Tag: military industrial complex

Computer chip with built-in human brain tissue gets military funding

Last year, Monash University scientists created the “DishBrain” – a semi-biological computer chip with some 800,000 human and mouse brain cells lab-grown into its electrodes. Demonstrating something like sentience, it learned to play Pong within five minutes.

The micro-electrode array at the heart of the DishBrain was capable both of reading activity in the brain cells, and stimulating them with electrical signals, so the research team set up a version of Pong where the brain cells were fed a moving electrical stimulus to represent which side of the “screen” the ball was on, and how far away from the paddle it was. They allowed the brain cells to act on the paddle, moving it left and right.

Then they set up a very basic-reward system, using the fact that small clusters of brain cells tend to try to minimize unpredictability in their environment. So if the paddle hit the ball, the cells would receive a nice, predictable stimulus. But if it missed, the cells would get four seconds of totally unpredictable stimulation.

It was the first time lab-grown brain cells had been used this way, being given not only a way to sense the world, but to act on it, and the results were impressive.

Impressive enough that the research – undertaken in partnership with Melbourne startup Cortical Labs – has now attracted a US$407,000 grant from Australia’s National Intelligence and Security Discovery Research Grants program.

These programmable chips, fusing biological computing with artificial intelligence, “in future may eventually surpass the performance of existing, purely silicon-based hardware,” says project lead, Associate Professor Adeel Razi.

“The outcomes of such research would have significant implications across multiple fields such as, but not limited to, planning, robotics, advanced automation, brain-machine interfaces, and drug discovery, giving Australia a significant strategic advantage,” he said.

Keep reading

Lockheed Martin Predicts Strong Profits as Global Instability Rises

Lockheed Martin believes global instability is driving demand and sees an increase in annual profits. Washington’s proxy war in Ukraine has caused an increase in arms spending among NATO members, boosting weapons makers’ stock prices. 

On Tuesday, Lockheed raised its annual profit and sales outlook on strong demand for military equipment. After making the announcement, the company’s stock price increased by one percent. Reuters reports, “[Lockheed] expects full-year net sales to be between $66.25 billion and $66.75 billion, up from its earlier forecast of $65 billion to $66 billion.”

The billions in profit are driven by sales of big-ticket systems like the F-35. However, Lockheed has struggled to produce F-35s that can perform its promised abilities. In May, the government found the planes’ engines have a serious problem dealing with heat. “The F-35’s engine lacks the ability to properly manage the heat generated by the aircraft’s systems,” POGO reported. “That increases the engine’s wear, and auditors now estimate the extra maintenance will add $38 billion to the program’s life-cycle costs.”

The arms maker has additionally experienced a boost in demand for smaller systems, like the Javelin anti-tank missile. The White House has shipped thousands of Javelin systems to Kiev since Joe Biden took office. 

Keep reading

The Military Dangers of AI Are Not Hallucinations

A world in which machines governed by artificial intelligence (AI) systematically replace human beings in most business, industrial, and professional functions is horrifying to imagine. After all, as prominent computer scientists have been warning us, AI-governed systems are prone to critical errors and inexplicable “hallucinations,” resulting in potentially catastrophic outcomes. But there’s an even more dangerous scenario imaginable from the proliferation of super-intelligent machines: the possibility that those nonhuman entities could end up fighting one another, obliterating all human life in the process.

The notion that super-intelligent computers might run amok and slaughter humans has, of course, long been a staple of popular culture. In the prophetic 1983 film WarGames, a supercomputer known as WOPR (for War Operation Plan Response and, not surprisingly, pronounced “whopper”) nearly provokes a catastrophic nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union before being disabled by a teenage hacker (played by Matthew Broderick). The Terminator movie franchise, beginning with the original 1984 film, similarly envisioned a self-aware supercomputer called “Skynet” that, like WOPR, was designed to control U.S. nuclear weapons but chooses instead to wipe out humanity, viewing us as a threat to its existence.

