In a semifinal Thursday, Lockheed beat Physics AI. Heron defeated Aurora in the other semifinal and then took down Lockheed in the final. Heron scored five kills vs. zero for the human pilot.
The first round on Tuesday featured each team flying their algorithms vs. adversary AI algorithms. The teams then competed against each other in a round-robin style competition Wednesday.
— www.investors.com/news/artificial-intelligence-lockheed-martin-f16-pilot-virtual-darpa-dogfight/
Category: Hardware
Farmers Could Soon Be Hedging Their Risks With Decentralized Weather Data
Farmers are likely the hardest hit by weather unpredictability. For many, severe weather conditions can lead to the loss of their livelihood, or even starvation. Although farmer insurance has been around for decades — if not centuries — according to Jha, it is unaffordable for the vast majority:
“If you had less than two hundred thousand dollars in premium to spend, you actually had no real access.”
Arbol blockchain infrastructure. Source: Arbol.
Jha claims that Arbol both lowers the entry barrier and makes hedging less expensive. With blockchain, settlements and payouts can be instant, whereas in the centralized world, participants may have to wait weeks, if not months.
Farmers can hedge against various adverse weather conditions having a negative impact on their crops. They can buy a hedge — for example, if a temperature in their region reaches a critical level, which will trigger an automatic payout. By adding Chainlink’s oracalized weather data feeds, the company’s platform has become more decentralized and resilient.
Report: Huawei Riddled With ‘Long Term Security Risks’ – ExtremeTech
UK officials tasked with evaluating Huawei’s network security and overall suitability to be a leading 5G partner in its upcoming deployments have released a report on their findings. The UK and Huawei have an agreement in which Huawei’s compliance with security standards is monitored by the Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC). This organization is overseen by the HCSEC Oversight Board, who authored this most recent report. Their conclusions are quite negative — but they may also finally shed some light on why Huawei has been such a divisive topic over the past few years.
Warnings about Huawei’s security practices began during the Obama administration but ramped up after President Trump took office. What’s been missing from those reports, however, was any firm technical sense of why Huawei’s equipment and software were to be avoided. Did the equipment contain backdoors or other forms of spyware? One of the regular topics around the ExtremeTech water cooler has been the degree to which the government’s consistent-but-vague warnings reflected actual security concerns. In the interests of disclosure: I’ve tended to think the government probably did have reasons it wasn’t willing to publicly disclose. If the UK report reflects the US experience, there are definitely issues to be solved.
In its report, the HCSEC OB states that “Further significant technical issues have been identified in Huawei’s engineering processes, leading to new risks in the UK telecommunications networks” (emphasis original). It also states that Huawei has made no progress towards resolving any of the critical security issues identified in the previous year. As a result, the Oversight Board writes that it would be “inappropriate to change the level of assurance from last year or to make any comment on potential future levels of assurance.”
— www.extremetech.com/internet/288570-report-huawei-riddled-with-long-term-security-risks
Why AI researchers should reconsider protesting involvement in military projects – MIT Technology Review
AI expert who was involved in Project Maven, the DoD’s program to accelerate artificial intelligence and machine learning for military uses—said that “constructive engagement” with the armed forces was necessary to avoid bad decisions.
In June, Google said it would no longer work with Project Maven after more than 4,000 employees signed a letter that accused the company of being “in the business of war.”
But speaking at EmTech Digital, MIT Technology Review’s AI conference, McCord said that it would be better for society as a whole to see such collaborations continue, and for those dissenting employees involved in AI projects to reexamine their stance.
“Most here today would agree that militaries and their role in deterrence, offense, and defense are a part of the world, and they will be for the foreseeable future,” he said. “A strategy of constructive engagement versus one of opting out is a far more optimal one.”
“Working on AI for defense does not make you less principled,” he added.
