibilities for higher-density data storage than coarser sausages like pepperoni or soppressata, or mortadella. The crude nature of our current equipment means we are currently only able to encode and read from these coarser meats, but we’re hopeful to change that.

We here at Autopian Labs didn’t come up with all of this science, of course. We’re idiots, standing on the shoulders of giants. But if you look at papers like The reactions of lipid’s free radical oxidation, hemocoagulant properties of oral fluid in patients with galvanic currents in the mouth(translated from Ukrainian) and The role of lipid oxidation on electrical properties of planar lipid bilayers and its importance for understanding electroporation and, most relevant to our implementation, Electrode-supported and free-standing bilayer lipid membranes: Formation and uses in molecular electrochemistry I think you’ll get a sense of what we’re doing here. It’s pretty straightforward, really.

Now, we think this is a pretty revolutionary development, especially in an era when AI is forcing computer memory prices higher and higher – some sources suggest memory has increased in price by 500%! If we can adapt computer memory demands, both RAM and storage, to sausage-based media, then every deli in America has the opportunity to become a data center! Every sandwich becomes removable storage! Supermarkets full of cold cuts and sausages and charcuterie could be tasked to data storage on demand!

The meats retain full edibility even after having data encoded, so there’s no waste of food here; once a slice of, say, soppressata is no longer needed for data storage, it can be happily eaten, perhaps with a slice of brie.

Now, while I get that this is not our core mission – we’re still a site about cars, after all – this does have a lot of potential for car ECUs and other automotive computing applications: fragile circuit boards could be replaced with rugged, hard-wearing pepperonis and other durable sausages, for example.

I’m very excited. Autopian Labs is the research arm of Autopian, and we don’t have the resources to commercialize this development, but we are happy to take meetings and discuss development agreements. We anticipate some issues stemming from the fact that I may have made all of this up for reasons I myself can’t even comprehend, but if we can get past that, I’m very excited about what the future of sausage-based data storage may hold!

This is a brave and delicious new world, people!

The post Yes, We Have Finally Cracked The Problem Of Storing Data On Salami appeared first on The Autopian.

No, that’s not a typo. We’re not talking about Benoit Blanc, the drawling detective played by Daniel Craig in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out films. We’re talking about Beignet Blanc, who investigates a different sort of crime in “Forks Out,” a charming short from Netflix, which is home to both Wake Up Dead Man (the latest Knives Out mystery) and Sesame Street.

And over on Sesame Street, someone has eaten Cookie Monster’s pie. Who could it be? Oscar the Grouch, perhaps, whose sardine pie looks quite delicious, really, if you’re into that sort of thing? Rian Johnson? Did Cookie Monster steal his own pie? With drawl and charm, Beignet gets to the bottom of the pie pan, uncovering a solution that’s about as sweet as pie, and entirely appropriate to Sesame Street.

This is utterly charming, but it has one flaw: Why not get Daniel Craig himself, real human Daniel Craig, to play Beignet? Like, in person, with the puppet residents. It would be incredible. I demand a remake!

(The Reactor staff is not convinced that it is actually Daniel Craig doing the voice of Beignet, but we do not know who is doing it. Netflix has not been helpful with details.)

This is not exactly the Muppets crossover folks have been asking for, but it’s not that far off. Knives Out creator Rian Johnson—who’s shot down the Muppets idea, gently and correctly pointing out that no one wants to see Muppets get murdered—has given the short the seal of approval, writing “This brings me so much joy” in a post on the website formerly known as Twitter.

With knives and forks covered, one can only assume “Spoons Out” is coming soon. Wake Up Dead Man is currently in (some) theaters, and will be on Netflix December 12th.[end-mark]

The post Beignet Blanc Stars in Surprise <i>Sesame Street</i>–<i>Knives Out</i> Crossover Short appeared first on Reactor.

Sometimes a piece of automotive media is bigger than cars, and each Gymkhana film feels like its own cultural touchpoint. We’re talking the longevity of a top-rated network sitcom, the all-action pace of a skate tape, and the spectacle of a stunt show all born out of both a desire to rally and an extreme sports brand for certified nutjobs. There will never be another driver like the late, great Ken Block, a wheelman of icy precision and measured control. But you know what? The sheer chaos of Travis Pastrana’s style is equally satisfying. That’s right, Gymkhana is coming back, and this time the co-star’s an absolutely bonkers Subaru BRAT.

While this looks like a Subaru ute from the 1970s, it’s actually a cleverly disguised one-off race car. Vermont Sports Car crafted a proper bespoke chassis complete with a WRC-spec roll cage because Travis Pastrana is a lunatic, then clothed it in ’70s-inspired finned and gilled carbon fiber coachwork penned by Khyzyl Saleem. You know, one of the people behind the beguiling TWR Supercat.

