‘Slaughterbots’ video warns of the future of fully autonomous weapons

“Ladies and gentlemen, I have news for you: the robots are not taking over the world. Humans are still in charge,” announced Amandeep Gill, India’s disarmament ambassador, at the United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons. The Guardian provided some details about the conference’s discussion of autonomous weapon systems that many nations are on the verge of developing, which can identify and eliminate targets without human control.

Activists such as UC Berkeley professor Stuart Russell, an artificial intelligence expert, disagree with Gill. They warn that time is running out and that a ban on autonomous weapons is urgently needed.

Russell and the Future of Life Institute have produced the chilling short video Slaughterbots, depicting an attack by swarms of drones as small as a bird. It was presented at an event at the UN convention hosted by the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. “This short film is just more than speculation,” Russell says. “It shows the results of integrating and militarizing technologies that we already have.”

Elon Musk and other tech luminaries have previously urged the UN to ban autonomous weapons in an open letter to the organization, referring to it as the “third revolution in warfare.” Just recently, more than 200 Canadian and upwards of 100 Australian scientists signed open letters to Canada’s Justin Trudeau and Australia’s Malcolm Turnbull, urging support of the killer robot ban.

“The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots is not trying to stifle innovation in artificial intelligence and robotics and it does not wish to ban autonomous systems in the civilian or military world,” said Noel Sharkey of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control. “Rather we see an urgent need to prevent automation of the critical functions for selecting targets and applying violent force without human deliberation and to ensure meaningful human control for every attack.”

“Countries do not have time … to waste just talking about this subject,” added Mary Wareham of Human Rights Watch.

With more than 70 countries participating, this month’s conference marked an important first step towards curtailing fully robotic weapons, but many industry experts say quicker action is needed. They hope for a historic international treaty such as the current ban on chemical and biological weapons. “The bioweapon ban created such a powerful stigma that, despite treaty cheating, we have almost no bioterror attacks today and almost all biotech funding is civilian,” said MIT Professor Max Tegmark.

Toby Walsh of the University of South Wales calls killer robots “weapons of mass destruction,” but he’s confident that a ban will eventually come about. “My only concern is whether [countries] have the courage of conviction to do it now, or whether we will have to wait for people to die first,” he said.

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Everything different about the new PlayStation VR

The 2017 model of PlayStation VR has made some easy to miss, but fantastic changes.

PlayStation VR has been delivering awesome videos, games, and experiences for over a year now. While the original PlayStation VR is a great headset, Sony now has an updated model for 2017 that has made a number of small changes to the design of this VR headset. Everything from the earbuds, to buttons, extending all the way to the processor box has been updated.

Here are all the changes we’ve spotted!

Read more at VRHeads

Why the LG V10 is still in my gear bag two years later

Great audio chops and being built to withstand the apocalypse makes the V10 the one phone I’m holding on to.

I’ve never used a phone more than a year. Before I came to work for Mobile Nations I got a new BlackBerry every year (except for a miserable affair with a Palm Pre) and nowadays I seem to change phones at least two or three times a year. But the LG V10 is still charged and in my carrying-around bag.

Changing phones stops being fun after the first 20 or so times.

And I still use it quite a bit. I love the way it’s built with the rubber textured back and solid steel frame but that’s not why I keep it around. Neither is the woefully old software the reason. I just love the way it sounds.

I carry three phones counting the V10, and even I think that’s a bit ridiculous. But like everyone ever in the history of consumer electronics, I can’t find the one thing that’s perfect for everything. The Pixel 2 is what I use for any work stuff. We need to know what happens with Android from Google and how things work before another company gets in there and changes, fixes, or breaks things. It’s also a really damn good phone and would be my choice if I had to pick just one.

I also carry my BlackBerry KEYone in case I actually have to do anything more than type out a short and typo-filled message. Any BlackBerry fan will tell you that the right keyboard can be a lifesaver if you need to do a lot of work with your phone, and now that a great BlackBerry keyboard phone is part of the Android ecosystem it’s pretty damn wonderful.

But neither of these phones nor any other new phone I have here plays my music the way the V10 plays my music. The HTC 10 did, but because it’s not built like a weapon of mass destruction it didn’t survive as long as the V10 has. And the V10 sounds even better now than it did when I first got it. Like many music players or stereo parts, it got even better with a little age after the parts burned in a bit. I’m not exactly sure why that works the way it does, so I chalk it up to dust being magical. But it works like that. But I do know that the V10 is the best music player and fun device I’ve ever had and neither of its successors nor any other phone since comes close.

The V10 is the best music player I’ve ever had. And my wife would be quick to mention that I’ve had too many of them.

Besides playing the tunes the way I like them to be played, the V10 has a great camera, records sound better than any other phone I’ve tried, and is as connected as every other Android device. I often think that some company (looking at you, Samsung) needs to make a good music player that has Google Play support but doesn’t need to be imported from Japan for $1,000. But really, that’s exactly what my V10 is. Google Maps, Twitter, Facebook, and all the rest of the apps we love are there along with every streaming service and premium audio support. It’s better than a good PMP because it can double as a phone if I wanted it to.

I know it’s not going to last forever. If I get lucky and never meet Mr. Bootloop I reckon I can get a couple more years out of it. I just hope someone makes a replacement that I like as well between now and then.

I can’t be the only one hanging on to some old phone because it makes a great second-duty device. At least I hope I’m not. Holler at me if you’re doing something similar and keeping an old phone around because it’s so damn good at a few things.

Google Lens comes to Assistant on Pixel phones

You no longer have to fire up Google Photos if you want to use Lens to glean information from the world around you. Users have noticed that Lens in now available in Google Assistant on both original Pixel and Pixel 2 phones. Tap a camera button while using the AI helper and you can have it perform a search when you take a photo. It can identify what you’re looking at, scour the web and launch other apps. You can rate results, too, so you’ll hopefully refine Lens’ results over time.

