DARPA announces a new type of cryptography to protect the Big Tech firm profits from the dawn of quantum computers and allow backdoor access into 3 trillion internet-connected devices.
by Raul Diego
Continue reading “DARPA Launches Project CHARIOT in Bid to Shield Big Tech Profits” »
Elon Musk’s Neuralink will likely show off its design for a brain-computer interface Friday evening. The concept it unveiled last summer involves surgically implanting it into the brain to detect the activity of neurons. The US military also wants to develop a brain-computer interface, as we explain in this story from October. But here’s the kicker: no surgery required—and the device could be put on and taken off like a helmet or headband.
In August, three graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University were crammed together in a small, windowless basement lab, using a jury-rigged 3D printer frame to zap a slice of mouse brain with electricity.
The brain fragment, cut from the hippocampus, looked like a piece of thinly sliced garlic. It rested on a platform near the center of the contraption. A narrow tube bathed the slice in a solution of salt, glucose, and amino acids. This kept it alive, after a fashion: neurons in the slice continued to fire, allowing the experimenters to gather data. An array of electrodes beneath the slice delivered the electric zaps, while a syringe-like metal probe measured how the neurons reacted. Bright LED lamps illuminated the dish. The setup, to use the lab members’ lingo, was kind of hacky.
Continue reading “The US military is trying to read minds” »
The business part of the expo is interesting as well. Army-2020 includes a record number of participating defense companies, which are showcasing over 28,000 products. The Russian Defense Ministry announced it has 39 contracts worth $15.6 billion ready to be signed during the forum. Participants are hunting for other potential buyers.
Army-2020, the annual defense expo where Russian arms producers show their gear to foreign clients and visitors, has started. Contracts worth billions are expected to be inked between tank races and other entertainment.
Bits of DNA known as gene drives that force themselves through a population could be use maliciously, but thankfully there is a way to detect them before they spread.
Basically it behaves like a bioweapon as it has a spread that has encompassed the earth.
US intelligence officials are probing the possibility that America’s enemies might use the coronavirus as a bioweapon, according to an alarming report.
The Department of Defense is monitoring for the potential of the virus to be weaponized, possibly against prominent, high-level targets, three people close to the matter told Politico.
Continue reading “US defense officials eyeing potential threat of coronavirus as bioweapon” »
The US Air Force just demoed its first flying car. It wants to have 30 different eVTOL craft in its arsenal by 2030, there are many more to come.
It’s extremely difficult to make a fair comparison of US and Chinese spend on technology like AI as funding and research in this area is diffuse. Although China announced ambitious plans to become the world leader in AI by 2030, America still outspends the country in military funding (which increasingly includes AI research), while US tech companies like Google and Microsoft remain world leaders in artificial intelligence.
The Trump administration will likely present today’s news as a counterbalance to its dismal reputation for supporting scientific research. For four years in a row, government budgets have proposed broad cuts for federal research, including work in pressing subjects like climate change. Only the fields of artificial intelligence and quantum computing, with their overt links to military prowess and global geopolitics, have seen increased investment.
“It is absolutely imperative the United States continues to lead the world in AI and quantum,” said US Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios ahead of today’s announcement, according to The Wall Street Journal. “The future of American economic prosperity and national security will be shaped by how we invest, research, develop and deploy these cutting edge technologies today.”
PredaSAR has successfully completed its Critical Design Review (CDR) to begin fabrication, testing and launch of its Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) spacecraft, in partnership with Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems. PredaSAR is building and will operate what is predicted to be the world’s largest and most advanced constellation of SAR satellites. The successful CDR completion marks another major milestone in PredaSAR’s journey and follows its recent announcement of a rideshare partnership with SpaceX to launch its first satellite aboard the Falcon 9 launch vehicle.
PredaSAR spacecraft employ an advanced, proprietary radar payload to create 2D Synthetic Aperture Radar images, 3D reconstructions of objects and the Earth’s surface, and customer-tailored data products. SAR satellites provide high-resolution images at any time of day and in any weather condition, overcoming natural limitations of traditional optical satellites. PredaSAR spacecraft possess the latest in space-proven, high quality satellite systems to support scalable and fully capable operations in any low earth orbit. Leveraging its advanced technologies, PredaSAR will deliver critical insights and data products to military and commercial decision makers at the speed of need.
PredaSAR completes Critical Design Review to begin largest SAR satellite constellation — SpaceWatch. Global.
An adorable little tugboat as long as a Ford F-150 is making the rounds on social media, prompting many to call it the “smallest ship in the U.S. Navy.”
At just 19 feet long, the boat is actually “Boomin Beaver” security tug. Originally built to herd logs in waterways, the Navy boat is now an all-purpose vessel that can tow small ships and deploy floating security fences, ensuring that larger submarines, destroyers, and even aircraft carriers don’t receive unwanted visitors.
⚓️ You like badass boats (no matter how small). So do we. Let’s nerd out over them together.
His motto is “Aim high, fly-fight-win.” But for a top U.S. Air Force fighter pilot and weapons school graduate, aiming high—and in one instance aiming low—wasn’t enough to prevail against an AI opponent in a simulated competition last week.
The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) sponsored the AlphaDogfight trials as part of its effort to use AI to help pilots in realtime combat and encourage developers to sign up for its Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program to design AI defense systems.
Continue reading “Heron AI prevails over human in air combat” »
