I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

[RastaMon]

Military drone with no human control



A new aircraft from Northrop Grumman might make the idea of "robot overlords" seem uncomfortably real. The X-47B is a completely unmanned drone. Meaning, not only no pilot but no human control from the ground. Its missions are initially planned by humans but once these things are airborne they are guided and controlled by on-board computers.

Unmanned military drones, as we've come to know them, are controlled by pilots from a chair maybe halfway around the world. It might seem video-game like, providing such a great distance between the pilot and the reality of dropping bombs on real places and people. But at least there's a human at the controls somewhere, giving the order to fire. Now with the X-47B it will be the decision of an algorithm based on perceived threats that are described by sensors. So it begs the question, where is the accountability if something goes horribly wrong?

From the L.A. Times:

The X-47B is at least a decade from official deployment and there are no plans for it to be on bombing missions. Although it is equipped with a weapons bay that has a payload of 4,500 pounds. But the "X" in the name stands for experimental. So that is what it is, experimenting with the edges of complex unmanned skills. For instance, in 2013 it will become the first unmanned vehicle to take off from and land on an aircraft carrier, which is considered one of the most difficult aerial manoeuvres. It will do this by relying on extremely detailed GPS coordinates and constant interaction with the carrier's computers that transmit speed and cross-wind data as the aircraft approaches the ship. And it will refuel itself in the air via an aerial tanker.

What remains, however, are some legal issues as government and military leaders need to debate whether machines can make lethal combat decisions. First stop for such discussions will be the Congressional Unmanned Systems Caucus, which was formed in 2009 to keep members of Congress up to date on drone technology.

The number of drones in active duty has exploded in the last decade going from maybe a handful before 9/11 to about 7,500, apparently one third of all military aircraft. And their numbers are likely to keep growing since they are cheaper to build and operate than piloted planes.

So far the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System program is costing an estimated $813 million. In December it was delivered from the Mojave Desert to Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland where experimentation will continue in 2012.

[via Los Angeles Times]

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[RastaMon]

Loving a Sex Robot: Insanity or reality? - YouTube

Loving a Sex Robot: Insanity or reality? - YouTube

[RastaMon]

Robot Quadrotors Perform James Bond Theme - YouTube

Robot Quadrotors Perform James Bond Theme - YouTube

[BlueLGT]

Originally Posted by RastaMon

Robot Quadrotors Perform James Bond Theme - YouTube

That's pretty cool.

[-=C=-]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/04/opinio...ots/index.html

Frikking cool. Plus using the Microsoft Kinect was a cool idea. Watch that part...crazy cool.

[pornie]

Originally Posted by somebody else

They just gotta get the ground-based units past the Black Ice Menace.

I don't know... for something that large and top heavy, i'm surprised it only went down to one knee..

Originally Posted by banman

I'll see your black ice and raise you a hula hoop:
Aggressive Quadrotor Part II - YouTube

sweet baby jeebus.

[Bryan T]

Awesome!

[AWDspider]

I've been seriously considering building one of these.

[jds]

YouTube (Short URL)

YouTube (Short URL)

Scary. I have a mental image of 10 or 12 of these things chasing somebody across a park.

[RastaMon]

IBM’s Watson Computer Gets a Wall Street Job

International Business Machines Corp. (IBM)’s Watson computer, which beat champions of the quiz show “Jeopardy!” a year ago, will soon be advising Wall Street on risks, portfolios and clients.

Citigroup Inc. (C), the third-largest U.S. lender, is Watson’s first financial services client, IBM said yesterday. It will help analyze customer needs and process financial, economic and client data to advance and personalize digital banking.

IBM expects to generate billions in new revenue by 2015 by putting Watson to work. The technology giant has already sold Watson to health-care clients, helping WellPoint Inc. (WLP) and Seton Health Family analyze data to improve care. IBM executives say Watson’s skills -- understanding and processing natural language, consulting vast volumes of unstructured information, and accurately answering questions with humanlike cognition -- are also well suited for the finance industry.

Financial services is the “next big one for us,” said Manoj Saxena, the man responsible for finding Watson work. IBM is confident that with a little training, the quiz-show star that can read and understand 200 million pages in three seconds can make money for IBM by helping financial firms identify risks, rewards and customer wants mere human experts may overlook.

Banks spent about $400 billion on information technology last year, said Michael Versace, head of risk research at International Data Corp.’s Financial Insights, which has done research for IBM.

[ZMANNH25rs]

Originally Posted by jds

http://youtu.be/d2D71CveQwo

Scary. I have a mental image of 10 or 12 of these things chasing somebody across a park.

It looks like it's running in reverse and it's freaking me the **** out man...

[Kostamojen]

Originally Posted by RastaMon

IBM’s Watson Computer Gets a Wall Street Job

I keep telling everyone... The first use of AI will be for Corporations to make money like this.

Its not going to be for military use or some crazy robot, its going to be a giant computer hooked up directly to the markets making boat loads of money.

[Buck 05STi]

Originally Posted by jds

http://youtu.be/d2D71CveQwo

Scary. I have a mental image of 10 or 12 of these things chasing somebody across a park.

heard about this on the Free Beer and Hotwings show this morning and i got that same mental image after seeing that youtube video. that's some scary isht!

[izergfx]

Originally Posted by Kostamojen

I keep telling everyone... The first use of AI will be for Corporations to make money like this.

Its not going to be for military use or some crazy robot, its going to be a giant computer hooked up directly to the markets making boat loads of money.

Wouldn't it be a bit hard to tell if the millitary/gov't was using it? No doubt it would be classified. I honestly wouldn't be surprised in the least if they had been using more advanced techonology than watson for a number of years.

[Qcanfixit]

I want the cheetah

[ZMANNH25rs]

Originally Posted by izergfx

Wouldn't it be a bit hard to tell if the millitary/gov't was using it? No doubt it would be classified. I honestly wouldn't be surprised in the least if they had been using more advanced techonology than watson for a number of years.

[RacecaR]

YouTube (Short URL)

YouTube (Short URL)

[SlickWRX]

herbie hancock - rockit (original music video) - YouTube

herbie hancock - rockit (original music video) - YouTube

[RastaMon]

DARPA Cheetah Sets Speed Record for Legged Robots - YouTube

DARPA Cheetah Sets Speed Record for Legged Robots - YouTube

DARPA DEVELOPING ROBOTIC CHEETAH THAT PREYS ON THE ENEMY & THE ATLAS ROBOT - YouTube

DARPA DEVELOPING ROBOTIC CHEETAH THAT PREYS ON THE ENEMY & THE ATLAS ROBOT - YouTube

http://www.theonion.com/articles/rob...-record,27566/

[StiDreams]

We can have a whole fleet of these jumping and stabbing.

Sand Flea Jumping Robot - YouTube

Sand Flea Jumping Robot - YouTube

[RastaMon]

[AWDspider]

Originally Posted by StiDreams

We can have a whole fleet of these jumping and stabbing.

Sand Flea Jumping Robot - YouTube

That one creeped me out more than the cheetah

[Predwolf]

Just strap some C4 onto that thing and you've got yourself a really fun toy.

[RastaMon]

Mother of god.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17603235

[Tweeter]

That doesn't need to exist.