The opening scene of a brief online documentary by Chinese state-run media channel CGTN shows jaywalkers in Shenzhen getting captured on video, identified, and then shamed publicly in real-time. The report is supposed to highlight the country’s prowess in artificial intelligence, yet it reveals a lesser-known truth: China’s AI isn’t so much a tool of world domination as a narrowly deployed means of domestic control.
On paper, the US and China appear neck and neck in artificial intelligence. China leads in the share of journal citations — helped by the fact that it also publishes more while the US is far ahead in the more qualitative metric of cited conference papers, according to a recent report compiled by Stanford University. So while the world’s most populous country is an AI superpower, investors and China watchers shouldn’t put too much stock in the notion that its position is unassailable or that the US is weaker. By miscalculating the others’ abilities, both superpowers risk overestimating their adversary’s strengths and overcompensating in a way that could lead to a Cold War-style AI arms race.
BEIJING, Oct 11 (Reuters) — China’s military said on Monday it had carried out beach landing and assault drills in the province directly across the sea from Taiwan, though it did not link the exercises to current tensions with Taipei.
Democratically ruled Taiwan, claimed by China as its own territory, has complained of stepped-up military and political pressure from Beijing to force it to accept Chinese rule, including massed air force incursions into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone. read more
The official People’s Liberation Army Daily newspaper, in a brief report on its Weibo microblogging account, said the drills had been carried out “in recent days” in the southern part of Fujian province.
The Pentagon’s first chief software officer said he resigned in protest at the slow pace of technological transformation in the US military, and because he could not stand to watch China overtake America.
In his first interview since leaving the post at the Department of Defense a week ago, Nicolas Chaillan told the Financial Times that the failure of the US to respond to Chinese cyber and other threats was putting his children’s future at risk.
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A Northwestern University research team has developed a versatile composite fabric that can deactivate both biological threats, such as the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and chemical threats, such as those used in chemical warfare. A material that is effective against both classes of threats is rare.
The material also is reusable. It can be restored to its original state after the fabric has been exposed to threats by a simple bleach treatment. The promising fabric could be used in face masks and other protective clothing.
“Having a bifunctional material that has the ability to deactivate both chemical and biological toxic agents is crucial since the complexity to integrate multiple materials to do the job is high,” said Northwestern’s Omar Farha, an expert in metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs, which is the basis for the technology.
Vertical Aerospace has already collected somewhere in the region of 1,000 orders for their VA-X4 VTOL craft. This is a piloted electric, low emission eVTOL craft that can carry up to four passengers and a pilot. This air taxi is capable of flying at speeds of 200 mph (174 knots) and has a range of more than 100 miles (160 km).
Being all-electric, it is near-silent during flight, offers a low-carbon solution to flying, and has a relatively low cost per passenger mile.
Vertical Aerospace’s VA-X4 also makes use of the latest in advanced avionics — some of which are used to control the world’s only supersonic VTOL aircraft, the F-35 fighter. Such sophisticated control systems enable the eVTOL tax to fly with some high level of automation and reduced pilot workload.
Rockets with nuclear bombs for propulsion sounds like a Wile E. Coyote cartoon, but it has been seriously considered as an option for the space program. Chemical rockets combust a fuel with an oxidizer within themselves and exhaust the result out the back, causing the rocket to move in the opposite direction. What if instead, you used the higher energy density of nuclear fission by detonating nuclear bombs?
Detonating the bombs within a combustion chamber would destroy the vehicle so instead you’d do so from outside and behind. Each bomb would include a little propellant which would be thrown as plasma against the back of the vehicle, giving it a brief, but powerful push.
That’s just what a group of top physicists and engineers at General Atomic worked on between 1958 and 1965 under the name, Project Orion. They came close to doing nuclear testing a few times and did have success with smaller tests, exploding a series of chemical bombs which pushed a 270-pound craft up 185 feet as you’ll see below.
AstraZeneca has requested emergency use authorization from U.S. regulators for its new treatment to prevent COVID-19 for people who respond poorly to vaccines because of a weakened immune system.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said it included data in its filing with the Food and Drug Administration from a late-stage trial that showed the drug reduced the risk of people developing any COVID-19 symptoms by 77 per cent.
