Deep in the Pentagon, a Secret AI Program to Anticipate the Launch of Nuclear Missiles
June 5th, 2018First, we take some W.O.P.R.
Next, we stir in a pinch of SkyNet
And then…
Via: Reuters:
The U.S. military is increasing spending on a secret research effort to use artificial intelligence to help anticipate the launch of a nuclear-capable missile, as well as track and target mobile launchers in North Korea and elsewhere.
The effort has gone largely unreported, and the few publicly available details about it are buried under a layer of near impenetrable jargon in the latest Pentagon budget. But U.S. officials familiar with the research told Reuters there are multiple classified programs now under way to explore how to develop AI-driven systems to better protect the United States against a potential nuclear missile strike.
If the research is successful, such computer systems would be able to think for themselves, scouring huge amounts of data, including satellite imagery, with a speed and accuracy beyond the capability of humans, to look for signs of preparations for a missile launch, according to more than half a dozen sources. The sources included U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the research is classified.
Forewarned, the U.S. government would be able to pursue diplomatic options or, in the case of an imminent attack, the military would have more time to try to destroy the missiles before they were launched, or try to intercept them.
Homeland Security to Compile Database of Journalists, Bloggers
June 5th, 2018Via: Bloomberg Government:
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to monitor hundreds of thousands of news sources around the world and compile a database of journalists, editors, foreign correspondents, and bloggers to identify top “media influencers.”
It’s seeking a contractor that can help it monitor traditional news sources as well as social media and identify “any and all” coverage related to the agency or a particular event, according to a request for information released April 3.
The data to be collected includes a publication’s “sentiment” as well as geographical spread, top posters, languages, momentum, and circulation. No value for the contract was disclosed.
Amazon Using Over 100,000 Warehouse Robots
June 4th, 2018Warehouse robots to the horizon…
Via: MIT Technology Review:
Amazon’s fleet of automated warehouse robots, now more than 100,000 machines strong, is working alongside human employees to help meet the e-commerce giant’s massive fulfillment demand.
The company’s robots carry inventory around massive warehouse floors, compiling all the items for a customer’s order and reducing the need for human interaction with the products. But the chief technologist of Amazon Robotics, Tye Brady, insists that these robots are enhancing human efficiencies rather than eliminating warehouse jobs.
Amazon has been going full steam ahead when it comes to hiring and now employs over 500,000 people. Brady views the robots as necessary to this growth. “When there are tens of thousands of orders going on simultaneously, you are getting beyond what a human can do,” he told the audience at MIT Technology Review’s first EmTech Next conference today.
Bayer to Retire Monsanto Name
June 4th, 2018Via: Reuters:
Germany’s Bayer will wrap up the $63 billion takeover of Monsanto on Thursday and also retire the U.S. seeds maker’s 117 year-old name.
The German drugmaker had received all required approvals from regulatory authorities, it said in a statement on Monday.
“Bayer will remain the company name. Monsanto will no longer be a company name. The acquired products will retain their brand names and become part of the Bayer portfolio,” it said.
McDonald’s to Add Self-Order Kiosks to 1,000 Stores Each Quarter
June 4th, 2018Via: CNBC:
As McDonald’s seeks to modernize its business, the company is placing a big bet on mobile and other tech platforms.
McDonald’s has been systematically adding self-service ordering kiosks and table service to stores as it works to “build a better McDonald’s.”
“What we’re finding is when people dwell more, they select more,” CEO Steve Easterbrook told CNBC on “Squawk on the Street” Monday. “There’s a little bit of an average check boost.”
In fact, the company plans to upgrade 1,000 stores with this technology every quarter for the next eight to nine quarters.
…
International markets like Canada, Australia and the U.K. are already fully integrated with kiosk service and mobile ordering. Locations in France and Germany, too, are almost completely transformed with this new technology.
“The U.S. is a little bit behind,” Easterbrook said.
Secret to Longevity May Lie in the Microbiome and the Gut
June 4th, 2018Via: Nature:
You are what you eat. Or so the saying goes. Science now tells us that we are what the bacteria living in our intestinal tract eat and this could have an influence on how well we age. Building on this, McGill University scientists fed fruit flies with a combination of probiotics and an herbal supplement called Triphala that was able to prolong the flies’ longevity by 60 % and protect them against chronic diseases associated with aging.
…
The fruit fly is remarkably similar to mammals with about 70 % similarity in terms of their biochemical pathways, making it a good indicator of what would happen in humans, adds Prakash.
“The effects in humans would likely not be as dramatic, but our results definitely suggest that a diet specifically incorporating Triphala along with these probiotics will promote a long and healthy life.”
The Singapore Hotel Where Top Brass, Weapons Manufacturers and Spies Rub Shoulders
June 3rd, 2018Via: Reuters:
For the region’s military officers, diplomats, weapons manufacturers and spies, there are few livelier places than the lobby of Singapore’s Shangri-La hotel around mid-year.
Here, beneath pillared ceilings and chandeliers, they gather for an annual informal bash – called the Shangri-La Dialogue – organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Google Promises Ethical Principles to Guide Development of Military AI
May 31st, 2018Update: Leaked Emails Show Google Expected Lucrative Military Drone AI Work to Grow Exponentially
Via: The Intercept:
FOLLOWING THE REVELATION in March that Google had secretly signed an agreement with the Pentagon to provide cutting edge artificial intelligence technology for drone warfare, the company faced an internal revolt. About a dozen Google employees have resigned in protest and thousands have signed a petition calling for an end to the contract. The endeavor, code-named Project Maven by the military, is designed to help drone operators recognize images captured on the battlefield.
