Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
Welcome to a New Era of Machine-Driven Warfare
September 3rd, 2019Via: The Atlantic: “There’s no way a human can keep up, so you’ve got to delegate to machines.”
Scammer Successfully Deepfaked CEO’s Voice To Fool Underling Into Transferring $243,000
September 3rd, 2019I don’t entirely believe this one, but it’s interesting if true. When I’ve been in a position to spend tens of thousands of dollars of a company’s money, it never happened based on just a phone call with the CEO. But, hey, these kids today… Via: Gizmodo: The CEO of an energy firm based in […]
Proposal to Use Tech Company Surveillance Platforms to Predict Mass Shooters
September 2nd, 2019Via: Vanity Fair: Donald Trump is finally considering taking action to prevent mass shootings—not by enacting gun-control measures, but with a creepy proposal to somehow identify the “neurobehavioral signs” of “someone headed toward a violent explosive act.” According to the Washington Post, which first reported on the secret project under White House consideration Thursday, the […]
Retrofit Robot Pilot Can Grab Flight Controls, Read Instruments, Take Off, Navigate, Land
August 31st, 2019Does it chat with ATC??? Via: New Scientist: A robot pilot is learning to fly. It has passed its pilot’s test and flown its first plane, but it has also had its first mishap too. Unlike a traditional autopilot, the ROBOpilot Unmanned Aircraft Conversion System literally takes the controls, pressing on foot pedals and handling […]
How to Teach an Iris Scanner That the Eye It’s Looking at Is Dead
August 29th, 2019Via: IEEE: Conventional wisdom has held that the iris begins decaying only minutes after death. Thanks to Maciejewicz’s work, we discovered that wisdom to be wrong: If cadavers are kept cool, the eyes can still be used for identification for up to three weeks postmortem. Researchers had also assumed that recognition systems could not accurately […]
Experimental U.S. Air Force Space Plane Breaks Previous Record for Orbital Spaceflight
August 26th, 2019Via: Space.com: The U.S. Air Force’s X-37B space plane just broke its spaceflight-duration record. At 6:43 a.m. EDT (1043 GMT) today (Aug. 26), the robotic X-37B sailed past the program mark of 717 days, 20 hours and 42 minutes, which was set by the previous mission, known as Orbital Test Vehicle 4 (OTV-4). The current […]
Flawed Algorithms Are Grading Millions of Students’ Essays
August 21st, 2019Via: Vice: Every year, millions of students sit down for standardized tests that carry weighty consequences. National tests like the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) serve as gatekeepers to higher education, while state assessments can determine everything from whether a student will graduate to federal funding for schools and teacher pay. Traditional paper-and-pencil tests have given […]
DARPA: OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) Program
August 9th, 2019Coming to a favela near you! Via: The Verge: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is experimenting with using a swarm of autonomous drones and ground robots to assist with military missions. In a video of a recent test, DARPA showed how its robots analyzed two city blocks to find, surround, and secure a […]
Amazon Delivery Robots Are Officially on the Streets of California
August 8th, 2019Via: zdnet: Amazon has officially rolled out its last-mile delivery robots in a Southern California testbed. Called Scout, the delivery robot is designed to autonomously ferry parcels from urban distribution points to Amazon Prime customers, removing the need for vans and cars in last-mile delivery. Amazon has previously tested its delivery robots in Washington State, […]
Swiss Post Suspends Drone Delivery Service After Second Crash
August 5th, 2019Via: IEEE: For about a year, Swiss Post and Matternet have been collaborating on a drone delivery service in three different cities in Switzerland, with drones ferrying lab samples between hospitals far faster and more efficiently than is possible with conventional ground transportation. The service had made about 3,000 successful flights as of last January, […]
