Lifeboat Foundation

Deadlines.

You either love them, hate them, or experience both sentiments at the same time.

For AI-based true self-driving cars, there isn’t a human driver involved. Keep in mind that true self-driving cars are driven via an AI driving system. There isn’t a need for a human driver at the wheel, and nor is there normally a provision for a human to drive the vehicle. For my extensive and ongoing coverage of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) and especially self-driving cars, see the l… See more.

Continue reading “The Ardent Belief That We Need A Line In The Sand Deadline For Attaining AI Self-Driving Cars Else We’ll Never Get There” »

The wheeled Jaeger-C is a small machine with a low profile designed to attack from ambush. In some ways, it might be seen as a mobile robotic mine. This is especially true because the makers note it can be remote-controlled or “autonomously with image analysis and trained models linked to robotic actions,” according to a report in Overt Defense. This sounds very much like the sort of deep learning increasingly used for other automatic target recognition, a trend driven by the ready availability of new, low-cost hardware for small uncrewed systems.

The Jaeger-C will sit in ambush in Gaard mode – a long-term silent watch mode – until it detects potential targets. It will then switch into either Chariot mode or Goliath mode depending on whether the targets are personnel or vehicles.

The Air Force’s Skyborg team flew two General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger stealth drones on the “multi-hour” Oct. 26 flight over California. One of the Ave… See more.

Two stealth drones soared over Edwards Air Force Base in California last week, offering some encouraging evidence that the U.S. Air Force’s new drone “brain” not only works—it works with a bunch of different drone types.

The Air Force hopes to install the Skyborg autonomy core system in a wide array of unmanned aerial vehicles. The idea is for the ACS to steer armed drones with minimal human control—even in the heat of battle. That way the drones can fly as robotic wingmen for manned fighters without demanding too much of the busy human pilots.

The value of attending major industry events like Nvidia’s GTC (GPU Technology Conference) is to see what companies are and are not focusing on going forward. Nvidia has transformed the agenda for GTC from gaming into one of the leading AI events. The agenda also includes HPC and data center networking topics, representing other areas Nvidia has been expanding into in the last few years. If the agenda for the upcoming GTC event is any indication, the company has greatly increased its focus on autonomous machines, which includes all forms of robotics.

In addition to autonomous vehicles, this GTC agenda includes more than ten sessions focused on autonomous machines. As the company has done with other market segments, the autonomous machines sessions will bring together experts from academia, the industry, and Nvidia to provide training, industry insights, and technical assistance in AI and robotics. Some of the experts attending include Brian Gerkey, Co-founder and CEO of Open Robotics, Patty Delafuente from the University of Maryland, Ajit Jaokar and Ayşe Mutlu form the University of Oxford, and Johan Barthelemy from the University of Wollongong. There will also be AI and robotics experts from Denso Wave, Digeiz, Hammerson, Integral AI, Milestone Systems, Nota, and SK Telecom presenting at the conference.

American astrophysicists have used the Decadal Survey (DS)—also called Astro 2020 and produced by the National Academies of Science—to recommend a space telescope capable of photographing potentially habitable worlds.

The report recommends that a flagship space observatory will need a six-meter mirror to “provide an appropriate balance between scale and feasibility.”

An eight-meter aperture telescope of the scale of LUVOIR-B would be unlikely to launch before the late 2040… See more.

And it could become a flying taxi service by 2025.

SkyDrive, the Tokyo-based startup developing an eVTOL flying car concept, revealed that it has been granted a safety certificate by Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism (MLIT), a press statement reveals.

Continue reading “It’s Official. Japan Granted a Safety Certificate to a Flying Car, for the First Time” »

Many people develop Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia as they get older. However, others remain sharp well into old age, even if their brains show underlying signs of neurodegeneration.

Among these cognitively resilient people, researchers have identified education level and amount of time spent on intellectually stimulating activities as factors that help prevent dementia. A new study by MIT researchers shows that this kind of enrichment appears to activate a gene family called MEF2, which controls a genetic program in the brain that promotes resistance to cognitive decline.

The researchers observed this link between MEF2 and cognitive resilience in both humans and mice. The findings suggest that enhancing the activity of MEF2 or its targets might protect against age-related dementia.

It’s been a tumultuous 12 months for mainland China’s richest. Shifts in government policy covering the education and tech industries, along with worries about real estate debt, led to many of the country’s largest private-sector companies experiencing steep share declines. A government push to promote “common prosperity” saw tycoons and tech companies announce billions of dollars in donations to social causes.

Yet overall, China’s 100 Richest saw their collective net worth rise from last year’s list. Their total wealth increased to $1.48 trillion from $1.33 trillion a year earlier. Among the biggest gainers were those who benefited from increased sales at companies tied to green energy industries in which China is a global leader, such as lithium-ion batteries. China, the world’s largest auto market, also leads the world in EV sales. The minimum net worth to make the top 100 rose to $5.74 billion from $5.03 billion a year ago.

The second-biggest increase in wealth went to Robin Zeng, chairman of battery-maker Contemporary Amperex Technology, whose fortune increased to $50.8 billion from $20.1 billion last year. That earned him the No. 3 spot on this year’s list.

Billionaire Elon Musk and his Twitter account have had some adventures.

In 2,018 Musk’s tweet that he was “considering taking Tesla private” invited charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission and a $20 million fine.

As the country was locked down in April 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, Musk tweeted: “FREE AMERICA NOW.”