Tag: darpa

Twitter Names Famed Hacker ‘Mudge’ as Head of Security

Social media giant Twitter, under increased threat of regulation and plagued by serious security breaches, is appointing one of the world’s best-regarded hackers to tackle everything from engineering missteps to misinformation. From a report: The company on Monday named Peiter Zatko, widely known by his hacker handle Mudge, to the new position of head of security, giving him a broad mandate…

AI Claims ‘Flawless Victory’ Going Undefeated In Digital Dogfight With Human Fighter Pilot

“A simulated F-16 Viper fighter jet with an artificial intelligence-driven ‘pilot’ went undefeated in five rounds of mock air combat against an actual top Air Force fighter jockey today,” reports The Drive in an update to a story shared by Slashdot reader schwit1. From the report: The event was the culmination of an effort that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency…

Miniature telescope demonstration focuses on sharpening view of distant objects in space

A recently deployed DARPA CubeSat seeks to demonstrate technology that could improve imaging of distant objects in space and allow powerful space telescopes to fit into small satellites. DARPA’s Deformable Mirror (DeMi) CubeSat deployed from the International Space Station July 13, beginning the technology demonstration of a miniature space telescope with a small deformable mirror called a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) mirror….

Researchers Use DNA to Store ‘The Wizard of Oz’ – Translated Into Esperanto

“DNA is millions of times more efficient at storing data than your laptop’s magnetic hard drive,” reports Popular Mechanics. “Since DNA can store data far more densely than silicon, you could squeeze all of the data in the world inside just a few grams of it.” In a new paper published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy…

DARPA is Pouring Millions Into a New AI Defense Program

The Pentagon is teaming up with some of the biggest names in tech to combat hacks designed to mess with the automated systems we’ll rely on in the near future. From a report: In February, DARPA issued a call for proposals for a new program. Like most DARPA projects, it had a fantastic acronym: Guaranteeing Artificial Intelligence (AI) Robustness against Deception…

Internet Pioneer Vint Cerf Tests Positive For Covid-19

New submitter NoMoreACs shares a report from Gizmodo: Tech pioneer Vint Cerf, one of the co-creators of the modern internet, has tested positive for covid-19, according to a tweet Cerf sent out Monday morning. The 76-year-old tweeted out a clip from HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver about the U.S. response to the global pandemic. “I tested positive for COVID-19…

Andrew Yang Warns Against ‘Slaughterbots’ and Urges Global Ban on Autonomous Weaponry

Ahead of the Democratic presidential primaries that begin Monday with the Iowa caucus, presidential candidate Andrew Yang called for a global ban on the use of autonomous weaponry. In a tweet, Yang called for U.S. leadership to implement a ban on automated killing machines, then shared a link to a Future of Life Institute video titled “Slaughterbots,” which offers a cautionary…

These Living Bricks Use Bacteria To Build Themselves

A new living substance can transform from a wet sand mixture into a solid brick, and even help to reproduce copies of itself. From a report: Researchers from the University of Colorado, Boulder, used a type of photosynthetic bacteria that absorbs carbon dioxide, sunlight, and nutrients and produces calcium carbonate — a rigid compound found in rocks, pearls, and seashells. They…