Free Republic

In 2012, Dr. Geoffrey Hinton and two of his students at the University of Toronto made breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) that laid the foundation for where AI is today and where it is going in the future. This week, he quit his job at Google so that he has the freedom to openly speak against his creation.Hinton shares the honorary title “Godfather of AI” with Yoshua Bengio and Yann LeCun, because of their work on deep learning that led to AI as we know it. He also shares the 2018 Turing Award with those men because of the breakthroughs...

Google released Bard in March, an artificial intelligence tool touted as ChatGPT's rival. Just weeks into this public experiment, Bard has already defied expectations and ethical boundaries. In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai admitted that there is a degree of impenetrability regarding generative AI chatbots' reasoning. "There is an aspect of this which we call ... a 'black box.' You know, you don't fully understand," said Pichai. "You can't quite tell why it said this or why it got wrong. We have some ideas, and our ability to understand this gets better...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Drone advances in Ukraine have accelerated a long-anticipated technology trend that could soon bring the world's first fully autonomous fighting robots to the battlefield, inaugurating a new age of warfare.The longer the war lasts, the more likely it becomes that drones will be used to identify, select and attack targets without help from humans, according to military analysts, combatants and artificial intelligence researchers.That would mark a revolution in military technology as profound as the introduction of the machine gun. Ukraine already has semi-autonomous attack drones and counter-drone weapons endowed with AI. Russia also claims to possess...

Fox News host Tucker Carlson draws parallels between the ways Democrats have used Joe Biden, John Fetterman and Greta Thunberg in their quest for power on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.' TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): He had a bad stroke and we feel bad about that. Everyone does. But because of that stroke, Fetterman now needs electronic assistance in order to communicate with other people. He can't talk on his own. It's not a right wing conspiracy theory. It's not QAnon! It's real.In fact, it's so real that his campaign concedes that it's real, that it's true. Fetterman uses a software program...

A Google developer was recently fired for revealing that the tech giant’s AI bot had a mind of its own. The trigger that made him realize that the technology was sentient was a joke it made about Israel not belonging to any religion. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, former Google developer Blake Lemoine explained how he arrived at the conclusion that Google’s AI system, LaMDA was sentient and how a witty response about Israel being run by a philosophy based on a science fiction movie. As part of the process, Lemoine would continually challenge artificial intelligence with nuanced questions...

From Talos, the giant bronze automaton who guarded the princess Europa in ancient Greek myths, to Cylons and Terminators, the idea of artificial humans has both fascinated and creeped us out for centuries. Now, we're closer than ever to making a robot look remarkably like a human, with the development of living robot skin. This icky-looking substance is water repellent, self healing, and has a texture just like our own skin. Because it's actually made of human skin cells. "I think living skin is the ultimate solution to give robots the look and touch of living creatures since it is...

This footage is truly terrifying when you consider the prospect that should scientists transfer the technology to Beijing, or perhaps even the military, they may utilize the superior drone technology to target humans. Watch as the autonomous Chinese drone swarm flies through forest while hunting for humans.EXCLUSIVE: How The Atlantic Council Pulled Over The COVID-19 Matrix On The WorldA swarm of micro-drones maneuvered a thick bamboo forest in China without using GPS, avoiding trees, branches, and brush. The stunning film shows that these drones could one day be employed for search and rescue operations or even more sinister purposes, such...

Singapore has started trialing robots to patrol public areas and deter poor social behaviour in its latest effort to further augment its strong portfolio of surveillance tools. Ranked one of the safest countries in the world, Singapore has put two autonomous robots on trial to detect bad behaviour such as flouting of COVID-19 safety measures, smoking in prohibited areas and the improper parking of bicycles, Singapore's Home Team Science and Technology Agency said in a statement on Sunday. It said the two patrol robots, named Xavier, are equipped with cameras that can detect bad social behaviour and trigger real-time alerts...

AS a soldier runs from the battlefield, he's spotted by a suicide drone loitering in the sky overhead. The killing machine dives down on its target and explodes in a kamikaze attack – without anyone telling it to. t might sound like the stuff of science fiction but killer robots, sometimes called "slaughterbots", are already a reality. Last year, STM Kargu-2 drones hunted down targets in what might be the first instance of artificial intelligence killing on its own initiative. The revelation came after years of experts warning about the dangers of letting machines decide who lives and dies in...

