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Category: military – Page 89

What can heal can also be used to destroy?

MegaSyn is built to generate drug candidates with the lowest toxicity for patients. That got Urbina thinking. He retrained the model using data to drive the software toward generating lethal compounds, like nerve gas, and flipped the code so that it ranked its output from high-to-low toxicity. In effect, the software was told to come up with the most deadly stuff possible.

He ran the model and left it overnight to create new molecules.

It was quite impressive and scary at the same time, because in our list of the top 100, we were able to find some molecules that are VX analogues

Continue reading “AI drug algorithms can be flipped to generate bioweapons” | >

For me, the concern was just how easy it was to do. A lot of the things we used are out there for free. You can go and download a toxicity dataset from anywhere. If you have somebody who knows how to code in Python and has some machine learning capabilities, then in probably a good weekend of work, they could build something like this generative model driven by toxic datasets. So that was the thing that got us really thinking about putting this paper out there; it was such a low barrier of entry for this type of misuse.

AI could be just as effective in developing biochemical weapons as it is in identifying helpful new drugs, researchers warn.

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March 16 (Reuters) — Telecoms giant Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) said on Wednesday it had secured new business worth almost $1 billion from the U.S. Department of Defense to provide technical support and network modernization services.

The deal includes contracts for services to the Pentagon, the National Capital Region (NCR) and Fort Belvoir at a combined value of $966.5 million.

Verizon will provide internet-protocol-based services, voice and video services and network-related support aimed at accelerating the department’s digital pivot.

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The lightweight and portable Panzerfaust 3 has been in the news as of late due to its use in the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. A newer version of the World War II-era Panzerfaust, it allows soldiers to penetrate all forms of tank armor, thanks to its use of shape-charged warheads.

—weapons don’t bring peace they only boost one’s stupidity. We shall all see how cheering for one side, instead of peace plays out. I don’t trust crooked governments, I don’t trust the media, I only trust peace and stability that few can provide.

It can penetrate all forms of tank armor, thanks to its warheads.

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Russia has asked China for military support, including drones, as well as economic assistance for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, according to conversations CNN had with two US officials.

The requests came after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one of the officials said. That official declined to detail the Chinese reaction but indicated that the Chinese had responded.

Potential assistance from the Chinese would be a significant development in Russia’s invasion. It could upend the hold Ukrainian forces still have in the country as well as provide a counterweight to the harsh sanctions imposed on Russia’s economy.

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The Space Development Agency awarded BridgeComm and Space Micro a $1.7 million contract to demonstrate point-to-multipoint communications.

WASHINGTON — Each of the satellites in the Pentagon’s planned mesh network of communications satellites could have as many as many as four laser links so they can talk to other satellites, airplanes, ships and ground stations.

Optical inter-satellite links are critical to the success of the Space Development Agency’s low Earth orbit constellation — known as Transport Layer — that will be used to route data traffic. Lasers provide much higher transmission data rates than traditional radio-frequency communications but are also far more expensive.

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Concerned about the war Ukraine? You’re not alone. Historian Yuval Noah Harari provides important context on the Russian invasion, including Ukraine’s long history of resistance, the specter of nuclear war and his view of why, even if Putin wins all the military battles, he’s already lost the war. (This talk and conversation, hosted by TED global curator Bruno Giussani, was part of a TED Membership event on March 1, 2022. Visit http://ted.com/membership to become a TED Member.)

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Continue reading “The War in Ukraine Could Change Everything | Yuval Noah Harari | TED” | >