PrairiePundit

  Wall Street Journal: In a study published in January last year, researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University showed how artificial intelligence could be used to deploy weapons systems in automated “kill webs” that would adjust in real time to battlefield changes during combat at sea. Six days later, China’s military announced that the university had won a defense contract to make the idea a reality. It was the seventh public defense contract to develop or maintain AI-related systems that Shanghai Jiao Tong had signed since the start of 2023. The university would go on to land seven more before 2024 was out. Aside from the maritime kill-web project, the school was also tasked with helping the military track fast-moving targets using layered AI models, rapidly generate underwater drone designs and make drone swarms more sensitive to changes in radio frequencies. For years, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has tried to recruit his country’s civilian institutions to help the People’s Libera...

 Breitbart: Law enforcement officials say a 55-year-old New York man reportedly used AI to help him build bombs that he planned to detonate in Manhattan. Michael Gann of Long Island, New York, is accused of building several homemade bombs with the help of AI, an endeavor he claims was “easier than buying gun powder,” according to court documents obtained by NBC News. ... Law enforcement officials say a 55-year-old New York man reportedly used AI to help him build bombs that he planned to detonate in Manhattan. Michael Gann of Long Island, New York, is accused of building several homemade bombs with the help of AI, an endeavor he claims was “easier than buying gun powder,” according to court documents obtained by NBC News. The suspect, who was indicted by federal prosecutors on Tuesday, allegedly transported the bombs from Long Island to Manhattan, storing five of them and four shotgun shells on the roof of an apartment building in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood. Court documents re...

 WarZone: The Pentagon has announced sweeping new changes intended to surge the fielding of small drones, including weaponized types , across the entire U.S. military. Most notably, certain types of smaller uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) will now be treated as “consumables,” more akin to hand grenades and other kinds of ammunition, than aircraft, which has broad ramifications. Lower-level commanders will now also be able to procure smaller UASs directly, as well as authorize subordinates to operate them. The new policies rolled out today represent a huge shift that could not come soon enough for the U.S. military, which has continued to move extremely slowly to field drones on a widespread basis, even as lessons learned in blood from active battlefields have become ever more pronounced. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the new drone policies today with a glitzy video, seen below, in which a small uncrewed aerial system brings him a copy of the official memo. A full copy o...

 Blaze: Nvidia, the AI chip manufacturing giant, recently announced plans to build new AI factories in Dallas and Houston. These plans represent a significant advancement in the production of AI supercomputers entirely within the United States. In its announcement , Nvidia revealed plans to partner with Wistron in Dallas and Foxconn in Houston. Other partners include TSMC, Amkor, and SPIL. Wistron is a Taiwanese information and communications technology company headquartered in Taipei, while Foxconn is the world’s largest electronics manufacturer, focusing on research and development. ... AI is short for artificial intelligence, which allows people to ask questions and get a response. 

Blaze: Apple announced a $500 billion commitment to infrastructure in the United States over four years, its largest commitment to domestic spending to date. Apple said it will expand teams and facilities in Arizona, California, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, and Washington as part of its new spending. With a new facility in Houston, Texas, Apple will reportedly double its investment in advanced manufacturing along with increasing investments in AI and silicon engineering. The company said in a press release that the Houston facility will produce servers to support Apple Intelligence, the "personal intelligence system that helps users write, express themselves, and get things done." ... The Texas facility will be for advanced technologies.   Texas has become a place that is very supportive of the tech industries.  Austin and Houston have seen much of the tech growth in the state.  Texas universities have been active in the AI field.

 Newsmax: Artificial intelligence will result in adults earning a basic income, billionaire Elon Musk said. AI could lead to a world of self-driving vehicles and other computers and machines that replace humans in work settings and perform virtually all physical and mental labor, Business Insider reported . When that happens, Musk said adults, regardless of their wealth or employment status, will receive a universal basic income. "I think the most likely outcome is one of abundance, where goods and services are available to anyone; there's no shortage of goods and services for anyone on earth," Musk told WPP CEO Mark Read this week  at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity . "I think that is the mostly likely outcome. "It wouldn't be universal basic income; it would be universal high income." He added that work for humans would be "optional." ... I am not sure I would like that.  Even though I am retired I still find things to ...

Insider: Last month, two US Air Force fighter jets battled in the skies above California in an intense dogfight. Air-to-air combat training isn't unusual, but what made this event strange is that one of the planes didn't have a human pilot at the stick. The fighter, flown by an artificial intelligence agent with the Air Force secretary riding in the back, squared off in a dogfight with a manned F-16, demonstrating the rapid progress of the Air Force and Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's AI fighter pilot program. An Air Force commander and the CEO behind the company that developed the AI, Shield AI, told Business Insider the moment was a monumental step in the program's development. The Air Force spoke highly of it as well. Col. James Valpiani, Commandant of the Air Force Test Pilot School, told BI "Secretary [Frank] Kendall's flight marks an important milestone" for the program and speaks to growing "confidence in the state of combat autonomy...

 Business Insider: Some AI-controlled F-16 fighter jets are already outperforming human pilots in dogfights, according to a report from the Associated Press. The AP reported this finding after witnessing an hourlong experimental flight at the Edwards Air Force Base in California. During the flight, the AI-controlled F-16, called Vista, performed maneuvers at more than 550 miles an hour with Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall on board. While the AI system is still in its early days, the AP reported that some versions of the tech are learning so rapidly that they have outperformed pilots in air-to-air combat. Representatives for the US military did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours. The US Air Force has been actively exploring AI , which has been cited as a transformative technology for military action globally. Although the technology is not yet fully developed, the AP reported that the force plans to build up a...

 AP: With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of U.S. airpower. But the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence, not a human pilot. And riding in the front seat was Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall . AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning for an AI-enabled fleet of more than 1,000 unmanned warplanes, the first of them operating by 2028. It was fitting that the dogfight took place at Edwards Air Force Base, a vast desert facility where Chuck Yeager broke the speed of sound and the military has incubated its most secret aerospace advances. Inside classified simulators and buildings with layers of shielding against surveillance, a new test-pilot...

 Guardian: The Israeli military’s bombing campaign in Gaza used a previously undisclosed AI-powered database that at one stage identified 37,000 potential targets based on their apparent links to Hamas, according to intelligence sources involved in the war. In addition to talking about their use of the AI system, called Lavender, the intelligence sources claim that Israeli military officials permitted large numbers of Palestinian civilians to be killed, particularly during the early weeks and months of the conflict . Their unusually candid testimony provides a rare glimpse into the first-hand experiences of Israeli intelligence officials who have been using machine-learning systems to help identify targets during the six-month war. Israel’s use of powerful AI systems in its war on Hamas has entered uncharted territory for advanced warfare, raising a host of legal and moral questions, and transforming the relationship between military personnel and machines. “This is unparalleled, ...

 Business Insider: The deployment of AI-controlled drones that can make autonomous decisions about whether to kill human targets is moving closer to reality, The New York Times reported. Lethal autonomous weapons , that can select targets using AI, are being developed by countries including the US, China, and Israel. The use of the so-called "killer robots" would mark a disturbing development, say critics, handing life and death battlefield decisions to machines with no human input. Several governments are lobbying the UN for a binding resolution restricting the use of AI killer drones, but the US is among a group of nations — which also includes Russia, Australia, and Israel — who are resisting any such move, favoring a non-binding resolution instead, The Times reported. "This is really one of the most significant inflection points for humanity," Alexander Kmentt, Austria's chief negotiator on the issue, told The Times. "What's the role of human beings...