The feature isn’t widely available yet — it may take some time before you see it. There’s also no word on availability for other devices. It’s safe to say this will make Lens more convenient, though, regardless of what you’re using. Before, you had to snap a shot and then switch to Photos to make sense of it. Assistant skips that step — you can capture an image and decipher it in one go.

Via: 9to5Google

Source: Reddit (1), (2)

Xiaomi’s latest US-ready devices include an action cam

Xiaomi has chosen to focus its efforts on dozens of markets outside the US that very few of its products ever make it stateside. It has slowly been bringing its offerings into the country, though, and has started selling four new products on Amazon (with one more to come) just in time for this year’s holiday shopping season. The priciest one you can add to your Christmas list is Xiaomi’s GoPro rival, the $300 Mi Sphere Camera kit, which is a 23.88-megapixel 360-degree camera that can record videos in 3.5K.

Xiaomi has also released a $140 robot builder kit with Lego-like components and electronic parts like high-speed motors and engine that you can use to build robotic dinosaurs, Transformer-like machines or pretty much anything you want. You can write programs for your creations with the kit’s accompanying app even if you don’t know how to write code. If you’re not really a builder but love listening to music, the next item in Xiaomi’s list is for you: a pair of $130 gold-and-black Hi-Fi stereo headphones that has a closed-loop design that can supposedly block noise.

The company is releasing a cheaper ($25) pair of in-ear headphones, as well, but that’s not arriving until November 24th. Finally, there’s the manufacturer’s 10,000 mAh powerbank with a microUSB and USB Type-C connection for your newer phones. It will only set you back $30, which is quite cheaper than the one Tesla released, though it’s also unfortunately sold out at the moment. The sphere camera is also temporarily out of stock, but the headphones and the robot builder are both available and ready to be snapped up as somebody’s Christmas gift.

Via: The Verge

Apple’s Denmark-based data center gets a new neighbor in the form of Google

Apple’s data center in Denmark may soon have a new neighbor: Google. Reuters has reported that the search giant has purchased a plot of land adjacent to the plot that Apple intends to use for a data center.

In July of this year, Apple said that it planned to spend $950 million to build a new data center on that plot of land. The company expects it to be operational by 2019. Assuming Google follows suit, it would make the area one of the world’s largest data centers.

Denmark’s energy minister, Lars Christian Lilleholt, said that the deal was likely motivated by the fact that Denmark offers some of the greenest and most affordable energy in Europe.

“It signals that Google has plans in Denmark, and I think it’s because we have some of Europe’s lowest power prices for companies, some of the greenest energy, and a high security of supply,” he told Reuters.

Lilleholt’s comments track with what an Apple spokesperson said in July regarding the importance of renewable energy.

“The planned facility in Aabenraa, like all of our data centers, will run on 100 percent renewable energy from day one, thanks to new clean energy sources we’re adding,” Erik Stannow, Apple’s Nordic manager, said.

Tech companies, in general, have recently started embracing renewable energy as a means of combating climate change. Last year, Google reaffirmed its commitment to renewable energy. Plans such as these go a long way towards reducing the effects of climate change, while also generating some good PR for the companies involved.

Google currently has no plans for the plot of land it purchased, but the company said that it wanted to secure so that it could expand in the region. Additionally, the company owns another plot of land in Fredericia, Denmark.

Apple and Google aren’t the only tech companies seeking to take advantage of Denmark’s low energy prices. In January, Facebook announced that it planned to build a datacenter in Odense, Denmark. It will be the company’s third data center located outside of the U.S.

This expansion into Denmark is not surprising considering that the country is one of the most tech-friendly ones in the world. This is true both in terms of consumer adoption and its business environment.

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NASA satellite launch promises accurate week-long forecasts

NASA and NOAA know that multi-day weather forecasts can be crucial to tracking hurricanes and their aftermath, and they’re about to significantly boost the reliability of those forecasts. They just launched JPSS-1 (Joint Polar Satellite System-1), the first of a series of NOAA satellites that should improve the accuracy of weather forecasts extending as long as a whole week. It includes five upgraded instruments (including an infrared imaging sensor and a microwave sounder) that can track weather-influencing factors with exacting detail, such as atmospheric temperature, clouds, ice cover, ocean colors and volcanic ash.

The satellite will have to go through 3 months of tests before it’s operational. When it’s ready, however, it should not only help predict the path of hurricanes, but visualize storm damage and track the scale of power outages. It may just save lives by giving people more time to prepare and pinpointing the worst-hit areas. It should also bolster monitoring for long-term climate patterns like El Niño. All told, JPSS-1 could help scientists better understand weather and the environment as a whole.

Source: NASA, PR Newswire (1), (2)

Giant ‘Minecraft’ graphics upgrade delayed to 2018

The Minecraft team had a bunch of news at their MineCon Earth convention, but the biggest news may be what’s not happening. Mojang and Microsoft have delayed the launches of both the Super Duper Graphics Pack and cross-platform Switch multiplayer to sometime in 2018. They’re not elaborating on the reasons behind the delay, but in both cases the features simply aren’t finished. More information on the graphics delay is coming “soon,” according to the creators.

Instead, the biggest improvement (beyond the Better Together release) is The Update Acquatic, which refines underwater adventures. There are new water physics (such as buoyancy), dolphins, coral and a water-appropriate weapon (the trident). There’s no release date just yet.

This certainly isn’t going to trigger a crisis for Minecraft players, but it does suggest that the graphics pack and Switch update were more than a little ambitious. It’s going to take a while for the world-building game to grow significantly beyond its roots.

Source: Minecraft