Lifeboat Foundation

Washington (AFP) — Amazon, Microsoft and Intel are among leading tech companies putting the world at risk through killer robot development, according to a report that surveyed major players from the sector about their stance on lethal autonomous weapons.

Dutch NGO Pax ranked 50 companies by three criteria: whether they were developing technology that could be relevant to deadly AI, whether they were working on related military projects, and if they had committed to abstaining from contributing in the future.

“Why are companies like Microsoft and Amazon not denying that they’re currently developing these highly controversial weapons, which could decide to kill people without direct human involvement?” said Frank Slijper, lead author of the report published this week.

North Korea has miniaturised nuclear warheads and made them small enough to fit on ballistic missiles, Japan believes.

Tokyo defence chiefs warn in a new white paper that North Korea’s military activities pose a ‘serious and imminent threat’.

Continue reading “Japan warns North Korea now has miniaturized nukes” »

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk not only wants to explore Mars, he wants to ‘nuke’ it.

In a tweet this week, Musk reiterated calls to ‘Nuke Mars!’ adding that t-shirts are ‘coming soon.’

Continue reading “Elon Musk back to promoting bombing Mars with nuclear weapons” »

Robots from all over the world are about to go on a subterranean adventure, competing against each other in mining tunnels to determine which ones can best navigate and find objects underground and do so autonomously.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is hosting the Subterranean Challenge Systems Competition on Aug. 15–22 in Pittsburgh as a way to develop technology for the military and first responders to map and search subterranean areas.

Harvard University researchers have developed a new powered exosuit that can make you feel as much as a dozen pounds lighter when walking or running. Scientific American reports that the 11-pound system, which is built around a pair of flexible shorts and a motor worn on the lower back, could benefit anyone who has to cover large distances by foot, including recreational hikers, military personnel, and rescue workers.

According to the researchers, who have published their findings in the journal Science, this system differs from previous exosuits because it’s able to make it easier to both walk and run. The challenge, as shown by a video accompanying the research, is that your legs work very differently depending on whether you’re walking or running. When walking, the team says your center of mass moves like an “inverted pendulum,” while running causes it to move like a “spring-mass system.” The system needs to be able to accommodate both of them, and sense when the wearer’s gait changes.

Over-conservative climate scenarios mean we could face ‘world of outright chaos’, says analysis authored by former fossil fuel executive and backed by former head of Australia’s military.

Robots are about to go underground — for a competition anyways.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the branch of the U.S. Department of Defense dedicated to developing new emerging technologies, is holding a challenge intended to develop technology for first responders and the military to map, navigate, and search underground. But the technology developed for the competition could also be used in future NASA missions to caves and lava tubes on other planets.

Continue reading “NASA Robots to Compete in Underground Challenge in Mining Tunnels” »

No one needs intelligence more than the military. That’s why the U.S. armed forces and intelligence services are working on a stunning array of pioneering brain development techniques that could one day make their way into civilian life. “The sophistication of our weapons and communications technologies in the Navy and elsewhere is growing dramatically,” says Harold Hawkins, a cognitive psychologist and the director of a program at the Office of Naval Research studying brain training. “To have intellectually stronger people to deal with these new systems is going to be critical.”

The Army, Navy and Air Force are all funding substantial research programs, but a $12 million program approved in January by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) is one of the largest. It will pay for the first year of a planned three-and-a-half-year program called Strengthening Human Adaptive Reasoning and Problem-solving (SHARP).

The SHARP program is studying techniques both ancient and avant-garde, from meditation to low-dose electrical stimulation of the brain, with an aim toward making intelligence analysts, well, more intelligent. Also on the drawing board are large-scale studies of computerized games that have shown promise in smaller studies for strengthening “working memory” — the critical-thinking ability to not simply remember facts and figures but to juggle and manipulate them. “If these interventions are actually doing what we think they’re doing,” says Adam Russell, a neuroscientist and the SHARP program’s manager at IARPA, “we should be able to demonstrate that with large numbers of participants, strong metrics and a real-world test battery.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Earthquakes that struck California last month caused more than $5 billion in damage to Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, a sprawling desert facility where some of the military’s most advanced weapons are tested, according to an estimate made public Wednesday.

A survey of nearly 3,600 buildings conducted over 13 days found that repairing or replacing damaged base buildings alone will cost about $2.2 billion, including hangars, repair facilities, offices, a laboratory, 22 ammunition magazines, an air traffic control tower and even a gym and pool, according to an overview presented to potential contractors at an Aug. 1 forum. It was posted Wednesday on the webpage of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest.

The base’s total repair and replacement cost of $5.2 billion includes buildings as well as furniture, tools, communications and other specialized equipment.