Google has sought to quash the internal dissent in conversations with employees. Diane Greene, the chief executive of Google’s cloud business unit, speaking at a company town hall meeting following the revelations, claimed that the contract was “only” for $9 million, according to the New York Times, a relatively minor project for such a large company.
Internal company emails obtained by The Intercept tell a different story. The September emails show that Google’s business development arm expected the military drone artificial intelligence revenue to ramp up from an initial $15 million to an eventual $250 million per year.
In fact, one month after news of the contract broke, the Pentagon allocated an additional $100 million to Project Maven.
The internal Google email chain also notes that several big tech players competed to win the Project Maven contract. Other tech firms such as Amazon were in the running, one Google executive involved in negotiations wrote. (Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.) Rather than serving solely as a minor experiment for the military, Google executives on the thread stated that Project Maven was “directly related” to a major cloud computing contract worth billions of dollars that other Silicon Valley firms are competing to win.
The emails further note that Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing arm of Amazon, “has some work loads” related to Project Maven.
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Tell me another one.
Via: The Verge:
Google is drawing up a set of guidelines that will steer its involvement in developing AI tools for the military, according to reports from The New York Times and Defense One. What exactly these guidelines will stipulate isn’t clear, but Google told the Times they will include a ban on the use of artificial intelligence in weaponry. The principles are expected to be announced in full in the coming weeks. They are a response to the controversy over the company’s decision to develop AI tools for the Pentagon that analyze drone surveillance footage.
Footsteps, Pressure Sensors, and AI: The Next Step in Airport Security
May 31st, 2018Via: EETimes:
The University of Manchester’s school of electrical and electronic engineering, in collaboration with the University of Madrid, has developed a behavioral biometric verification system that can measure a human’s individual gait or walking pattern, enabling successful identification of a person simply as they walk on a pressure pad in the floor and analyzing the footstep’s 3D and time-based data.
With this system, the researchers claim that the way a person walks and analysis of that individual’s footsteps could be used as a biometric at airport security instead of fingerprinting and eye-scanning, providing a non-intrusive method of identity verification.
The results, published in a machine-learning research journal, the IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (TPAMI), earlier this year showed that, on average, the AI system developed correctly identified an individual almost 100% of the time, with just a 0.7% error rate.
Russian Investigative Journalist Killed in Kiev – Update: Arkady Babchenko Is Alive
May 29th, 2018Update: Suspects Linked to Ukrainian Intelligence
Woopsee.
Via: Daily Mail:
The Ukrainian government’s faked assassination of an anti-Putin journalist has raised more questions after one of the would-be killers was revealed to be a well-known Russia-hating former monk.
Boris L. German, 50, appeared in court accused of hiring former monk Oleksiy Tsimbalyuk to carry out the killing of Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko. Tsimbalyuk is alleged to have reported the alleged hit to Ukrainian counter intelligence, the SBU.
Yet Facebook pictures of Tsimbalyuk in the uniform of Right Sector, a Ukrainian ultranationalist that the Kremlin portray as a neo-Nazi group, and as a former deacon in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, has cast doubt on Putin’s involvement.
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Update: Staged His Death in Coordination with Ukrainian Police
Via: Guardian:
Arkady Babchenko, the Russian journalist who was reported to have been shot dead in Kiev, has turned up alive at a news conference in Ukraine.
Babchenko emerged at a police press conference on Wednesday afternoon in front of journalists who had been expecting updates on the investigation into his murder.
Vasily Gritsak, head of the Ukrainian security service, told reporters the agency had faked Babchenko’s death to catch people who were trying to kill him.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian police had said Babchenko, a Kremlin critic and veteran Russian war correspondent, was shot three times in the back as he left his apartment to buy bread. A government official told the media that Babchenko, 41, had died in the ambulance to the hospital.
But on Wednesday, officials said Babchenko staged his death in coordination with Ukrainian police as part of an investigation into threats made against his life. The plan had been in place for more than a month.
Police said they had made one arrest in connection with the operation.
Speaking to journalists, Babchenko apologised, saying: “I have been forced to bury my friends and colleagues many times and I know the sickening feeling.”
Apparently he had not even told his closest family members about the plan.
“Special apologies to my wife, Olechka, there was no other option,” Babchenko said to a room of visibly stunned journalists. “The operation was under preparation for two months.”
It was not immediately clear how Babchenko faking his death led to the apprehension of the suspect.
According to Gritsak, Russian authorities had recruited a former fighter in east Ukraine by offering him $30,000 for the killing.
Wearing a black hoodie and shuffling slightly as he spoke, Babchenko concluded: “I’ve done my work. I’m still alive for the moment.”
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Via: BBC:
Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko has died after being shot near his home in Kiev, Ukrainian police say.
Mr Babchenko, 41, was found bleeding at the entrance to his block of flats by his wife and died in an ambulance.
After writing about a crashed Russian military plane in 2016, Mr Babchenko said he received death threats and left his home country.
He first moved to Prague and later to the Ukrainian capital. He was an outspoken critic of the Kremlin.
