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.
Disney’s ‘FaceDirector’ Software
December 14th, 2015Via: Engadget:
The new tool out of Disney Research’s labs could turn an ingénue’s semi-decent attempt into a finely nuanced performance. This software called FaceDirector has the capability to merge together separate frames from different takes to create the perfect scene. It does that by analyzing both the actor’s face and audio cues to identify the frames that correspond with each other. As such, directors can create brand new takes during post-production with zero input from the actor. They don’t even need specialized hardware like 3D cameras for the trick — it works even with footage taken by regular 2D cams.
Source: FaceDirector: Continuous Control of Facial Performance in Video
LG Chem Quietly Surges in Battery Race
December 14th, 2015Via: Automotive News:
Three years ago, LG Chem’s $303 million battery plant garnered unwanted attention when news reports revealed workers were watching movies and playing cards rather than building batteries.
As the facility sat idle, LG Chem was shipping lithium ion batteries from South Korea to power General Motors’ Chevrolet Volt — an embarrassment since the Michigan plant had been built with the aid of federal grants.
The slow days are now gone. Two of the three assembly lines operate 24 hours a day, and the plant is adding a fourth production line for an as-yet-unnamed customer. The plant also is expected to produce batteries for GM’s next electric car, the Chevrolet Bolt, although LG Chem has not yet confirmed that.
Add it all up, and LG Chem appears likely to beat Tesla to the punch as the operator of North America’s first battery “gigafactory,” the name Tesla has given to the giant battery plant it is building in Nevada.
Tesla’s plant has drawn headlines, but LG Chem quietly has positioned its Holland plant to be a formidable competitor and possibly the market leader. Navigant, a research firm based in Chicago, estimates the LG Chem factory could account for as much as one quarter of North America’s total EV battery capacity by 2017.
The plant produces 650 megawatt-hours worth of battery cells annually, according to Navigant — a production rate that could rise to 3 gigawatt-hours within a couple of years. If so, the Holland plant will be North America’s biggest EV battery plant.
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 came to a screeching halt.
…
Honig told MailOnline Travel that the airline’s chief operating officer assured passengers an ‘indicator’ was responsible for the aborted takeoff.
He said the executive told those on board that the A350’s computer system decided the 11,000ft runway was ‘too short’ and applied the brakes at full force on its own.
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.
Daimler Is Reusing Electric Vehicle Batteries to Store Renewable Energy
December 10th, 2015Via: Ars Technica:
When electric vehicle batteries get long in the tooth, they have to be replaced because they’ll start experiencing power loss—which will mean reduced vehicle performance. But what happens to those old batteries after they’re replaced is important if you’re judging a car on how environmentally friendly it is.
To this end, automaker Daimler recently announced that it plans to connect the old lithium-ion cells to the grid in Lünen, Germany, building the world’s largest stationary storage facility made out of re-used electric vehicle batteries. The system will allow renewable energy that’s generated in that area to be stored and given back to the grid to level out energy fluctuation that might occur if, say, those same generating sources went offline due to equipment failure, a cloudy day, or a drop in wind power. Generally, burning extra fossil fuel is required to stabilize the grid.
“Depending on the model, Daimler AG guarantees its electric vehicle customers a battery life of up to ten years, “ the company wrote in a press release. “However, the battery systems are still fully operational after this point, as the low levels of power loss are only of minor importance when used in stationary storage. It is estimated that the unit can operate efficiently in a stationary application for at least another ten years.”
Daimler’s first stationary storage unit will be able to provide 13MWh of electricity and is slated to come online in the beginning of 2016. A spokesperson for the company told Ars that “further projects are already being planned.”
Zombies Appear in U.S. Oilfields as Crude Plumbs New Lows
December 10th, 2015Via: Reuters:
Drained by a 17-month crude rout, some U.S. shale oil companies are merely hanging on for life as oil prices lurch further away from levels that allow them to profitably drill new wells and bring in enough cash to keep them in business.
The slump has created dozens of oil and gas “zombies,” a term lawyers and restructuring advisers use to describe companies that have just enough money to pay interest on mountains of debt, but not enough to drill enough new wells to replace older ones that are drying out.
Though there is no single definition of a zombie, most investors and analysts consulted by Reuters say they tend to have exceptionally high debt loads and face the prospect of shrinking oil reserves.
About two dozen oil and gas companies whose debt Moody’s rates toward the bottom of its junk bond scale broadly fit that description. Investors and analysts mentioned SandRidge Energy Inc., Comstock Resources, and Goodrich Petroleum Co as some of that group’s more prominent members.
To stay alive, zombie companies have curbed costly drilling and are using revenue from existing production to pay interest and other expenses in a process some describe as “slow-motion liquidation.”
Ford to Spend $4.5 Billion by 2020 on Electric Vehicles
December 10th, 2015Via: Detroit Free Press:
Ford announced its largest five-year investment ever in electrified vehicles, with a pledge to spend $4.5 billion and introduce 13 new models by 2020, CEO Mark Fields announced today.
Fields said 40% of nameplates globally will be electrified by the end of the decade, up from 13% now. They will be a mix of hybrids, plug-in hybrids and full battery-powered electric vehicles.
It’s a move driven by customer demand as well as the need to meet fuel efficiency standards, Fields said.
Among the plans is an update to the Ford Focus electric vehicle coming at the end of 2016 for North America and Europe. It will have an improved range of 100 miles and can reach 80% of its charge in 30 minutes, considered the maximum length of time consumers will easily tolerate. The current Focus Electric has a range of 76 miles and can be fully charged in 3.5 hours with a 240-volt outlet. Getting to an 80% charge takes about 2.5 hours.
Even with a 100-mile range, it’s still a far cry from the Chevrolet Bolt electric car’s 200 mile range that General Motors plans to show next month at the 2016 CES electronics show. The Bolt is expected to go on sale in 2017. Tesla is working on its 200-mile Model 3 electric car, and Audi has an SUV in development for 2018 that aims to travel 300 miles between charges.
Witness Describes San Bernardino Shooters as Three Tall White Men
December 10th, 2015Via: CBS:
Sally Abdelmageed works at the Inland Regional Center and saw the attackers enter the building. Scott Pelley spoke with her by phone.
