In 2010, DARPA announced it was creating an autonomous, submarine-hunting war machine that would be manned with exactly zero people. Now, that vehicle is ready for action.
The Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel, or ACTUV, is now scheduled to be launched April 17 from the Vigor Shipyards in Oregon. The ACTUV will continue sea-trials for 18 months following its maiden voyage, where it will be tested for its long-range tracking and self-driving functions.
NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate is seeking proposals from accredited U.S. universities on behalf of outstanding early-career faculty members who are beginning independent research careers. The grants will sponsor research in specific high-priority areas of interest to America’s space program.
Aligned with NASA’s Space Technology Roadmaps and priorities identified by the National Research Council, the agency has identified topic areas that lend themselves to the early stage innovative approaches U.S. universities can offer for solving tough space technology challenges.
“These grants will allow us to support university faculty in conducting research and technology development to solve some of the challenges that we face on our journey to Mars,” said Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington. “Engaging the creative and innovative researchers at universities across the country provides opportunities to develop space technologies that drive robotic and human exploration of the solar system and beyond.”
MIT researchers have developed a chip that can run neural networks. It’s 10 times more efficient than a mobile graphics processors, and it could allow us to have AIs on mobile devices.
Despite the advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology, most mobile devices remain behind in adapting and implementing these changes in their software. More glaringly, any kind of mobile software that utilizes AI software (such as deep learning and neural networks) offloads these tasks online to outside networks.
It’s all due to one main reason: Power consumption.
The U.S. Navy’s largest unmanned surface vehicle designed to track Chinese and Russian subs will be christened in April.
Although this article highlights the robots used in the courts across India; robots in the courtroom has also been proposed in the US. So, if we ask ourselves “Can robots take over court cases and reduce the overloaded burden of the court system?” In some areas as a legal assistant, or paralegal to support the attorney/s; I would say yes.
However, taking over full ownership of a case. Well, that gets tricky in the US. For example, I am a client and I have a robot representing me. I lose my court case. So, can I claim misrepresentation under the current laws? You bet I can.
What do we need to do so that the laws enable robots the same level of recogonition/ equality as a human attorney has today? In order for this type of recogonition/ equality to exist; many laws on the books (state, county, city, and federal) will need to be reviewed, admendments proposed, and a vote done on all of them. Which will take a very very long time. Because the volume of laws in the city and county in some areas like NYC, Chicago, etc. is very extensive and expensive to taxpayers.
Again, we must be very pragmatic at this point before stating that by 2020 the courts will be nothing; but a judge a plantiff with a robot, etc.
According to a report in The New Indian Express (8−2−16), titled ‘Supreme Court Talks Tough on Frivolous Pleas’, the Court has come down heavily on litigants who prolong cases by filing frivolous applications. The Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said: “The Indian judicial system is grossly afflicted with frivolous litigation. Ways and means need to be evolved to deter litigants from their compulsive obsession towards senseless and ill-considered claims. One needs to keep in mind that in the process of litigation, there is an innocent sufferer on the other side of every irresponsible and senseless claim.”
Justice Misra blamed litigant’s ‘compulsive obsession’ without blaming the role of some irresponsible and self-serving lawyers in instigating/encouraging litigation and prolonging it through unending adjournments that lead to clogging the Indian justice delivery system. Take, for instance, a case thrown out by Sitamgarh Chief Judicial Magistrate on February 1, 2016 — a petition, by advocate Chandan Kumar Singh, against Lord Rama and his brother Laxman over banishing goddess Sita to exile in a forest, with the judge saying that the issue is ‘beyond logic and facts’. Meanwhile, three cases have been filed in the same court against Singh for his ‘defamatory’ acts against the Almighty. It has admitted the cases under various Sections of Indian Penal Code. Thus, the tamasha goes on!
Thankfully this case is handled at the district level. But, in the past, apparently instigated/ encouraged by the concerned lawyer, the case of a performing Himalayan sloth bear, Munna, owned by Nasir Khan, who was charged under Wildlife Act, reached the Supreme Court. He lost. But, it shows how litigants, apparently goaded on by lawyers, rush to the courts and clog them, thus preventing them from handling genuine cases.
As much as this article wants to promote that by 2020 that we will have terminator style robots acting as an in home nurse with patients (at least in the US) will be very hard to see. Most elderly as well as young children need more of human or personable interaction in their lives. I do highly suggest researchers (especially those that have studied children in orphanages where limited human interaction was available) to share your own insights of what happens to children who are without human contact at long periods as well as the elderly. I believe folks will rethink somethings and be more pragmatic in what these robots can and can do.
Published on Feb 3, 2016
A new generation of humanoid robots are coming in the 2020s, says innovation and industry expert Alec Ross. They will care for our aging populations and revolutionize manufacturing. Ross’ book is “The Industries of the Future The Industries of the Future.
This is a excellent use for the robots.
Brenau University students will soon be able to “be in the classroom” even from remote locations thanks to robots the school will be using.
A “Kubi” — a computer with arms for a tablet to be mounted on it — will allow students to control their interaction with a classroom and instructor. Brenau expects to have the technology in its classrooms by August.
“Our goal is to make the online or remote students have the same experience as on-site students,” said Dan Odom, instructional technology support technician at Brenau.
I cannot wait to see the results.
Palo Alto-based Diffbot has proclaimed itself the “leading arms dealer in coming AI wars” after raising $10 million in Series A funding.
Diffbot has developed a robot that is working to organize information from all over the Web into the world’s largest database of knowledge. The robot, which works without human oversight, recognizes, reads, understands and monitors product pages, news articles, discussion forums, videos, pictures and more, according to the company. Businesses can gain access to this data when they sign up for Diffbot plans, ranging from $299 to $3,999 per month.
“We’ve developed a business model for AI that works and I’m excited with this new investment to accelerate our mission even further,” founder and CEO Mike Tung wrote in a company news release Thursday. “Structuring the world’s knowledge is within sight.”
Computer scientists say as cloud computing allows machines to become more life-like, robots may become the ‘perfect companion’ and people may even go to court in a bid to marry their robots.
