Google Employees Are Outraged That The Company Is Working With The Pentagon To Equip Military Drones With AI

Daily Mail: Google is working with the Pentagon to equip military drones with people-tracking AI in secretive 'Project Maven' deal, report claims

* Google is working with the Department of Defense on secretive 'Project Maven'
* Project Maven is tasked with equipping drones with artificial intelligence.
* This would allow unmanned vehicles to detect and identify objects in war zones
* Some Google employees are 'outraged' that the firm is working with the military to develop surveillance technologies, others say it raises ethical questions

The Pentagon may have gained a new, high-profile partner for its sophisticated AI system used to hunt for militants in Iraq and Syria.

Silicon Valley giant Google is working with the Department of Defense to develop advanced artificial intelligence for analyzing drone footage, Gizmodo reported, citing sources close to the situation.

The partnership centers around Project Maven, which is the codename for a system that analyzes aerial surveillance video to look for patterns that can military intelligence analysts.

And it seems some Google employees aren't happy with the move.

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More News On Working With The Pentagon To Equip Military Drones With AI

Google Is Helping the Pentagon Build AI for Drones -- Gizmodo
Google helps Pentagon analyze military drone footage—employees “outraged” -- Ars Technica
The Defense Department is taking on ISIS with Google's open-source AI software -- MIT Technology Review
Pentagon Drone Program Is Using Google AI -- Bloomberg
Google Is Quietly Providing AI Technology for Drone Strike Targeting Project -- The Intercept
Google is using its AI skills to help the Pentagon learn to analyze drone footage -- The Verge

This Human-Controlled Robot Is 13 Feet Tall

CNBC: This 13-foot robot cost over $100 million to develop and looks like it's straight out of a sci-fi movie

Giant human-controlled robots aren't just for Hollywood anymore.

CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin tried out the Method-2, a 1.6-ton, 13-foot tall robot made by Hankook Mirae Technology in South Korea. It's the same robot that made an impression on Jeff Bezos at Amazon's MARS conference last year.

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Zeiro Corp Editor: This is one hell of a big robot (and expensive).

Websites Designed by Artificial Intelligence

From YouTube: Henri Bergius, VP engineering at The Grid, an AI that builds your website based on its content, hacker and occasional adventurer, is the creator of Create.js and NoFlo.

In this second talk of the session Artificial Intelligence, Technology without Alternative? at Lift16, Henri Bergius reveals for the first time how he and his team are automating design processes and how the use of such an AI could radically change the way websites such as the amazon catalog or no-budget blogs look like.

How do you teach a machine to understand beauty, color matching, smart use of blank space? Enter the world of AI-designed websites with Henri Bergius!

Zeira Corp Editor: They still have a long way to go.

China Is Determined To Be A Leading Player In Artificial Intelligence

BBC: Tech Tent: China's AI ambitions

On this week's Tech Tent we hear why China's determination to be a leading player in artificial intelligence could lead to tensions with the United States.

We have two other reports on this week's programme. In a compelling interview with Jane Wakefield, YouTube star Chrissy Chambers talks about her court battle against a former boyfriend who uploaded explicit videos featuring her to a pornography website. Her victory is being seen as a key moment in the battle against the internet scourge known as revenge porn.

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Zeiro Corp Editor: China has the resources, people, and ambition to be a world leader in AI. I would take them very seriously.

The U.S. Defense Department Wants To Build 'SkyNet'

Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. John Richardson, gives a keynote address during the Naval Future Force Science and Technology (S&T) Expo, July 21, 2017. This is a slide from his presentation.

Patrick Tucker, Defense One: The Future the US Military is Constructing: a Giant, Armed Nervous System

Service chiefs are converging on a single strategy for military dominance: connect everything to everything.

Leaders of the Air Force, Navy, Army and Marines are converging on a vision of the future military: connecting every asset on the global battlefield.

That means everything from F-35 jets overhead to the destroyers on the sea to the armor of the tanks crawling over the land to the multiplying devices in every troops’ pockets. Every weapon, vehicle, and device connected, sharing data, constantly aware of the presence and state of every other node in a truly global network. The effect: an unimaginably large cephapoloidal nervous system armed with the world’s most sophisticated weaponry.

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ZC Editor: A must read on what could be the weapon systems of the future.

The Pentagon Is Using Software To Hunt Down Terrorists

Marcus Weisgerber, Defense One: The Pentagon’s New Artificial Intelligence Is Already Hunting Terrorists

After less than eight months of development, the algorithms are helping intel analysts exploit drove video over the battlefield.

Earlier this month at an undisclosed location in the Middle East, computers using special algorithms helped intelligence analysts identify objects in a video feed from a small ScanEagle drone over the battlefield.

A few days into the trials, the computer identified objects — people, cars, types of building — correctly about 60 percent of the time. Just over a week on the job — and a handful of on-the-fly software updates later — the machine’s accuracy improved to around 80 percent. Next month, when its creators send the technology back to war with more software and hardware updates, they believe it will become even more accurate.

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ZC Editor: Who would have thought this was possible 20 years ago.

This Is How Machines Learn (Video)