science

By Elke Schwarz, Queen Mary University of London | – A report by Jerusalem-based investigative journalists published in +972 magazine finds that AI targeting systems have played a key role in identifying – and potentially misidentifying – tens of thousands of targets in Gaza. This suggests that autonomous warfare is no longer a future scenario. […]

Artificial Intelligence

Four Ways AI could Help us Respond to Climate Change

The Conversation

By Lakshmi Babu Saheer, Anglia Ruskin University | – (The Conversation) – Advanced AI systems are coming under increasing critcism for how much energy they use. But it’s important to remember that AI could also contribute in various ways to our response to climate change. Climate change can be broken down into several smaller problems […]

Artificial Intelligence

AI Behavior, Human Destiny and the Rise of the Killer Robots

Michael T. Klare

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Yes, it’s already time to be worried — very worried. As the wars in Ukraine and Gaza have shown, the earliest drone equivalents of “killer robots” have made it onto the battlefield and proved to be devastating weapons. But at least they remain largely under human control. Imagine, for a moment, […]

Climate Crisis

In our National Crisis, We need Public Voices of Optimism — not Gadflies circling a Black Hole

Bahman Fozouni

Sacramento (Special to Informed Comment) – Who is a public intellectual? What role should they play? Searching the internet yields several answers. Alan Lightman’s The Role of the Public Intellectual offers a thoughtful discussion of different visions of the public intellectual and their role and responsibilities. I have opted for a broader description, but with […]

Corporations

Tech “Visionaries” are Actually Holding back Progress with Bloated, Predatory Corporations

The Conversation

By Peter Bloom, >University of Essex | – Technological innovation in the last couple of decades has brought fame and huge wealth to the likes of Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos. Often feted as geniuses, they are the faces behind the gadgets and media that so many of us depend upon. […]

Artificial Intelligence

AI Goes to War: Will the Pentagon’s Techno-Fantasies Pave the Way for War with China?

William D. Hartung

( Tomdispatch.com) – On August 28th, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks chose the occasion of a three-day conference organized by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), the arms industry’s biggest trade group, to announce the “Replicator Initiative.” Among other things, it would involve producing “swarms of drones” that could hit thousands of targets in […]

Displaced and Refugees

Marrakech Artisans – who have helped rebuild the Moroccan City before – are among those hit hard in the Earthquake’s Devastation

The Conversation

By Abbey Stockstill, Southern Methodist University | – A powerful earthquake that hit close to the medieval city of Marrakech in Morocco on Sept. 8, 2023, has killed thousands and injured many more. It has also put at risk buildings and monuments of major historic importance, among them the minaret of the Kutubiyya mosque, a […]

China

A Perfect Storm: Does China’s EV Dominance Threaten European Auto Makers on their Home Turf?

Clean Energy Wire

By Sören Amelang | – On the way from China to Europe: BYD electric car. Image by BYD ( Clean Energy Wire ) – Europe’s carmakers have little to celebrate at this year’s IAA mobility show. Chinese firms’ widening lead in the global shift to electric vehicles is on open display at the biennial fair […]

Africa

Hey Jason Aldean: All Humans owe their Big Brains and Survival as a Species to Afro-Textured Hair

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Afro-textured hair has been a frequent object of racist denigration. In April 2007 radio shock jock Don Imus got himself fired for referring to the Rutgers women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed ho’s.” Those formidable women, both scholars and athletes performing at a level Imus could never hope to, did not […]