Lifeboat Foundation

At the Disrupt SF 2017 Hackathon, a massive swath of the 102 companies that took the stage on Sunday presented hacks with disaster relief in mind. From ResQme to ResQMi to RescueMe, if you can think of a phrase with the word “rescue” in it, it probably showed up on stage among the roughly 30 emergency and disaster related hacks.

Most of the disaster-related apps that presented today mentioned the recent events of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma in their pitches, observing that tech should be able to pair victims, resources and rescue workers far better than existing services. Many of the rescue-oriented apps that took the stage acknowledged that mobile data services usually go down during these events and the vast majority of them offered an SMS-based version of their hack.

Continue reading “Disaster relief hacks dominate the stage at the Disrupt SF 2017 Hackathon” »

For millennials and the generations to follow, the future will differ radically from their parents’ world. Massively powerful digital technologies will bring seismic changes in the lifestyles, opportunities, privileges and choices experienced by young people compared to their parents.

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Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your Automaton bloggers. We’ll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next two months; here’s what we have so far (send us your events!):

Trouble with spying neighbors? Annoyed by teenage pranks? Concerned about terrorists? Kalashnikov has the answer — the new REX-1 Drone Killing Gun — “Looking at the market, I think the civilian version of our system could cost around $5,000…”

General Atomics is working hard to put a close cousin of its Reaper anti-terrorism drone in the hands of local law enforcement.

This post is also available in: עברית ( Hebrew )

In a few months, the U.S Air Force and SOFWERX will pit UAV s against each other in a rumble-style experiment to gather data on drone operations, the Air Force’s secretary, Heather Wilson, said. The competition, called the ThunderDrone Rapid Prototyping Event will “investigate forms, platforms, effects and data science for small unmanned aerial vehicles,” said Wilson.

According to nationaldefensemagazine.org, SOFWERX, an initiative that facilitates rapid prototyping and technology experimentation between U.S. Special Operations Command and members of non-traditional industry and academia, is planning events related to ThunderDrone beginning in early September with a technology exposition. The event is meant to help “completely change the face of drone warfare,” and will be “a living test bed” for creating a drone marketplace, according to SOFWERX. Additionally, it will enable experimentation along with rapid prototyping.

Continue reading “Testing Drones in Combat” »

Rooting for the AI’s.

Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing warfare and espionage in ways similar to the invention of nuclear arms and ultimately could destroy humanity, according to a new government-sponsored study.

Advances in artificial intelligence, or AI, and a subset called machine learning are occurring much faster than expected and will provide U.S. military and intelligence services with powerful new high-technology warfare and spying capabilities, says a report by two AI experts produced for Harvard’s Belfer Center.

Continue reading “Inside the Ring: Report: AI threatens humanity” »

According to a center spokesman, the gun emits separate electromagnetic pulses to suppress channels used to operate a drone. As a result, the drone loses contact with its operator, while its uncontrolled flight ends in a crash. The spokesman added that the Stupor gun had a range of two kilometers, covering a 20 degree sector.

Support documentation explains that the device is capable of suppressing navigation and transmission channels used by unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as their photo and video cameras within the electro-optical range of frequencies.

The gun can be charged from the grid, as well as from a car battery.

Continue reading “Russian Defense Ministry develops electromagnetic gun to counter drones” »

SpaceX head Elon Musk and other industry leaders write that autonomy will lead to wider and faster war.

The prospect of tanks, machine guns, and drones that think for themselves becoming widespread is giving tech luminaries the heebie-jeebies.

In an open letter today (Aug. 21), a group of specialists from 26 nations called for the United Nations to ban the development and use of autonomous weapons. The signatories include Tesla CEO Elon Musk and DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, as well as other leaders in robotics and artificial-intelligence companies. (Google acquired DeepMind in 2014.)

Continue reading “‘We Do Not Have Long to Act’: Tech Heads Warn UN About Autonomous Arms” »