Menu

Blog

Archive for the ‘military’ category: Page 2

Apr 8, 2024

‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza

Posted by in categories: military, robotics/AI

In 2021, a book titled “The Human-Machine Team: How to Create Synergy Between Human and Artificial Intelligence That Will Revolutionize Our World” was released in English under the pen name “Brigadier General Y.S.” In it, the author — a man who we confirmed to be the current commander of the elite Israeli intelligence unit 8,200 — makes the case for designing a special machine that could rapidly process massive amounts of data to generate thousands of potential “targets” for military strikes in the heat of a war. Such technology, he writes, would resolve what he described as a “human bottleneck for both locating the new targets and decision-making to approve the targets.”

Such a machine, it turns out, actually exists. A new investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call reveals that the Israeli army has developed an artificial intelligence-based program known as “Lavender,” unveiled here for the first time. According to six Israeli intelligence officers, who have all served in the army during the current war on the Gaza Strip and had first-hand involvement with the use of AI to generate targets for assassination, Lavender has played a central role in the unprecedented bombing of Palestinians, especially during the early stages of the war. In fact, according to the sources, its influence on the military’s operations was such that they essentially treated the outputs of the AI machine “as if it were a human decision.”

Formally, the Lavender system is designed to mark all suspected operatives in the military wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), including low-ranking ones, as potential bombing targets. The sources told +972 and Local Call that, during the first weeks of the war, the army almost completely relied on Lavender, which clocked as many as 37,000 Palestinians as suspected militants — and their homes — for possible air strikes.

Apr 8, 2024

Shield AI to let Hivemind software fly three more aircraft

Posted by in categories: drones, military, robotics/AI

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Shield AI in the next year plans to have its Hivemind digital pilot working aboard three additional types of aircraft, bringing the total to nine.

The California-based company has already folded the autonomous flight software into three classes of quadcopters, its own V-Bat drone, the F-16 fighter jet and the Kratos-made MQM-178 Firejet drone.

Up next are two more Kratos products, the XQ-58 and BQM-177, according to Brandon Tseng, the president of Shield AI. The firm has not picked a third candidate.

Apr 8, 2024

South Korea launches second military spy satellite

Posted by in categories: existential risks, military, satellites

The Koreas each launched their first spy satellites last year — North Korea in November and South Korea in December — amid heightened animosities. They said their satellites would boost their abilities to monitor each other and enhance their own missile attack capabilities.

South Korea’s second spy satellite was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday evening local time, which was Monday morning in Seoul.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said it confirmed the satellite entered orbit and communicated with an overseas ground station after separation from a rocket.

Apr 8, 2024

Exclusive: Phase Four Secures a $14.9M DARPA Contract for an Air-Breathing VLEO System

Posted by in categories: military, space travel

Congestion in LEO is on its way up, and in response, the US military is looking to move down.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has tapped RF-powered in-space propulsion pioneer Phase Four to develop and build a thruster that utilizes the thin air in VLEO as propellant.

Apr 8, 2024

A Molecule That Could Help Treat Traumatic Brain Injury is Identified

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, military, neuroscience

While an estimated 5 million Americans live with a disability that is related to traumatic brain injury (TBI), there are few treatment options for TBIs, which can affect people in a number of occupations like professional sports or some military positions, as well as anyone who suffers head trauma. But scientists have now found that a protein called TDP-43 may promote nerve damage immediately following an injury. When another protein was blocked in a mouse model and in human cell lines, this TDP-43-mediated damaged was prevented and some cell death was halted. These findings, which were reported in Cell Stem Cell, could help scientists develop treatment options for TBIs.

“There’s really nothing out there that can prevent the injury or trauma to the brain that cause nerve cell damage,” said corresponding study author Justin Ichida of the University of Southern California. “In more acute stages, patients can have difficulty concentrating and have extreme sensitivity to light and noise. Long term, there is a strong correlation between traumatic brain injury and neurodegenerative diseases, which can ultimately be fatal.”

Apr 6, 2024

China’s Aircraft Carrier Sacrificed?25-Year Electromagnetic Launch Research May Destroy Its Aircraft

Posted by in category: military

The development of electromagnetic catapults on China’s Fujian aircraft carrier began in 2001, which drew experience from the Shanghai Maglev Train project at the time. Land-based testing of the electromagnetic catapult for this Type 3 aircraft carrier can be traced back to 16 years ago. China has kept quiet about it, but satellite images from Western companies unveiled the truth.

#chinaaircraft #chinaobserver.

Continue reading “China’s Aircraft Carrier Sacrificed?25-Year Electromagnetic Launch Research May Destroy Its Aircraft” »

Apr 5, 2024

Newly Approved Rapid Blood Test for Traumatic Brain Injury Could Speed Up Treatment for Troops

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, military, neuroscience

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a blood test to detect concussion that produces results in minutes rather than hours — a breakthrough that could help expedite treatment for service members with traumatic brain injuries, according to the U.S. Army and Abbott Laboratories, the…


Read Next: New Cold-Assignment Incentive Pay Coming for Airmen and Guardians at 7 Bases

“This can help get the most severely injured service members to neurosurgeons faster and ultimately save lives,” Lt. Col. Bradley Dengler, neurosurgical consultant to the U.S. Army Office of the Surgeon General, said in a release.

Continue reading “Newly Approved Rapid Blood Test for Traumatic Brain Injury Could Speed Up Treatment for Troops” »

Apr 4, 2024

Pentagon calls for tighter integration between military and commercial space

Posted by in categories: military, space travel

I would have never written the requirements for Starship.

Apr 4, 2024

Holographic Breakthrough: Scientists Create Full-Color 3D Holographic Displays with Ordinary Smartphone Screen

Posted by in categories: computing, holograms, information science, military, mobile phones

In science fiction, holograms are used for anything from basic communications to advanced military weaponry. In the real world, 3D holographic displays have yet to break through to everyday products and devices. That’s because creating holograms that look real and have significant fidelity requires laser emitters or other advanced pieces of optical equipment. This situation has stymied commercial development, as these components are complex and expensive.

More recently, research scientists were able to create realistic 3D holographic images without lasers by using a white chip-on-board light-emitting diode. Unfortunately, that method required two spatial light modulators to control the wave fronts of the emitted light, adding a prohibitive amount of complexity and cost.

Now, those same scientists say they have created a simpler, more cost-effective way to create realistic-looking 3D holographic displays using only one spatial light modulator and new software algorithms. The result is a simpler and cheaper method for creating holograms that an everyday technology like a smartphone screen can emit.

Apr 4, 2024

Using neuromorphic engineering to reinvent visual processing systems with a biological inspiration

Posted by in categories: biological, military, robotics/AI

As computer vision (CV) systems become increasingly power and memory intensive, they become unsuitable for high-speed and resource deficit edge applications — such as hypersonic missile tracking and autonomous navigation — because of size, weight, and power constraints.

At the University of Pittsburgh, engineers are ushering in the next generation of computer vision systems by using neuromorphic engineering to reinvent visual processing systems with a biological inspiration — human vision.

Rajkumar Kubendran, assistant professor in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering and senior member at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), received a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his research on energy-efficient and data-efficient neuromorphic systems. Neuromorphic engineering is a promising frontier that will introduce the next generation of CV systems by reducing the number of operations through event-based computation in a biology-inspired framework.

Page 2 of 29812345678Last