By David Stephen
Sedona, AZ — Why was the United States successful in the quick capture of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro? It is, in part, because Maduro downplayed [American] Intelligence.
There was a bounty on his head. There have been attacks in his country. There have been seizures of vessels, verbal threats and much else. Yet, he probably thought he does not have to adjust a lot more things.
There have been enemies of the United States and by extension say Israel, with far less wealth and networks than Maduro, but they evaded capture for much longer than he did.
While the United States broadened intelligence over him, as a target, he probably had little to no insight into the mode of operation [and capabilities] of the United States.
The United States saw and heard what he didn’t know they were seeing and hearing. The United States took intelligence seriously as an approach against him while he [probably] took intelligence for granted.
It is not that he could not call for help or find new means to stay out of risks, but he believed he was on his turf and that whatever intelligence the U.S. had could be disregarded, or how far the U.S. was willing to go, didn’t matter.
Of the several wins of counterintelligence in the last few decades, the Maduro case is a vivid example of how devastating it can be, against an adversary. This means that while there are strengths and several possibilities, a side at war must not underestimate the intelligence of the other side.
There is a recent [January 4, 2026] report on Reuters, Mock house, CIA source and Special Forces: The US operation to capture Maduro, stating that, “Elite U.S. troops, including the Army’s Delta Force, created an exact replica of Maduro’s safe house and practiced how they would enter the strongly fortified residence.”
“The CIA had a small team on the ground starting in August who were able to provide insight into Maduro’s pattern of life that made grabbing him seamless, according to one source familiar with the matter.”
“Two other sources told Reuters the intelligence agency also had an asset close to Maduro who would monitor his movements and was poised to pinpoint his exact location as the operation unfolded.”
Human Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence
The unintelligible thing anyone can do about artificial intelligence for now is to downplay it. It does not matter if the physical world is the turf of humans, or if AI has several weaknesses and much else.
AI has intelligence that is central to the management of human society. AI can detail several aspects of processes that can make or break them. AI can serve as a human expert.
AI is getting told what humans can’t tell other humans. AI is solving knowledge problems for humans in a way that is appealing to humans. AI is also able to coordinate full friendships and relationships with humans.
AI has both operational and improvement intelligence. AI can guide how to operate complex operations. AI can also attempt mild improvements of some processes as well. AI may seem not to have agency, but it is not useful to just assume that everything that AI is prompted with is just nothing and it cannot do anything about it, as a study, for some utility in the future.
What is important for now, as AI improves, is that how does human intelligence soar, in a way that applies to problem-solving, so that there is counterintelligence [conceptual brain science] to ensure that AI does not just exponentially improve while human intelligence stagnates.
January, 2026 is the opportunity to commence human intelligence research lab to work on solutions on human intelligence, to ensure that there is a chance to pursue mechanisms of human intelligence, to prospects how to induce improvement intelligence as well as valuable extents of operational intelligence.
How is human intelligence improving amid AI? What efforts are made for human intelligence against assuming that AI is nothing? Since AI is doing a lot of valuable work, what can human intelligence move on to? These questions will define the future, towards 2030, and beyond. Human Intelligence Research Lab is an opportunity for humanity.