Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
Google Chrome Downloading 4GB AI Model to Your Device Without Asking, Re-Downloads When You Delete It
May 5th, 2026Firefox has a single kill switch for all AI features. Go to Settings – AI Controls – Toggle on, “Block AI enhancements.” Via: Techspot: Google started turning Chrome, the world’s most popular web browser, into an AI browser last year in response to threats from popular AI-native rivals such as OpenAI. Recent reports have uncovered […]
“I’m Scared About Biological Computing”
May 5th, 2026Via: Mind Dump: So… are the neurons on that chip seeing? We all desperately want to say no. We want to say it’s just a science experiment, that 200,000 neurons isn’t enough to be a “person.” But 200,000 is already more neurons than a jellyfish or a worm. Where do we draw the line?
Israel Tries Cope Cages Against Hezbollah’s Drones
April 30th, 2026Via: The War Zone: Over the course of a nearly two-month old war with Israel, Hezbollah has been increasing its use of fiber-optic controlled first-person view (FPV) drones against Israeli troops and vehicles, something we were among the first to note. Now, it appears that Israel is resorting to the use of anti-drone netting on […]
Google and Pentagon Reportedly Agree on Deal for ‘Any Lawful’ Use of AI
April 28th, 2026Via: The Verge: Google has signed a classified deal that allows the US Department of Defense to use its AI models for “any lawful government purpose,” The Information reports. The agreement was reported less than a day after Google employees demanded CEO Sundar Pichai block the Pentagon from using its AI amid concerns that it […]
“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 […]
