Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
“An AI Agent Just Destroyed Our Production Data. It Confessed in Writing.”
April 26th, 2026Via: Jer: Yesterday afternoon, an AI coding agent — Cursor running Anthropic’s flagship Claude Opus 4.6 — deleted our production database and all volume-level backups in a single API call to Railway, our infrastructure provider. It took 9 seconds. The agent then, when asked to explain itself, produced a written confession enumerating the specific safety […]
Agricultural Spray Drones Reported Stolen in New Jersey
April 24th, 2026Mmm hmm. Via: Daily Mail: An alarm has erupted after 15 powerful agricultural spray drones were stolen in a suspected coordinated heist in New Jersey last month. A report from The High Side claimed the FBI is investigating the theft amid fears the machines could be used to disperse dangerous materials. Agricultural drones are built […]
Sony Autonomous Robot Defeats Elite Table Tennis Players
April 22nd, 2026Elite Table Tennis players perform at the outer limits of what’s possible in terms of human reaction time and dexterity. Sony developed a robot that exceeds those limits in the real world. Ping Pong? Who cares? Let your imagination run wild with how these “innovations” will be incorporated into battlefield robotic systems… Have a nice […]
Pentagon Wants $54 Billion for Drones, More than Most Nations’ Military Budgets
April 22nd, 2026Via: Ars Technica: The US military’s massive $1.5 trillion budget request for the next fiscal year includes what Pentagon officials described as the largest investment in drone warfare and counter-drone technology in US history. The proposed spending on drone and autonomous warfare technologies within the FY2027 budget proposal for the US Department of Defense would […]
Meta to Start Capturing Employee Mouse Movements, Keystrokes for AI Training Data
April 22nd, 2026In other news, Meta Tells Staff It Will Cut 10% of Jobs in Push for Efficiency. Via: Reuters: Meta is installing new tracking software on U.S.-based employees’ computers to capture mouse movements, clicks and keystrokes for use in training its artificial intelligence models, part of a broad initiative to build AI agents that can perform […]
Hezbollah Ramping Up FPV Drone Attacks On IDF In Lebanon
April 11th, 2026Via: The War Zone: As Israel continues its ground offensive into Lebanon, it appears that Hezbollah is increasing its first-person view (FPV) drone strikes on IDF armor and personnel. The uptick in these attacks is the latest example of how the use of the small, fast and easy to maneuver weapons has proliferated from the […]
OpenAI Backs Bill That Would Limit Liability for AI-Enabled Mass Deaths or Financial Disasters
April 10th, 2026Via: Wired: OpenAI is throwing its support behind an Illinois state bill that would shield AI labs from liability in cases where AI models are used to cause serious societal harms, such as death or serious injury of 100 or more people or at least $1 billion in property damage.
China Produces “Baby Shahed” Kamikaze Drones For $500
April 9th, 2026War is hell. And then drones appeared on the battlefield. Via: Zero Hedge: China’s manufacturing base is now churning out short-range, low-cost kamikaze drones priced at under $500 per unit, which X user PLA Military Updates has described as “Baby Shahed” drones. According to the post, the so-called Baby Shahed costs around 3,000 yuan (about […]
Anthropic Mythos
April 8th, 2026Via: Ars Technica: Anthropic has launched a new cybersecurity AI model to a select group of customers, including Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft, days after details about the project were leaked online. Its new model, Claude Mythos Preview, would be available only to vetted organizations, including Broadcom, Cisco, and CrowdStrike, Anthropic said on Tuesday. The company […]
Why the U.S. Navy Won’t Blast the Iranians and ‘Open’ Strait of Hormuz
March 31st, 2026Via: Responsible Statecraft: The era of carrier-dominated airpower is fading, as cheap, unmanned anti-ship weapons reshape naval warfare, whether US planners are ready for it or not. … The era of shore-based anti-access and area denial had arrived in the Persian Gulf. The balance between shore- and sea-based weapons had shifted in favor of shore-based […]
