Lifeboat Foundation

Imagine a future full of electric cars where everyone’s a passenger. Where traffic is not only managed but controlled by a digital network. Where on-demand ride-sharing services have become the norm, and the only human drivers are emergency crews behind the wheel of super-fast vintage “antiques” tasked with taking down AI cars that have gone haywire.

Some of that sounds like the vision of today’s automakers, city planners, tech visionaries and the like, who all salivate at the thought of removing the human element from our roadways as much as possible. Recent developments in driverless technology are surprisingly close to the vision of autonomy portrayed in Kōsuke Fujishima’s 2000 Japanese anime series éX-Driver, which has even more to say about what could become our future in transportation.

éX-Driver follows the adventures of Lisa, Lorna, and their new teammate Sōichi as they wrangle autonomous vehicles that have run amok. These out-of-control “AI cars” endanger not only the helpless passengers inside, but other road users as well. Not looking forward to “autonomobiles”? This could be the perfect gig for you.

Continue reading “This Obscure Anime Predicted So Much About The Future Of Cars” »

If you take a selfie with a Samsung phone, you’ll notice your face looks a little different.

The U.S. Air Force got a wakeup call recently when AI software called ALPHA — running on a tiny $35 Raspberry Pi computer — repeatedly defeated retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Gene Lee, a top aerial combat instructor and Air Battle Manager, and other expert air-combat tacticians at the U.S. Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) in Dayton, Ohio. The contest was conducted in a high-fidelity air combat simulator.

According to Lee, who has considerable fighter-aircraft expertise (and has been flying in simulators against AI opponents since the early 1980s), ALPHA is “the most aggressive, responsive, dynamic and credible AI I’ve seen to date.” In fact, he was shot out of the ai r every time during protracted engagements in the simulator, he said.

Continue reading “AI beats top U.S. Air Force tactical air combat experts in combat simulation” »

An artificially intelligent fighter pilot system has defeated two attacking jets in a combat simulation.

The AI, known as Alpha, used four virtual jets to successfully defend a coastline against two attacking aircraft — and did not suffer any losses. It also triumphed in simulation against a retired human fighter pilot.

In their paper, researchers from the University of Cincinnati and defence company Psibernetix describe Alpha as “a deadly opponent”. Reporting on simulated assaults against retired US Air Force colonel Gene Lee, the researchers wrote: “Not only could he not score a kill against it, he was shot out of the air by the reds every time after protracted engagements.”

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AI gets very technical, very quickly, but you don’t have to be an expert to understand the basic ideas.

Scientists are making the big push to send electricity to Earthlings from the final frontier.

Anna Bitong is a Los Angeles-based journalist who has reported for The Acorn Newspapers and City News Service.

A drink containing liquid aspirin could extend the lives of thousands of brain cancer patients, according to breakthrough research.

British experts have found that the simple drug can cross the ‘blood-brain barrier’ — a hurdle which has so far stopped cancer drugs attacking brain tumours.

Scientists will today announce the results of early tests which show liquid aspirin is ten times more effective than any existing chemotherapy at killing brain cancer cells.

Continue reading “How liquid aspirin could help fight brain cancer: Special version of the drug found to be ten times more effective at killing cancer cells than chemotherapy” »

Jia Jia stood near the entrance of the exhibition hall that hosted this year’s 2016 Summer Davos Forum in Tianjin, in a major port city in North China.

She was dressed in a traditional Chinese outfit, hairstyle, complete with a classic hairpin, and immediately caught the attention of passers-by.

Continue reading “Jia Jia the ‘robot goddess’ greets fans in China” »

This table keeps your hot foods warm and your cold foods chilled.

Seriously.