The homeless population in Honolulu can expect a visit sometime soon from a robotic police dog that will scan your eye to make sure you don't have a fever Spot, as its called, is a new law enforcement tool that some police departments are employing for various policing purposes Police experimenting with the four-legged machines say they're just another tool to keep emergency responders out of harm's way as they scout for dangers In Honolulu, the police department spent about $150,000 in federal pandemic relief money to buy their Spot from robotics firm Boston Dynamics The robotic police dog is...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Biden has been hiring door-to-door vaccine evangelists, but as too many people would rather stay home and collect a government paycheck than work for the government and collect a government paycheck, the administration has been having trouble finding enough employees. So, the president has announced a groundbreaking deal with Cyberdyne Systems, a cutting-edge technology company run by an innovative AI system named Skynet, to create an army of vaccine enforcement robots. "Nothing could possibly go wrong here," Biden said. "We'll be sending these nice young metal fellows out into your neighborhood to make sure you're being good little boys...

During operations in Gaza in mid-May, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) used a swarm of small drones to locate, identify and attack Hamas militants. This is thought to be the first time a drone swarm has been used in combat. Drones are usually controlled individually by remote operators, but a swarm is a single networked entity that flies itself using artificial intelligence. It can cover a wide area and keep operating even if it loses many units, and only requires a single

The US Air Force (USAF) has carried out the flight test of a Skyborg autonomy core system (ACS) on board a General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger tactical unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).Skyborg is focused on showcasing an open, modular ACS that can autonomously aviate, navigate, and communicate, and thereby, integrate other advanced capabilities.The two-hour thirty-minute flight test was conducted during the Orange Flag 21-2 Large Force Test Event at Edwards airforce base (AFB) in California.It was part of the Autonomous Attritable Aircraft Experimentation (AAAx) campaign line that aims to test and inform ACS development a sit furthers.The test flight comes just two...

In 2017, we first wrote about the Chinese startup Unitree Robotics, which had the goal of “making legged robots as popular and affordable as smartphones and drones.” Relative to the cost of other quadrupedal robots (like Boston Dynamics’ $74,000 Spot), Unitree’s quadrupeds are very affordable, with their A1 costing under $10,000 when it became available in 2020. This hasn’t quite reached the point of consumer electronics that Unitree is aiming for, but they’ve just gotten a lot closer: now available is the Unitree Go1, a totally decent looking small size quadruped that can be yours for an astonishingly low $2700....

Video at link.

The March 2020 attack was in Libya and perpetrated by a Kargu-2 quadcopter drone produced by Turkish military tech company STM “during a conflict between Libyan government forces and a breakaway military faction led by Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army,” the Star reports, adding: “The Kargu-2 is fitted with an explosive charge and the drone can be directed at a target in a kamikaze attack, detonating on impact.” The drones were operating in a “highly effective” autonomous mode that required no human controller and the report notes: “The lethal autonomous weapons systems were programmed to attack targets...

Definitions. No single, universally accepted definition of LAWS is used in international discussions. However, Department of Defense Directive 3000.09, which establishes U.S. policy on autonomy in weapons systems, defines LAWS as “weapon system[s] that, once activated, can select and engage targets without further intervention by a human operator.” This definition’s principal characteristic is the role of the human operator with regard to target selection and engagement decisions. Other countries such as the United Kingdom, however, have grounded their definition of LAWS on different characteristics, in particular the technological sophistication of the weapon system, such that LAWS are considered to be...

Defense contractor displays new artificial intelligence-powered military hardware, techniques that it says will shape the battlefield of the future The Rafael defense contractor on Sunday unveiled a number of new weapons and systems, including miniature drones and a robotic dog, which it plans to sell to the Israel Defense Forces and foreign militaries and that it claims will change the face of modern warfare. The company, one of the country’s leading weapons manufacturers, sees these technological developments as a step toward a more interconnected and intelligent future battlefield, one in which many of the impediments to proper communication between various...

Personnel will have the ability to "drive" the "computerized canines" using virtual reality headsets, according to the US Air Force. For the last year, the 325th Security Forces Squadron and Tyndall Air Force Base have worked with Ghost Robotics on a project to "enhance security and safety for the base population," according to a US Air Force press release. To accomplish this, Tyndall will incorporate a series of "semi-autonomous robot dogs" into patrol regiments, becoming "one of the first" Air Force bases to implement such technologies. On Tuesday, a demonstration at the Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida illustrated the...

MENLO PARK, CA—It's looking increasingly likely that Trump's lawsuits won't change the results of the election, and that his claims about fraudulent voting and suspicious voting machines won't swing the election in his favor. But many people are now raising concerns as Silicon Valley startup Skynet has unveiled a new line of voting machines. "WE NEED TO LOOK INTO THESE!" tweeted Trump. "RIGGED ELECTION???"