The secretive nature of Project Maven, which was said to be focused on improving analysis of footage captured by military drones, had caused concern across a wide group of AI researchers. But the US armed forces remain a “powerful force for promoting peace and stability in the world,” said McCord, reflecting arguments that AI researchers who reject the military on principle are actually handing the advantage to those with less rigorous ethical standards, including other nations.
While McCord said he would not expect “antiwar pacifists” to change their minds, he asked researchers to consider what would happen if other countries were making their own advances in emerging fields. A more positive attitude to the military was particularly important, he added, since governments now play a lesser role in the development of new technological discoveries than they once did.
“At the end of the Cold War the locus of innovation shifted to the private sector,” he said. “The world has changed. The capacity for government, and the role of government, has been diminished to a point where it’s never been so low in my view. The net effect is that big tech companies have assumed the mantle—whether they wanted to or not—of being the arbiters. They’re often self-regulating.”
— www.technologyreview.com/s/613208/emtech-digital-brendan-mccord-project-maven/
PlanetMobile company public update
The company is conducting contracts with telecom providers and makes appropriate adjustments to the logic of the system.
Information on the web site will be updated in the coming days. Also, our SIM cards will be offered to a selected group of users for testing.
Planet Mobile – Stay online always and everywhere!
Nearly Half of So-Called ‘AI Firms’ in Europe Never Use Artificial Intelligence, VC Firm Says
London venture capital firm MMC Ventures has conducted a damning survey which revealed that 40% of “AI” firms in Europe don’t use AI at all, and are simply using the term to capitalize on the hype associated with the term. MMC examined 2,830 self-described AI startups throughout 13 EU countries. The VC firm found that 40% don’t use AI technology in a way material to their business, generally without even investing in artificial intelligence/machine learning technology at all.
Spanish Car Manufacturer SEAT Joins Alastria Consortium to Develop Blockchain Products
Spanish automobile manufacturer SEAT has joined Alastria consortium to work on the development of blockchain-based products. Cointelegraph in Spanish reported the news Jan. 16.
Founded in 1950, SEAT is a state-owned industrial company and Spain’s largest car manufacturer. SEAT’s turnover reportedly reached a record figure of 9.552 billion euro ($10.878 billion) in 2017, which is 11.1% more than the year prior.
Per the recent announcement, SEAT joined Alastria, a multi-industry, semi-public consortium backed by a national network of more than 70 companies and establishments. These include such major players as banks BBVA and Banco Santander, telecommunications provider Telefónica, energy firm Repsol and professional services company Accenture. The goal of the alliance is to promote the advancement and development of blockchain technology.
As part of the collaboration, SEAT plans to test the benefits of blockchain in the field of finance, aiming to improve and optimize the existing processes and facilitate supply chain management.
SEAT president Luca de Meo reportedly said that the company is “convinced of the relevance that blockchain technology will have in the future.”
In the meantime, SEAT and Telefónica have already begun jointly working on a proof-of-concept of a blockchain product that will track vehicle parts throughout the supply chain of SEAT’s factory located in Martorell, Spain.
Last month, American car manufacturing giant General Motors (GM) filed a blockchain patent for a solution to manage data from autonomous vehicles.
Second-Largest US Bank Wins Patent for Crypto Storage System
Bank of America, the second-largest US bank, has won a patent for a storage system that would secure private keys for crypto assets.
— Citește pe www.ccn.com/second-largest-us-bank-wins-patent-for-crypto-storage-system/
Tomorrow’s telescopes will be planet-sized quantum teleportation devices
A team of Harvard physicists recently published research showing how future telescopes will rely on quantum entanglement to see across the universe.
— Citește pe thenextweb.com/science/2018/10/24/tomorrows-telescopes-will-be-planet-sized-quantum-teleportation-devices/
Apple just Made Its Phones Impossible For Police to Hack
Apple’s newest iOS updated makes iPhones impervious to police hacking attempts, according to reporting from Forbes.
— Citește pe www.popularmechanics.com/technology/security/a24219241/apple-greykey-ios12-police-hacking/