OPEN YOUR MIND BEFORE YOUR MOUTH

In Ukraine, AI Ushers In The Age Of Killer Robots In a field on the outskirts of Kyiv, the founders of Vyriy, a Ukrainian drone company, were recently at work on a weapon of the future. To demonstrate it, Oleksii Babenko, 25, Vyriy’s chief executive, hopped on his motorcycle and rode down a dirt path. Behind him, a drone followed, as a colleague tracked the movements from a briefcase-size computer. Until recently, a human would have piloted the quadcopter. No longer. Instead, after the drone locked onto its target — Mr. Babenko — it flew itself, guided by software that used the machine’s camera to track him. The motorcycle’s growling engine was no match for the silent drone as it stalked Mr. Babenko. “Push, push more. Pedal to the metal, man,” his colleagues called out over a walkie-talkie as the drone swooped toward him. “You’re screwed, screwed!” If the drone had been armed with explosives, and if his colleagues hadn’t disengaged the autonomous tracking, Mr. Babenko would have been a

Never before have the warmongers of the past had the entire world potentially at their mercy For those interested in preserving our nations, free markets, culture or even basic human rights, we are in an outright harrowing time. Many of these challenges are direct physical assaults, like warfare, but there is also a wide variety of abstract dangers. Such as censorship, surveillance, economic warfare, or disaster capitalism. Governments battle against their people for control over policy, and against mega-corporations for control over the public. Families, communities and even entire nations are stuck in the crossfire of larger plans without clear allies to depend on. Marshall McLuhan’s quote has become a tired cliche these days as more and more people recognise that vast swaths of humanity are under attack from seemingly every direction. The quote accurately describes what many are feeling, but little else.  It leaves behind many questions to ponder further: What is the war about? Who’