Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
A Silicon Valley for Drones, in North Dakota
December 26th, 2015Via: New York Times: “California and New York want what we’ve got,” said Shawn Muehler, a 30-year-old Fargo resident, gazing at a horizon of empty fields, silos, windbreak trees and hardly any people. A winged craft traces the air, mapping a field with pinpoint accuracy for his start-up, a drone software company called Botlink. “They […]
Google Pairs With Ford To Build Self-Driving Cars
December 22nd, 2015Via: Yahoo Autos: Google and Ford will create a joint venture to build self-driving vehicles with Google’s technology, a huge step by both companies toward a new business of automated ride sharing, Yahoo Autos has learned. According to three sources familiar with the plans, the partnership is set to be announced by Ford at the […]
Guy Builds Self Driving Car in His Garage with Commodity Computer Gear and Linux
December 16th, 2015Via: Bloomberg: Hotz’s approach isn’t simply a low-cost knockoff of existing autonomous vehicle technology. He says he’s come up with discoveries—most of which he refuses to disclose in detail—that improve how the AI software interprets data coming in from the cameras. “We’ve figured out how to phrase the driving problem in ways compatible with deep […]
The High-Stakes Race to Rid the World of Human Drivers
December 14th, 2015Via: The Atlantic: The race to bring driverless cars to the masses is only just beginning, but already it is a fight for the ages. The competition is fierce, secretive, and elite. It pits Apple against Google against Tesla against Uber: all titans of Silicon Valley, in many ways as enigmatic as they are revered. […]
OpenAI Hopes to Prevent Superintelligence Doom
December 14th, 2015Via: Medium: Essentially, OpenAI is a research lab meant to counteract large corporations who may gain too much power by owning super-intelligence systems devoted to profits, as well as governments which may use AI to gain power and even oppress their citizenry.
Air Force proposes $3-Billion Plan to Vastly Expand Its Drone Program
December 14th, 2015Via: Los Angeles Times: The Air Force wants to vastly expand its drone program over the next five years by doubling the number of pilots and deploying them to bases in California and elsewhere to give commanders better intelligence and more firepower.
Autonomous System Aborts Takeoff of Qatar Airways Airbus A350 Rolling Down Runway at Full Throttle
December 13th, 2015Via: Daily Mail: It was meant to celebrate an aircraft model’s first-ever journey from the US, but this Qatar Airways charter flight carrying journalists and staff didn’t go as planned. Nerve-wracking footage shows the moment the Airbus A350-900 XWB abandoned its takeoff attempt as it sped along a runway at New York’s JFK Airport and […]
Tokyo Police Launch Drone Designed To Take Down Other Drones
December 13th, 2015Via: NPR: In Tokyo, police will soon deploy a drone designed to take out suspicious drones or drones that enter into restricted airspace.
Will Your Driverless Car Kill You So Others May Live?
December 10th, 2015Via: Los Angeles Times: It’s 2025. You and your daughter are riding in a driverless car along the Pacific Coast Highway. The autonomous vehicle rounds a corner and detects a crosswalk full of children. It brakes, but your lane is unexpectedly full of sand from a recent rock slide. It can’t get traction. Your car […]
U.S. Drone Whistleblowers Have Their Bank Accounts Frozen
December 7th, 2015Via: Hang the Bankers: The U.S. Government failed to deter them through threats of criminal prosecution, and clumsy attempts to intimidate their families. Now four former Air Force drone operators-turned-whistleblowers have had their credit cards and bank accounts frozen, according to human rights attorney Jesselyn Radack. “My drone operators went public this week and now […]
