Month: January 2022

Categories
Drones

Declassified drone footage shows botched strike that killed 10 Afghans | NY Post

sibsky2016/Shutterstock

The Pentagon revealed a video on Wednesday depicting the final seconds before ten innocent Afghans, including seven children, were murdered in an erroneous drone attack during the US pullout’s final days. After the New York Times filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the material, US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees military operations in Afghanistan, provided videos from the two drones. The drone attack occurred three days after an ISIS-K suicide bomber killed 13 US military personnel and over 180 Afghans near Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport. 

Source: https://nypost.com/2022/01/19/declassified-drone-footage-shows-botched-strike-that-killed-10-afghans/ 

Categories
Information Warfare

Navy Cryptologic Warfare Officers Cannot Do Cyber | USNI

U.S. NAVY (WILLIAM SYKES)

While every other military has a single cyber designator, the Navy has three distinct cyber communities. Cryptologic warfare officers, information professionals, and cyber warfare engineers are presently in charge of the Navy’s cyber operations. CWOs are in charge of offense and defense cyber operations, IPs are in charge of managing information technology systems, and CWEs are in charge of the technical engineering work that supports cyber operations. As a result, each of the three groups is beset with unneeded issues, and none of them is completely equipped or capable of leading the realm. The Navy must concentrate control for cyber, engage in the cyber warfare engineer community, and need deep technical competence for all cyber responsibilities to tackle this problem. 

Source: https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2022/january/navy-cryptologic-warfare-officers-cannot-do-cyber 

Categories
Gaming

Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion | The Verge 

Barone Firenze/Shutterstock

Activision, the beleaguered developer of Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Diablo, is being bought by Microsoft. Activision will be valued at $68.7 billion, significantly more than the $26 billion Microsoft spent for LinkedIn in 2016. Microsoft’s agreement comes after Activision Blizzard was accused of sexual harassment for months. Microsoft’s massive Activision Blizzard transaction comes almost a year after the corporation paid $7.5 billion for Bethesda (ZeniMax Media). Microsoft now anticipates the Activision Blizzard merger to “close in the fiscal year 2023,” which indicates it might take up to 18 months for the transaction to be authorized. 

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/18/22889258/microsoft-activision-blizzard-xbox-acquisition-call-of-duty-overwatch 

Categories
Machine Learning

Can We Tell if Machine-Learning AI Models Are Working Correctly? | Sci-Tech Daily

Svetlana Avv/Shutterstock

To see if the assessment approach is ineffective, MIT researchers designed a mechanism for modifying the original data so they may be sure which properties are crucial to the model. The next test is whether feature-attribution algorithms can appropriately identify those essential characteristics using this changed dataset. They discovered that even the most popular approaches frequently overlook significant elements in images and that some methods barely outperform a random baseline. This might have far-reaching consequences, particularly if neural networks are used in high-stakes scenarios such as medical diagnosis. The researchers plan to apply this review process in the future to look into other subtle or realistic aspects that might contribute to false associations. 

Source: https://scitechdaily.com/can-we-tell-if-machine-learning-ai-models-are-working-correctly/ 

Categories
Robots

Robots rise to meet the challenge of caring for old people | Nature.com

Viktoriia Hnatiuk/Shutterstock

The demand for automated assistance is increasing as the world’s population ages. According to World Health Organization projections, there are more than 1 billion persons over the age of 60, with that number expected to rise to 1.4 billion by 2030 – that’s one out of every six people, necessitating the hiring of additional 6 million nurses. McGinn and his colleagues constructed Stevie, a white robot on a rolling platform with short, adjustable arms and a head with cartoon eyes and a mouth, to figure out how robotics may be utilized in elderly homes. Many of the robot’s skills are already present in other devices, but they are frequently underutilized, according to McGinn. The robot is designed to make technology easier to use. 

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00072-z