Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
Foxconn Working With Google on Robotics
February 11th, 2014Via: Wall Street Journal: People familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that Foxconn has been working with former Android executive Andy Rubin since last year to carry out the U.S. company’s vision for robotics. To speed up robot deployment at its own factories, Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou met with Rubin in Taipei […]
We Track ‘Em, You Whack ‘Em
February 11th, 2014Via: First Look: The National Security Agency is using complex analysis of electronic surveillance, rather than human intelligence, as the primary method to locate targets for lethal drone strikes – an unreliable tactic that results in the deaths of innocent or unidentified people. According to a former drone operator for the military’s Joint Special Operations […]
U.S. Army Tests Fully Autonomous Convoy
January 31st, 2014Via: Wired: U.S. Army convoys will soon be able to roll into even the roughest of unfriendly foreign urban areas and combat zones without the worry of loss of life, thanks to new technology that will make large vehicles fully autonomous. In demonstrations earlier this month at Fort Hood, Texas, the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive Research, […]
Google and DeepMind Technologies
January 30th, 2014Via: MIT Technology Review: How much are a dozen deep-learning researchers worth? Apparently, more than $400 million. This week, Google reportedly paid that much to acquire DeepMind Technologies, a startup based in London that had one of the biggest concentrations of researchers anywhere working on deep learning, a relatively new field of artificial intelligence research […]
Baltimore: Speed Cameras Issue Hundreds of Thousands of “Erroneous” Tickets
January 28th, 2014Via: Baltimore Sun: Baltimore’s speed cameras likely charged motorists for thousands more erroneous tickets than previously disclosed, according to data from a secret audit conducted for the city last year and obtained by The Baltimore Sun. Consultant URS Corp. evaluated the camera system as run by Xerox State and Local Solutions in 2012 and found […]
Why Are U.S. Corporate Profits So High? Because Wages Are So Low
January 27th, 2014Automation is the key, but this piece doesn’t mention it. The companies have, “Still managed to boost profits beyond anything ever seen before because they’ve got away with employing as few workers as possible at as low a rate as possible.” I’ve got news for Jamie McGeever at Reuters: Companies only ever employ as few […]
Army Studying Replacing Thousands of Grunts with Robots
January 21st, 2014Via: Military Times: During remarks at the Army Aviation Symposium in Arlington, Va., on Jan. 15, Cone quietly dropped a bomb. The Army, he said, is considering the feasibility of shrinking the size of the brigade combat team from about 4,000 soldiers to 3,000 over the coming years, and replacing the lost soldiers with robots […]
47% Of Today’s Jobs Automated In Next Two Decades, “No Country Is Ready For It”
January 20th, 2014What’s the solution, according to the The Economist? Online classes and video games! Via: The Economist: Today’s governments would do well to start making the changes needed before their people get angry.
Law Enforcement Agencies Use of Drones Increasing
January 14th, 2014Via: Washington Post: Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies are increasingly borrowing border-patrol drones for domestic surveillance operations, newly released records show, a harbinger of what is expected to become the commonplace use of unmanned aircraft by police. Customs and Border Protection, which has the largest U.S. drone fleet of its kind outside the […]
U.S. Military on Path to Become Google’s Single Largest Customer
January 10th, 2014Via: DailyCaller: Google CEO Larry Page has rapidly positioned Google to become an indispensable U.S. military contractor. Google recently purchased Boston Dynamics, a robotics pioneer that produces amazing humanoid robots for the U.S. Defense Department. This development invites attention to Google’s broader military contracting ambitions — especially since Boston Dynamics is the eighth robotics company […]
