Robot wars – what an operation in Ukraine tells us about the battlefield of the near future

Robot wars – what an operation in Ukraine tells us about the battlefield of the near future

The battlefield in Ukraine could soon feature more robot than human soldiers – that is the startling claim made by a Ukrainian-British military start-up.

The BBC visited UFORCE at its London premises, which are unbranded and discreet, a measure the company says is intended to protect it from potential Russian sabotage.

I wanted to know more about the company because of its involvement in what Ukraine says was an unprecedented military operation: enemy territory being seized using only robots and drones.

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Surveillance pricing is discrimination by another name

Surveillance pricing is discrimination by another name

In 2008, on The Price Is Right, retired meteorologist Terry Kniess gave exactly the correct answer – right down to the dollar! – on two grand prizes. Everyone assumed he had cheated, but he said he hadn’t – instead, he memorized the show’s predictable set of prices.

That mind-blowing feat couldn’t happen today. Companies have made it almost impossible to know when the price is “right,” thanks to endless data collection that changes how much things cost across both time and place. Businesses now commonly use computational systems to track behaviour and traits to figure out what consumers might tolerate paying, to extract the maximum possible amount of money from them. This goes by many names: Algorithmic, personalized, surveillant, or even “snitch” pricing (though some economists see it as the holy grail of market efficiency, since everyone is paying what they are willing to pay). Some companies even claim, weakly, that this data collection helps them to deliver personalized and optimized discounts. But no matter what you call it, the result is discriminatory – even as this variance becomes a dominant feature of the modern economy.

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Nolte: ‘Tilly Tax’ Floated to Protect Crybaby Actors from Being Replaced by AI

Nolte: ‘Tilly Tax’ Floated to Protect Crybaby Actors from Being Replaced by AI

The latest (dumb) idea floating around to protect actors from AI is something called the Tilly Tax, or a tax that tries to remove the incentive of choosing an AI-generated actor over a human actor.

Over at Forbes, Dr. Lance B. Eliot, an AI scientist, has written a truly superb article that looks at this tax scheme from all angles. Unlike most of the analysis you see about AI vs. Hollywood, Eliot’s write-up is informed, comprehensive, and loaded with the kind of context the entertainment media are afraid to highlight.


Good read … Hollywood’s New Math Favors AI Actors Over Human Actors And Taxing Won’t Stop The Rise Of Synthetic Movie Stars

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Families sue OpenAI over failure to report Canada mass shooter’s behavior on ChatGPT

Families sue OpenAI over failure to report Canada mass shooter’s behavior on ChatGPT

Families of seven victims of a mass shooting at a secondary school in British Columbia are suing OpenAI and the company’s CEO for negligence after it failed to alert authorities to the shooter’s troubling conversations with ChatGPT.

The lawsuits, filed on Wednesday in a federal court in San Francisco, allege that the violent intentions of the shooter, identified as 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, were well-known to OpenAI. Employees at the company flagged the shooter’s account eight months before the attack and determined that it posed “a credible and specific threat of gun violence against real people”, according to the lawsuit.

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OpenAI’s Altman ‘deeply sorry’ company didn’t flag Tumbler Ridge shooter’s messages to police

OpenAI’s Altman ‘deeply sorry’ company didn’t flag Tumbler Ridge shooter’s messages to police

Sam Altman, the chief executive officer of OpenAI, has formally apologized for his company’s role in the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.

The apology was requested by B.C. Premier David Eby, who met with Mr. Altman and Tumbler Ridge Mayor Darryl Krakowka last month to discuss the Feb. 10 shooting that left nine people, including the shooter, dead.

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Nolte: Award-Winning French Director Predicts Famous AI Actors Within Two Years

Nolte: Award-Winning French Director Predicts Famous AI Actors Within Two Years

Award-winning French director Mathieu Kassovitz is embracing AI and predicts that “in two years from now nobody will care” if actors are real or AI.

Kassovitz arrived on the scene as a respected international filmmaker 30 years ago with his 1995 masterpiece La Haine, a critical and financial hit that won him the Best Director prize at that year’s Cannes Film Festival.


So long as the AI creations refrain from calling me a racist because I didn’t vote as instructed I won’t care.

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ChatGPT faces criminal investigation over shooting

ChatGPT faces criminal investigation over shooting

Prosecutors in Florida have launched a criminal investigation into ChatGPT because of claims that the AI bot helped an alleged killer prepare for a mass shooting.

James Uthmeier, Florida’s attorney general, said state officials were demanding answers from OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, which allegedly offered “significant advice” to a gunman who left two people dead at Florida State University in April 2025.

“If ChatGPT were a person, it would be facing charges for murder,” Mr Uthmeier said. “This criminal investigation will determine whether OpenAI bears criminal responsibility for ChatGPT’s actions in the shooting at Florida State University last year.”