Though once confined to the realm of science fiction, the concept of supercomputers killing humans has now become a distinct possibility in the very real world of the near future. In addition to developing a wide variety of “autonomous,” or robotic combat devices, the major military powers are also rushing to create automated battlefield decision-making systems, or what might be called “robot generals.” In wars in the not-too-distant future, such AI-powered systems could be deployed to deliver combat orders to American soldiers, dictating where, when, and how they kill enemy troops or take fire from their opponents. In some scenarios, robot decision-makers could even end up exercising control over America’s atomic weapons, potentially allowing them to ignite a nuclear war resulting in humanity’s demise.

Keep reading

U.S. Committee Examines Role of AI in Warfare

Richard Moore, chief of the United Kingdom’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), claimed in a rare public speech on Wednesday that “artificial intelligence [AI] will change the world of espionage, but it won’t replace the need for human spies,” while admitting that British spies are already using AI to disrupt the supply of weapons to Russia.  

According to AP News, in his speech Moore painted AI as a “potential asset and major threat” and called China the “single most important strategic focus” for SIS, commonly known as MI6. He added, “We will increasingly be tasked with obtaining intelligence on how hostile states are using AI in damaging, reckless and unethical ways.” 

Moore shared that “’the unique characteristics of human agents in the right places will become still more significant,’ highlighting spies’ ability to ‘influence decisions inside a government or terrorist group.’” 

While speaking to an audience at the British ambassador’s residence in Prague, Moore urged Russians who oppose the invasion of Ukraine to spy for Britain. “I invite them to do what others have already done this past 18 months and join hands with us,” he said, assuring prospective defectors that “their secrets will always be safe with us” and that “our door is always open.”  

While the MI6 chief spent more time talking about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, it was his comments on the West potentially “falling behind rivals in the AI race” that stood out. Moore declared that, “Together with our allies, [SIS] intends to win the race to master the ethical and safe use of AI.”  

Being quite aware of AI and how it is being used by hostile states, the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation heard testimony from AI experts at Tuesday’s hearing, “Man and Machine: Artificial Intelligence on the Battlefield.” 

The subcommittee’s goal was to discuss “the barriers that prevent the Department of Defense [DOD] from adopting and deploying artificial intelligence (AI) effectively and safely, the Department’s role in AI adoption, and the risks to the Department from adversarial AI.” 

Alexandr Wang, founder and CEO of Scale AI, testified that during an investor trip to China, he witnessed first-hand the “progress that China was making toward developing computer vision technology and other forms of AI.” Wang was troubled at the time, “because this technology was also being used for domestic repression, such as persecuting the Uyghur population.” 

Keep reading

US Funds Invest in Nuclear & Cluster Bombs

Amidst what the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists calls “an exceedingly dangerous nuclear situation” facing humanity today, the largest U.S. mutual funds — which manage the retirement and other savings of tens of millions of Americans — are profiting from investments in nuclear weapons, cluster munitions and other banned or controversial arms, an analysis by a leading shareholder advocacy group has revealed.

Measured by dollars invested, the top 25 U.S. asset managers “all earn a D grade or worse, with significant investments in arms manufacturers and major military contractors, including companies involved with nuclear weapons and controversial weapons like cluster munitions, anti-personnel landmines, incendiary weapons, and depleted uranium,” Berkeley, California-based As You Sow said in its new report.

[Related: In Ukraine, US Adds to Barbaric Cluster-Bomb Legacy]

Some of the largest corporate 401(k)s like American Funds, John Hancock Funds and Franklin Templeton Investments were among the most heavily invested in these armaments, while “fund managers that focus on sustainable investing have less exposure to military weapons, on average.”

Seven funds profiled in the analysis — Eventide Funds, Ecofin, New Alternatives, Vert Asset Management, Aspiration Funds, Thrivent, and Kayne Anderson — held no investments in the controversial weapons.

“Many investors, given a choice, would not want to profit from companies that manufacture weapons of mass destruction,” As You Sow CEO Andrew Behar said in a statement.

Keep reading

US projected to spend $117B on nuke command and control in next decade

Operating, upgrading and maintaining the systems the U.S. Department of Defense relies upon to monitor, ready and launch devastating nuclear weapons is expected to cost $117 billion over the coming decade, according to independent analysis of federal spending plans.