The antibody therapy called AZD7442 could protect people who do not have a strong enough immune response to COVID-19 vaccines or to supplement a vaccination course for those, such as military personnel, who need to booster their protection further, AstraZeneca has said.
AstraZeneca said its late-stage trial that showed the drug reduced the risk of people developing any COVID-19 symptoms by 77 per cent.
Elon Musk reiterated Tesla’s commitment to China, stating that the company will continue to invest in the country. Musk made his announcement at a pre-recorded question-and-answer session at China’s Cyberspace Administration’s Global Digital Conference. Musk has hailed the country that is vital to his electric vehicle company for the second time this month, calling it as a “global leader in digitalization.” As per Mr. Musk’s comments made during another pre-recorded webcast at the World New Energy Vehicle Congress less than two weeks earlier, Chinese automakers were the “most internationally competitive.” Musk was enthusiastic in his praise for the nation that is vital to Tesla’s electric vehicle business, and his remarks came as the company works to repair its image in China. Musk stated, “I have a lot of respect for the various Chinese automakers who are driving these (EV) technologies.” Musk stated Chinese carmakers are among the best at software, which he claims will “shape the future of the vehicle industry” during his three-minute speech. “My honest view is that China invests a lot of resources and efforts adopting the latest digital technologies in various areas, including the automotive industry,” Musk said in a recent video. China has become a global leader in digitalization in the vehicle industry.” “Tesla will continue to boost its investment and research and development efforts in China.” However, negative coverage of Tesla has also grown in China over the last year. In one high-profile case, a woman claiming to be a Tesla customer protested an apparent brake failure in her car at the Shanghai auto show in April. Tesla was accused of having an “arrogant and aggressive approach” in China, according to official media, after a video of the incident went viral on Chinese social media. But now, Tesla has been attempting to repair its image in China following a barrage of negative headlines. The corporation has been under governmental scrutiny for its privacy practises, as well as several recalls in China. Some state and military employees are apparently restricted from driving Tesla electric vehicles. Musk emphasized data protection in his speech and outlined the many types of data that are stored locally. “At Tesla, we’re pleased to see a bustle of fresh laws and regulations targeted at enhancing data handling,” Musk remarked. In the past, the corporation is said to have broken ground on a big Shanghai facility. According to Reports, Tesla sold 44,264 Made-in-China automobiles by August 2021. There were 31,379 for export, which marked an increase over July’s 32,968 made-in-China automobiles sold and June’s 33,155 units sold. Local EV firms like Xpeng Inc., Li Auto Inc., and Nio Inc. are also posing a threat to Tesla in China. Last month, shipments of China-made cars to domestic purchasers increased, and exports from the company’s Shanghai factory — largely to Europe — increased. As a result, Tesla’s overall China shipments increased 34% from July to 44,264 units in August. According to sources, Tesla momentarily suspended some tasks at its Shanghai factory last month due to a global shortfall of semiconductors. Because of a shortage of crucial chips, a portion of a production line at the China plant was shut down for nearly four days in August. Tesla created a data centre in China to contain all of the data generated by our businesses there, which include manufacturing, sales, service, and charging. All personally identifying information is kept secure in China and is never sent abroad. Data is only permitted for international transfer in very rare instances, such as spare parts orders from overseas.” Tesla is acting in response to new Chinese government regulations governing how carmakers with cameras and sensors collect and use data. Tesla also said in a statement that it was “glad to hold discussions with industry experts” regarding new data security requirements for automobiles in the country. “Data security in automobiles is critical. Tesla will make every effort to maintain data security by implementing automotive data security management.”
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Without a new legal framework, they could destabilize societal norms.
Autonomous weapon systems – commonly known as killer robots – may have killed human beings for the first time ever last year, according to a recent United Nations Security Council report on the Libyan civil war. History could well identify this as the starting point of the next major arms race, one that has the potential to be humanity’s final one.
Autonomous weapon systems are robots with lethal weapons that can operate independently, selecting and attacking targets without a human weighing in on those decisions. Militaries around the world are investing heavily in autonomous weapons research and development. The U.S. alone budgeted US$18 billion for autonomous weapons between 2016 and 2020.
Supersonic and hypersonic aircraft are slowly but surely coming back to the forefront of aviation. NASA is in the last development stages of its supersonic research aircraft, X-59, and Stratolaunch is getting ready to operate its first hypersonic test vehicle, the Talon-A.
