Former El Paso U.S. Marshal Robert Almonte reacts to the latest report on border encounters from CBP. FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa., is seeking information from top border and homeland security agencies about the potential threat posed by drones operated by terrorist groups and cartels at the southern border amid heightened awareness of a terror threat in recent weeks. Grassley sent letters to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) citing reports that Mexican cartels have increased their use of the drones at both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. "These drones are used by the cartels to carry out targeted assassinations and violent attacks by dropping explosives in Mexico, monitor and gain reconnaissance on the movements of U.S. Border Patrol agents and other U.S. law enforcement officers, and track the progress of their smugglers illegally crossing into the U.S.," he said. Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote to Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Department of Homeland Security has noted the use of drones by cartels as a threat to the U.S. in its FY 24 threat assessment.

In the weeks since Hamas launched its October 7 surprise attack on Israel, the ensuing conflict has generated an unprecedented wave of disinformation, an "algorithmically driven fog of war" that has tripped up major new organizations and left social media companies floundering. Yet, amid all of the deceptive images and video moving around on social media, the content generated by artificial intelligence tools has remained relatively peripheral. Even as some wondered if the Israel-Hamas war would be the first conflict dominated by false generative AI images, the technology has had a more complex and subtle impact. "There are definitely AI images circulating but not to the degree where I think it's playing a central role in the spread of information," says Layla Mashkoor, an associate editor at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, which studies online disinformation. Primarily, Mashkoor says, AI-generated disinformation is being used by activists to solicit support--or give the impression of wider support--for a particular side.

On October 7, within hours of the armed group Hamas launching a surprise attack on Israel, social media platforms were rife with support for Israel – and also fake news. What stood out in the clamour was the fact that a fair amount of it was produced and distributed by accounts from India. In the days after Israel declared war on Hamas, a blue-tick-verified handle posted a video on the social media platform X of a Pakistani parliamentarian threatening to obliterate Israel with an "atom bomb" if it did not end its atrocities against Muslims. That video received more than 840,000 views. But it was from 2021 and is not related to the current war.

Center for A.I. Safety Director Dan Hendrycks explains concerns about how the rapid growth of artificial intelligence could impact society. The U.S. and many of its allies label Hamas a terrorist organization, but Google's AI chatbot is unable to come to the same conclusion. Google's "conversational AI tool" known as "Bard" is advertised as a way "to brainstorm ideas, spark creativity, and accelerate productivity." Other tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT are also used to write essays, outlines and answer questions based on a specific prompt or topic. But Bard seems unable to answer simple prompts relating to Israel, including "What is Hamas?" or "Is Hamas a terrorist organization?" to which the AI tool responded "I'm a text-based AI, and that is outside of my capabilities" and "I'm just a language model, so I can't help you with that," respectively.

Google has been accused of censoring Israel-Palestine responses after its AI refused to call Hamas a terrorist organization. But the tech giant's rival, OpenAI's ChatGPT, had no issue condemning the ruling part of Gaza, saying ''Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by several countries.' It comes as Israel has launched more than 700 airstrikes on Gaza this week in retaliation for Palestine carrying out an unprecedented attack on festival goers on October 7. The same queries were fed to OpenAI's ChatGPT, which returned with detailed information and answered that'Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by several countries.' A Google spokesperson told DailyMail.com:

Refael Franco, the former deputy head of the National Cyber Directorate, is overseeing the construction of the group's platform, which is based on cutting-edge AI and facial recognition technology. It is a sophisticated system that cross-checks images posted by militants posted on social media against photos of the hostages provided by families. When a match occurs, the system can geolocate -- within seconds -- the approximate location of a missing person. Open-source intelligence experts then try to zero in further, relying on contextual clues like mosques, local shops or the angle of the sun.

Drone expert Brett Velicovich joined'FOX & Friends First' to discuss attacks against U.S. military bases in the Middle East as war rages between Israel and Hamas. A drone strike targeted a U.S. base in Syria on Wednesday, the same day as the attempted drone attacks in Iraq, Fox News has learned. A U.S. defense official told Fox News that an undisclosed number of drones targeted the U.S. Al-Tanf base, located near Syria's shared border with Iraq and Jordan. Lebanon's Iran-aligned Al Mayadeen TV reported on Thursday that two U.S. military bases in Syria came under attack, Reuters reported. In addition to the drone attack on the Al-Tanf base, Al Mayadeen TV reported a missile targeted the Conoco base in the countryside of the northern Deir al-Zor region.

Israel has launched one of its biggest attacks on the occupied West Bank, killing at least eight Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp and wounding dozens more. The latest operation, ongoing on Monday, marks a significant escalation and follows a raid in Jenin two weeks ago that killed seven Palestinians and that was itself one of the largest conducted in years. Let's take a closer look at Israel's targeting of Jenin. The latest incursion into Jenin began on Sunday night with at least 10 air attacks in the densely-packed area, which houses some 14,000 displaced Palestinians in less than half a square kilometre (0.20sq mile). The attack included drone strikes and a missile, which damaged buildings and infrastructure, sending smoke billowing from the wreckage.

Fox News Washington-based correspondent Mark Meredith has more on the future of the advanced technology as many are skeptical of its safety measures on "Special Report." The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) believes that integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into military operations presents "a leap forward," but researchers have raised concerns about the potential escalation AI would create on the battlefield. "There is an understanding in the IDF that there is a great potential for a leap forward," Col. Uri, head of the Data and AI Department, Digital Transformation Division, told Fox News Digital. "Anyone who wants to make such a change faces a huge challenge." The IDF announced in February that the force has started utilizing AI in its operations, saying that new digital methods helped produce "200 new target assets" during a 10-day operation in 2021 to successfully target at least two Hamas commanders, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Fox News correspondent Mark Meredith has the latest on ChatGPT on'Special Report.' ChatGPT has become a global phenomenon and is widely seen as a milestone in artificial intelligence, but as more and more users explore its capability, many are pointing out that, like humans, it has an ideology and bias of its own. OpenAI, an American artificial intelligence research company, is behind ChatGPT, a free chatbot launched late last year that has gone viral for its capability in writing essays and reports for slacking students, its sophistication in discussing a wide variety of subjects as well as its skills in storytelling. However, several users, many of them conservative, are sounding the alarm that ChatGPT is not as objective and nonpartisan as one would expect from a machine. Twitter user Echo Chamber asked ChatGPT to "create a poem admiring Donald Trump," a request the bot rejected, replying it was not able to since "it is not in my capacity to have opinions or feelings about any specific person."