The price tag for nuclear command, control and communications, or NC3, in 2023-2032 marks a $23 billion increase in costs compared to a 10-year estimate made in 2021, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report published July 14. The office updates projections every other year at the direction of lawmakers.

The CBO attributed the increase to a ramping up of nuclear modernization — including the replacement of the E-4B National Airborne Operations Center and E-6B Take Charge and Move Out aircraft — as well as certain items appearing in budgets for the first time.

Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works and RTX, until recently known as Raytheon Technologies, in April announced they would collaborate on the so-called TACAMO, which provides airborne coordination for the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Keep reading

National Security Head Claims UFOs Having “Real Impact” On U.S. Air Force Pilots

Ahead of a major hearing scheduled to take place in the House next week, National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby told reporters Tuesday that UFOs are having a “real impact” on the ability of U.S. Air Force pilots to operate.

“We wouldn’t have stood up an organisation at the Pentagon to analyse and try to collect and coordinate the way these sightings are reported if we didn’t take it seriously,” Kirby said responding to a question on unidentified aerial phenomena.

“I mean, some of these phenomena we know have already had an impact on our training ranges for, you know, when pilots are out trying to do training in the air and they see these things, they’re not sure what they are and it can have an impact on their ability to perfect their skills. So it already had an impact here,” Kirby said, admitting that the military does not know “what they are.”

“Now we’re not saying what they are or what they’re not, we’re saying that there’s something our pilots are seeing, we’re saying it has had an effect on some of our training operations, and so we wanna get to the bottom of it. We wanna understand it better,” Kirby added.

Keep reading

PENTAGON JOINS ELON MUSK’S WAR AGAINST PLANE TRACKING

A TECHNOLOGY WISH LIST circulated by the U.S. military’s elite Joint Special Operations Command suggests the country’s most secretive war-fighting component shares an anxiety with the world’s richest man: Too many people can see where they’re flying their planes.

The Joint Special Operations Air Component, responsible for ferrying commandos and their gear around the world, is seeking help keeping these flights out of the public eye through a “‘Big Data’ Analysis & Feedback Tool,” according to a procurement document obtained by The Intercept. The document is one of a series of periodic releases of lists of technologies that special operations units would like to see created by the private sector.

The listing specifically calls out the risk of social media “tail watchers” and other online observers who might identify a mystery plane as a military flight. According to the document, the Joint Special Operations Air Component needs software to “leverage historical and real-time data, such as the travel histories and details of specific aircraft with correlation to open-source information, social media, and flight reporting.”

Armed with this data, the tool would help the special operations gauge how much scrutiny a given plane has received in the past and how likely it is to be connected to them by prying eyes online.

Keep reading

Shaving Ryan’s Privates: Female Military Recruits Forced To Shower With, Sleep Between, Transitioning Men

An 18-year-old female military recruit was forced to shower with, and sleep in between, transgender biological males under the Biden administration’s policies, placing her in an “extremely uncomfortable position,” Fox News reports.

The incident was highlighted on Tuesday during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, after which Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) told the outlet that the woman is afraid to speak out out of concern for her career, and that her options were to basically keep quiet about it, or resign from her early-career position.

“She could have basically resigned or stepped away,” said Rounds, adding “She could have started over again. But nonetheless, it was an extremely uncomfortable position. And I think this is one of the reasons why we’re not meeting our recruitment goals now.”

According to Rounds, the military recruit, 18, is complaining about being forced to sleep in between “two individuals who were supposedly changing from male to female.” The girl also has to shower with the individuals and reported significant distress about the matter. The individuals housed with the 18-year-old had initiated chemical interventions to change genders, but without having reassignment surgery, their genitalia were fully intact. -Fox News

Rounds heard about the incident from the Attorney General for the South Dakota National Guard.

“He had contacted our office very concerned about the information he had received from the recruit,” said Rounds. “The respect that this young recruit should have received and the privacy that she should have had, she was being deprived of.”

“This seems to be a direct correlation between when the President of the United States issued the executive order making these changes and directing the Department of Defense to integrate… individuals who were transgender and how they should be perceived within the military,” Rounds continued, adding “Most of the focus [under the Biden administration] is on the transgender individuals, not on the individuals who are working with them.”

Keep reading