military tech - CybAI news

11 Nov

The AI Machine Gun of the Future Is Already Here

stp2y0 CommentsGenAIartificial intelligence, china, drones, military, military tech, robots

Amid a rising tide of low-cost weaponized adversary drones menacing American troops abroad, the US military is pulling out all the stops to protect its forces from the ever-present threat of death from above. But between expensive munitions, futuristic but complicated directed energy weapons, and its own growing drone arsenal, the Pentagon is increasingly eyeing an elegantly simple solution to its growing drone problem: reinventing the gun.At the Technology Readiness Experimentation (T-REX) event in August, the US Defense Department tested an artificial intelligence-enabled autonomous robotic gun system developed by fledgling defense contractor Allen Control Systems dubbed the “Bullfrog.”Consisting of a…

04 Oct

This Video Game Controller Has Become the US Military’s Weapon of Choice

stp2y0 CommentsAIartificial intelligence, gaming culture, military, military tech, Video Games, war, xbox

In a future conflict, American troops will direct the newest war machines not with sprawling control panels or sci-fi-inspired touchscreens, but controls familiar to anyone who grew up with an Xbox or PlayStation in their home.Over the past several years, the US Defense Department has been gradually integrating what appear to be variants of the Freedom of Movement Control Unit (FMCU) handsets as the primary control units for a variety of advanced weapons systems, according to publicly available imagery published to the department’s Defense Visual Information Distribution System media hub.Those systems include the new Navy Marine Corps Expeditionary Ship Interdiction…

25 Sep

Trae Stephens Has Built AI Weapons and Worked for Donald Trump. As He Sees It, Jesus Would Approve

stp2y0 CommentsRAG modelsbig interview, ethics, longreads, military tech, politics, weapons

When I wrote about Anduril in 2018, the company explicitly said it wouldn’t build lethal weapons. Now you are building fighter planes, underwater drones, and other deadly weapons of war. Why did you make that pivot?We responded to what we saw, not only inside our military but also across the world. We want to be aligned with delivering the best capabilities in the most ethical way possible. The alternative is that someone’s going to do that anyway, and we believe that we can do that best.Were there soul-searching discussions before you crossed that line?There’s constant internal discussion about what to…

19 Sep

Palmer Luckey Is Bringing Anduril Smarts to Microsoft’s Military Headset

stp2y0 CommentsRAG modelsanduril, augmented reality, drones, microsoft, military, military tech

When Palmer Luckey was hacking together virtual reality headsets at his startup Oculus VR in the mid-2010s, he would sometimes imagine a future in which US soldiers used the technology to sharpen their battlefield senses.That vision is now virtually a reality after a deal that will bring software from his defense startup, Anduril, to a US Army head-mounted display developed by Microsoft.“The idea is to enhance soldiers,” Luckey tells WIRED over Zoom from his home in Newport Beach, California. “Their visual perception, audible perception—basically to give them all the vision that Superman has, and then some, and make them more…

08 Aug

Palmer Luckey’s Defense Startup, Anduril, Raises $1.5 Billion to Produce AI-Powered Weapons

stp2y0 CommentsAIartificial intelligence, drones, manufacturing, military tech, Oculus

Palmer Luckey has come a long way from hacking together virtual reality headsets in a garage. Today, the Oculus VR founder’s defense tech startup, Anduril, announced that it has raised $1.5 billion in addition to developing a new manufacturing platform to produce “tens of thousands of autonomous weapons” a year.The funding round, led by Founders Fund and Sands Capital, could help the seven-year-old Anduril transition from a flashy defense industry upstart to a more serious US defense contractor.It also reflects a shift in military thinking, as policymakers adapt to the prospect of battlefields ruled not only by tanks and fighter…

08 Jul

AI-Powered Super Soldiers Are More Than Just a Pipe Dream

stp2y0 CommentsAIartificial intelligence, machine learning, military, military tech, pentagon

The day is slowly turning into night, and the American special operators are growing concerned. They are deployed to a densely populated urban center in a politically volatile region, and local activity has grown increasingly frenetic in recent days, the roads and markets overflowing with more than the normal bustle of city life. Intelligence suggests the threat level in the city is high, but the specifics are vague, and the team needs to maintain a low profile—a firefight could bring known hostile elements down upon them. To assess potential threats, the Americans decide to take a more cautious approach. Eschewing…

06 Jun

The Lords of Silicon Valley Are Thrilled to Present a ‘Handheld Iron Dome’

stp2y0 CommentsRAG modelsdrones, military, military tech, venture capital, war

Drones have changed war. Small, cheap, and deadly robots buzz in the skies high above the world’s battlefields, taking pictures and dropping explosives. They’re hard to counter. ZeroMark, a defense startup based in the United States, thinks it has a solution. It wants to turn the rifles of frontline soldiers into “handheld Iron Domes.”The idea is simple: Make it easier to shoot a drone out of the sky with a bullet. The problem is that drones are fast and maneuverable, making them hard for even a skilled marksman to hit. ZeroMark’s system would add aim assistance to existing rifles, ostensibly…