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Anthropic investigating claim of unauthorised access to Mythos AI tool

Anthropic investigating claim of unauthorised access to Mythos AI tool

Anthropic is investigating a claim that a small group of people gained access to its Claude Mythos model – the cyber-security tool which the AI firm says is too powerful to release to the public.

“We’re investigating a report claiming unauthorized access to Claude Mythos Preview through one of our third-party vendor environments,” the company said in a statement.

It was in response to a Bloomberg report that users in a private forum managed to access the model without the normal permissions.

There is deep unease about Mythos’ capabilities – though the UK’s top cyber official has said advanced AI tools could be a “net positive” if the technology was secured from misuse.

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MI5 called in to protect Britain from breakthrough AI threat

MI5 called in to protect Britain from breakthrough AI threat

MI5 is racing to bolster the defences of Britain’s most critical companies against the hacking threat posed by a powerful new wave of AI.

Experts at the Security Service have been in contact with energy, water and communications companies to warn them about Mythos, an AI tool that has been deemed by its developer Anthropic to be too dangerous for general release.

A source said: “They [MI5] have been asking critical companies to be fully aware of the threat. They are making those responsible aware that the threat has evolved.”

Companies which own Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) include National Grid, BT, water companies and the nuclear power giant EDF. MI5 is responsible for protecting their security.

(more…)

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AI And Weimar America

AI And Weimar America

As you know, I’m finishing up the Weimar America book. In this last chapter, which I writing this weekend, I’m trying to figure out What It All Means, and what we should or could do about it. My conclusion — and I didn’t expect to get here when I started — is that while we may see some version of Hitler 2.0 or Stalin 2.0, the neo-Caesar we are likely to get will have something to do with AI. I’m explaining why in this final chapter — but I’m writing you on a Saturday to share with you this brilliant Bill Maher dialogue about AI’s dangers, which aired last night. It’s about ten minutes long, and well worth watching…

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AI ‘that could escape the lab’ sparks fear in the City

AI ‘that could escape the lab’ sparks fear in the City

The accidental leak of news about an all-powerful hacking bot will have done little to calm the fears of AI doom-mongers.

Days before the official announcement of Anthropic’s Claude Mythos, reporters from Fortune magazine uncovered an online datastore of unprotected files belonging to the tech company, including a draft blog revealing the existence of the new AI.

Since the botched reveal earlier this month – blamed on “human error” – industry leaders and government experts have been sounding the alarm over the powerful bot.

(more…)

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Meet the humans training robots at the ‘arm farm’

Meet the humans training robots at the ‘arm farm’

AI still needs us, but not for long

AI is set to take over all cognitive tasks in the next few years. Your hard-won career as a paralegal, data analyst, radiologist, coder or novelist is about to be hacked out from under you. So far, so apocalyptic. But what about the jobs that are primarily embodied? Sous-chef, rehabilitation nurse, plumber, dog-trainer? These are expected to lag behind, awaiting the next generation of robots. But there is an important further question. Who will train these robots? Answer: you will.

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Waymo reportedly plans to test robo taxis in Ontario. Toronto’s mayor has her doubts about its technology

Waymo reportedly plans to test robo taxis in Ontario. Toronto’s mayor has her doubts about its technology

Waymo is reportedly planning a significant step toward bringing its driverless taxis to Toronto’s streets. But it’s unclear if the California-based tech company will be welcome north of the border, with the mayor and premier harbouring concerns about the autonomous driving technology’s impact on local jobs.

According to a spokesperson for Mayor Olivia Chow, Waymo has told her office it plans to apply to the Ontario government’s automated vehicle pilot program. That would enable the company to test its vehicles in the province and serve as a potential precursor to launching commercial robo taxi operations in its largest city.


No more migrant drivers? I’m on board.

Yes, Waymo (and to a lesser extent other driverless systems) has begun to take market share and exert downward pressure on human cab, Uber, and Lyft drivers in the cities where robotaxis operate at scale—but it has not caused widespread or total displacement yet.

 

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Mutually Automated Destruction: The Escalating Global A.I. Arms Race

Mutually Automated Destruction: The Escalating Global A.I. Arms Race

At a military parade in Beijing in September, President Xi Jinping and his special guests, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, watched as Chinese forces showed off several models of drones that could autonomously fly alongside fighter jets into battle.

The demonstration of technological might immediately set off alarm bells in the United States. Pentagon officials concluded that America’s program for unmanned combat drones was lagging China’s, according to three U.S. defense and intelligence officials. Russia, too, was thought to be ahead in building facilities that could produce advanced drones, said the officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly on military capabilities.

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Study: 86% of AI Unemployed will be Women

Study: 86% of AI Unemployed will be Women

A new study predicts 86% of AI unemployment will be women.

And not just any women: rich Democrat women.

Tragically, AI is coming for the notorious Karen who’s overpaid for what she produces but still needs to see the manager.

h/t Hermes

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