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Archive for the ‘surveillance’ category: Page 13

Nov 19, 2021

Is the US Air Force About to Unveil Some New Spy Drones?

Posted by in categories: drones, military, surveillance

Get ready for the ‘White Bat’.

What’s the best way to counter gossip? Coming out with the truth. That seems to be the idea behind a new video released by the U.S. Air Force’s Profession of Arms Center of Excellence (PACE).

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Nov 19, 2021

“Most valuable” AI unicorn SenseTime gets Hong Kong IPO — sources

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, surveillance

Whoever controls AI controls the world

“Most Valuable AI unicorn” goes for IPO.

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Nov 17, 2021

The US Army Built Engineless Helicopters in the ‘50s. Here is Why It Didn’t End Well

Posted by in categories: surveillance, transportation

Five prototypes were tested before the project was shelved.

In what might seem counter-intuitive at first, the U.S. Army supported the development of a helicopter that had no engine. One can even visit the Army’s Aviation Museum at Fort Rucker in Alabama to catch a glimpse of this design by the American Helicopter Company that is fondly called Jet Jeep.

The Jet Jeep was thought of many decades ago as the solution for a light observation needed by the Army. The U.S. Army was looking for a flight-capable option for light surveillance and by that, it meant enough to carry one or two people at the most. This is quite like the problem jet pack makers are trying to solve these days. But this was way back in the 1950s and helicopters and aircraft were largely the way flying worked.

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Nov 14, 2021

Peter Thiel: Artificial General Intelligence Isn’t Happening

Posted by in categories: computing, surveillance

There’s no road to computers that think like people that wouldn’t take us through 24/7 computer surveillance first. Thiel says. Is that what we want?

Nov 8, 2021

Locking Guests Inside Disneyland Shows China’s Extreme Covid Tactics

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, surveillance

Quarantining people in Disneyland.


While thousands of visitors to Shanghai Disneyland on Sunday were queuing for roller coasters and watching fireworks above the fairytale castle, staff quietly sealed the amusement park. People in Hazmat suits streamed in through the gates, preparing to test everyone for Covid-19 before they could leave for the day.

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Nov 6, 2021

Artificial intelligence is getting better at writing, and universities should worry about plagiarism

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, climatology, robotics/AI, surveillance

The dramatic rise of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic has spotlit concerns about the role of technology in exam surveillance — and also in student cheating.

Some universities have reported more cheating during the pandemic, and such concerns are unfolding in a climate where technologies that allow for the automation of writing continue to improve.

Over the past two years, the ability of artificial intelligence to generate writing has leapt forward significantly, particularly with the development of what’s known as the language generator GPT-3. With this, companies such as Google, Microsoft, and NVIDIA can now produce “human-like” text.

Nov 5, 2021

Invasive surveillance: Are regulators ready to deal with Facebook’s ‘metaverse’?

Posted by in categories: surveillance, virtual reality

With VR data they’ve got data about 100 per cent of your experience — how you saw it, where you looked. The next generation of Facebook’s VR headset is going to have eye tracking.

This is probably the most invasive surveillance technology we’re going to bring into our homes in the next decade.

Facebook’s pivot was met with plenty of scepticism, with critics saying the timing points to a cynical rebrand designed to distance the company from Facebook’s rolling scandals. Others have argued the metaverse already exists as a graveyard strewn with ideas like Google Glass smart glasses, which have failed to catch on. But with Zuckerberg pledging to invest at least $US10 billion this year on metaverse development and proposing to hire 10,000 workers across the European Union over the next five years, there is a looming question for policymakers about how this ambition can or should be regulated.

Oct 19, 2021

China Isn’t the AI Juggernaut the West Fears

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, surveillance

The nation excels in computer vision and facial recognition, but practical applications are limited to surveillance. The U.S. has much broader expertise.

Oct 12, 2021

Another Global Pandemic Is Spreading —Among Pigs

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, health, surveillance

In the United States, animal health authorities are now on high alert. The US Department of Agriculture has pledged an emergency appropriation of $500 million to ramp up surveillance and keep the disease from crossing borders. African swine fever is so feared internationally that, if it were found in the US, pork exports—worth more than $7 billion a year—would immediately shut down.

“Long-distance transboundary spread of highly contagious and pathogenic diseases is a worse-case scenario,” Michael Ward, an epidemiologist and chair of veterinary public health at the University of Sydney, told WIRED by email. “In agriculture, it’s the analogue of Covid-19.”

As with the Covid pandemic at its start, there is no vaccine—but also as with Covid, there is the glimmer of hope for one, thanks to basic science that has been laying down findings for years without receiving much attention. Two weeks ago, a multinational team led by scientists at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service announced that they had achieved a vaccine candidate, based on a weakened version of the virus with a key gene deleted, and demonstrated its effectiveness in a field trial, in pigs, in Vietnam.

Oct 7, 2021

Coronavirus report warned of impact on UK four years before pandemic

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, government, health, surveillance

Exclusive: Report from planning exercise in 2016 alerted government of need to stockpile PPE and set up contact tracing system.

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