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I wonder what the Sputnik moment would need to be in the AI race to trigger panic AI research spending in the US. It would probably have to be China hitting AGI first.


Native CPU and accelerator architectures that have been in play on China’s previous large systems have been stepped up to make China first to exascale on two fronts.

The National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi is set to unveil some striking news based on quantum simulation results on a forthcoming homegrown Sunway supercomputer.

The news is notable not just for the calculations, but the possible architecture and sheer scale of the new machine. And of course, all of this is notable because the United States and China are in a global semiconductor arms race and that changes the nature of how we traditionally compare global supercomputing might. We have been contemplating China’s long road to datacenter compute independence, of which HPC is but one workload, and these are some big steps.

The interest of the US air force has been caught by the tech company Twelve’s project that allows the manufacture of a carbon-neutral aviation fuel called E-Jet. It can be used at any place, and it uses carbon dioxide from the air, water, and renewable energy.

Usually, the supply lines of energy, fuel, and water are the main targets for the opposing forces. The US Air Force stated that the attacks on fuel and water convoys in Afghanistan amounted to 30 percent of coalition casualties.

This process is being called “industrial photosynthesis” and makes use of the polymer electrolyte membrane electrolysis. It is a kind of inverted fuel cell, with a metal catalyst installed on a cathode to break down carbon dioxide and water into their component ions and then convert them into oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon monoxide.

Solar activity can heat up so much, in fact, that the Sun’s magnetic poles end up flipping, blasting off massive amounts of solar material in the process.

The strongest X-class solar flare ever recorded was an X28-class flare, meaning that it was 28 times more powerful than the October 28 flare, according to NASA. It may have been even more powerful than that, as the sensors cut out at that level.

These events are the biggest explosions in the solar system and can release as much energy as a billion hydrogen bombs, according to NASA. So even though the Sun enables life on Earth, don’t ever forget its potential for terrible destruction as well.

A scientist who wrote a leading textbook on artificial intelligence has said experts are “spooked” by their own success in the field, comparing the advance of AI to the development of the atom bomb.

Prof Stuart Russell, the founder of the Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence at the University of California, Berkeley, said most experts believed that machines more intelligent than humans would be developed this century, and he called for international treaties to regulate the development of the technology.

If China — and then Russia and other nuclear powers — get gliders, however, these defensive systems will be obsolete. Nuclear payloads could then zip around the South Pole instead, for instance. They’d never even exit the atmosphere. And they could change their trajectory, being controlled all along by a Chinese operator with a joystick.

All this makes China sound menacing and aggressive. In that sense, the news seems to rhyme with revelations that China is also building a couple of hundred silos for more conventional intercontinental missiles that could carry nukes.

In reality, China probably appears so aggressive only because it feels incredibly insecure. The greatest fear in Beijing is that in an escalating conflict — over Taiwan or whatever else — the U.S. might be tempted one day to launch preemptive nuclear strikes to take out all or most of China’s arsenal. The Americans would only contemplate such a drastic step, of course, if they thought that their own defenses could parry any remaining missiles coming from China in retaliation.

The contract is aimed at design demonstration, says the awardee.

The U.S. Army has moved a step closer to a future where it uses directed energy weapons to counter its adversaries. The Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) of the U.S. Army has awarded a contract to General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) and Boeing to develop a prototype of a 300kW-class laser weapon system, a press release said.

In its efforts to strengthen its Short-Range Air Defense (SHORAD), the U.S. military is using multiple approaches. Earlier this week, we reported that General Dynamics was teaming up with Epirus Inc., to deliver a directed energy weapon using high-power microwave technology. The weapon developed through this collaboration will find its way on the Stryker combat vehicles that General Dynamics makes for the U.S. Army.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) has unveiled its new “Army Iron Man” powered exoskeleton system for troops to use on the battlefield and during disaster relief. The first-generation suit was reportedly designed by Taiwan military’s top research body, the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCIST)
The unveiling of what is dubbed as the ‘ironman’ suit comes in the backdrop of rising tensions between Taipei and Beijing.
#Taiwan #IronManSuit #China.
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To keep up with China and Russia. The future of warfare builds on previous successes. And throughout conflicts in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan, the U.S. military possessed an unrivaled advantage in air superiority. But all things change, and to face the possibility of conflict with new and advanced weapons and aircraft from Russia or China, the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) wants to upgrade some of its largest aircraft with cruise missiles, according to a recent solicitation shared on a government website. Specifically, SOCOM’s plans call for equipping AC-130s with cruise missiles, in addition to transforming the MC-130 into a \.


Equipping AC-130s with cruise missiles could prove superfluous.

Unlike the hypersonic missiles that major powers are developing like a second arms race, cruise missiles are a kind of munitions that move at subsonic speeds and fly at low altitudes, increasing the difficulty of detection for enemy forces. But SOCOM also wants the cruise missiles to possess electronic systems that will help them acquire and reacquire targets after being fired from the aircraft. But not everyone at Air Force Operations Command, a subunit of SOCOM, is optimistic about the order. “No matter the threat, air-to-air or air-to-ground, having a precision-guided cruise missile just enhances the performance and capability the AC-130 already has, but I don’t believe that equipping a stand-off precision-guided cruise missile will make it any more relevant, due to capabilities and limitations of the aircraft,” said former AC-130 Gunner B.A., in the Insider report.

“Other aircraft platforms would be a better choice for that type of weapon system,” added B.A. in the report. “The AC-130 was made to sit in the sky, fly counterclockwise in a circle, and engage anyone who is actively engaging the good guys. Precision missiles wouldn’t hurt, but let’s not ‘Call of Duty’ accessorize our AC-130s!” he added, in reference to a highly customizable video game that simulates various military combat scenarios. But while B.A. could be right that the new upgrades wouldn’t make a substantial difference in combat capabilities, the government only recently invested more money in increasing the United States’ combat readiness against potential adversaries, with plans that could take decades to reach fruition. This means that, in the meantime, some may argue that the U.S. should seize every advantage it can, while there’s still time.