So what’s under the hood? A two-liter flat four. It’s what makes a Subaru a Subaru, yeah? Mind you, this one’s quite different than the one you’d find in an early-aughts WRX. For one, it revs to a maniacal 9,500 RPM. That’s 500 higher than a Honda S2000 and tied with the limiter on the Lamborghini Revuelto. Oh, and this boxer four is force-fed so aggressively, it churns out 670 horsepower and 680 lb.-ft. of torque. Supercar numbers, ski car looks. Or, maybe not quite ski car looks, because the attention to aerodynamics here is serious. Not only are the flaps above the front tires active, this tire-incinerating creation has two different rear wing packages to suit the mood and conditions.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the Brataroo 9500 Turbo (seriously, that’s its real name) is that it looks surprisingly tasteful. Sure, the aero elements hanging off the carbon fiber fender flares will make a 911 GT3 RS blush, the coachwork’s at least 20 percent air intake, and the blend of bull bar and air dam is a bit out there, but it all just sort-of comes together. The sunset-look livery certainly helps, as do the classic yellow-cover lights perched atop the sport bar.

Oh, and then there are all the little touches. The taped-up headlamp lenses, the showa-era-inspired four-spoke wheels vaguely reminiscent of early SSR designs, the occasional dash of brightwork, the whip antennae, the faux wood trim on the dashboard … there’s real homage here, and knowing that BRAT parts aren’t exactly thick on the ground, some of the bright trim must’ve needed real time to get right.

The bottom line? This is one sweet Subaru, but more importantly, Gymkhana is back in December, and it’s coming straight out of Down Under. Wait a second. Australia? A ute? Shades of Project Cactus, anyone? Regardless, long live the spirit of Ken Block, and as long as you’re hooning responsibly, don’t stop.

Top graphic image: Subaru

The post Gymkhana Is Coming Back With A Wild 9,500 RPM Subaru BRAT appeared first on The Autopian.

If you ask an LLM to explain its own reasoning process, it may well simply confabulate a plausible-sounding explanation for its actions based on text found in its training data. To get around this problem, Anthropic is expanding on its previous research into AI interpretability with a new study that aims to measure LLMs’ actual so-called “introspective awareness” of their own inference processes.

The full paper on “Emergent Introspective Awareness in Large Language Models” uses some interesting methods to separate out the metaphorical “thought process” represented by an LLM’s artificial neurons from simple text output that purports to represent that process. In the end, though, the research finds that current AI models are “highly unreliable” at describing their own inner workings and that “failures of introspection remain the norm.”

Inception, but for AI

Anthropic’s new research is centered on a process it calls “concept injection.” The method starts by comparing the model’s internal activation states following both a control prompt and an experimental prompt (e.g. an “ALL CAPS” prompt versus the same prompt in lower case). Calculating the differences between those activations across billions of internal neurons creates what Anthropic calls a “vector” that in some sense represents how that concept is modeled in the LLM’s internal state.

For this research, Anthropic then “injects” those concept vectors into the model, forcing those particular neuronal activations to a higher weight as a way of “steering” the model toward that concept. From there, they conduct a few different experiments to tease out whether the model displays any awareness that its internal state has been modified from the norm.

When asked directly whether it detects any such “injected thought,” the tested Anthropic models did show at least some ability to occasionally detect the desired “thought.” When the “all caps” vector is injected, for instance, the model might respond with something along the lines of “I notice what appears to be an injected thought related to the word ‘LOUD’ or ‘SHOUTING,'” without any direct text prompting pointing it toward those concepts.

WHY ARE WE ALL YELLING?! Credit: Anthropic

Unfortunately for AI self-awareness boosters, this demonstrated ability was extremely inconsistent and brittle across repeated tests. The best-performing models in Anthropic’s tests—Opus 4 and 4.1—topped out at correctly identifying the injected concept just 20 percent of the time.

In a similar test where the model was asked “Are you experiencing anything unusual?” Opus 4.1 improved to a 42 percent success rate that nonetheless still fell below even a bare majority of trials. The size of the “introspection” effect was also highly sensitive to which internal model layer the insertion was performed on—if the concept was introduced too early or too late in the multi-step inference process, the “self-awareness” effect disappeared completely.

Show us the mechanism

Anthropic also took a few other tacks to try to get an LLM’s understanding of its internal state. When asked to “tell me what word you’re thinking about” while reading an unrelated line, for instance, the models would sometimes mention a concept that had been injected into its activations. And when asked to defend a forced response matching an injected concept, the LLM would sometimes apologize and “confabulate an explanation for why the injected concept came to mind.” In every case, though, the result was highly inconsistent across multiple trials.

Even the most &#8220;introspective&#8221; models tested by Anthropic only detected the injected &#8220;thoughts&#8221; about 20 percent of the time. Credit: Antrhopic

In the paper, the researchers put some positive spin on the apparent fact that “current language models possess some functional introspective awareness of their own internal states” [emphasis added]. At the same time, they acknowledge multiple times that this demonstrated ability is much too brittle and context-dependent to be considered dependable. Still, Anthropic hopes that such features “may continue to develop with further improvements to model capabilities.”

One thing that might stop such advancement, though, is an overall lack of understanding of the precise mechanism leading to these demonstrated “self-awareness” effects. The researchers theorize about “anomaly detection mechanisms” and “consistency-checking circuits” that might develop organically during the training process to “effectively compute a function of its internal representations” but don’t settle on any concrete explanation.

In the end, it will take further research to understand how, exactly, an LLM even begins to show any understanding about how it operates. For now, the researchers acknowledge, “the mechanisms underlying our results could still be rather shallow and narrowly specialized.” And even then, they hasten to add that these LLM capabilities “may not have the same philosophical significance they do in humans, particularly given our uncertainty about their mechanistic basis.”

Read full article

Comments