All posts tagged: deployed

Trump Says the Military Deployed a Secret “Discombobulator” Weapon in Venezuela

Trump Says the Military Deployed a Secret “Discombobulator” Weapon in Venezuela

Published by José Betancourt

Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images; Carlos Becerra / Getty Images Nations that defy the US-led world order may soon face a new weapon designed to hamstring defenses, disorient troops, and sow fear into the hearts of its enemies. In a familiarly bizarre interview with the New York Post, president Donald Trump revealed that US troops had used what he colorfully termed a secret “discombobulator” during the air attack on Caracas, Venezuela earlier this month. “The discombobulator. I’m not allowed to talk about it,” Trump told the Post. “I would love to,” he said, before claiming that, whatever it is, the device was used in Venezuela. As for what exactly it is, the president was pretty vague. In the interview, Trump bragged that the device “made [Venezuelan] equipment not work” during the brutal offensive that killed about 100 people and led to the unlawful kidnapping of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. “They never got their rockets off. They had Russian and Chinese rockets, and they never got one …

White House Amplifies Shocking Claims Of US Super Soldiers Deployed In Maduro Raid

White House Amplifies Shocking Claims Of US Super Soldiers Deployed In Maduro Raid

Published by Jenni Sidey

White House Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt amplified claims about American special forces super-soliders deployed advanced weaponry during the extraction phase of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Leavitt reposted an alleged account from a Venezuelan security guard at Maduro’s compound describing what happened when Delta Force operators descended from helicopters in pitch-black conditions. This account was originally posted on X by California-based political activist Mike Netter, who is seeking to recall left-wing Governor Gavin Newsom. “On the day of the operation, we didn’t hear anything coming. We were on guard, but suddenly all our radar systems shut down without any explanation. The next thing we saw were drones, a lot of drones, flying over our positions. We didn’t know how to react,” the security guard on Maduro’s compound said. This account was considered credible enough for Leavitt to repost. Here’s the full account from the security guard that reads Venezuelan forces were unable to comprehend the modern battlefield, where drones, sonic weapons, and we’re sure insane helmet-mounted optics with AI, just made an unlevel playing field, in …

Court System Says AI System Ready to Be Deployed After Disastrous Testing Period

Court System Says AI System Ready to Be Deployed After Disastrous Testing Period

Published by José Betancourt

Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Getty Images AI’s use in the legal sphere is the gift that keeps on giving. This time, it’s the sobering sense of disappointment that set in after a team building an AI chatbot for Alaska’s court system actually tested it and found out it was a hallucinating disaster, NBC News reports. The chatbot, dubbed the Alaska Virtual Assistant, was designed to help people handle forms and other procedures involved in probate, the legal process of transferring a person’s belongings after their death. In a predictable turn of events, instead of streamlining an already headache-inducing process inflicted on people who are probably mourning the loss of a loved one, the AI bungled simple questions and left most users feeling annoyed rather than supported. Exhibiting a failing inherent to all large language models, the esteemed virtual assistant kept hallucinating, or making up facts and sharing exaggerated information, according to the people involved in its development. “We had trouble with hallucinations, regardless of the model, where the chatbot was not supposed …

Facewatch: The controversial tech that retailers have deployed to tackle shoplifting and violence | Money News

Facewatch: The controversial tech that retailers have deployed to tackle shoplifting and violence | Money News

Published by skeptic

The Christmas period is upon us, and goods are flying off the shelves, but for some reason, the tills are not ringing as loudly as they should be. Across the country, the five-finger discount is being used with such frequency that retailers are taking action into their own hands. With concerns about the police response to shoplifting, many are now resorting to controversial facial recognition technology to catch culprits before they strike. Sainsbury’s, Budgens and Sports Direct are among the high-street businesses that have signed up to Facewatch, a cloud-based facial recognition security system that scans faces as they enter a store. Those images are then compared to a database of known offenders and, if a match is found, an alert is set off to warn the business that a shoplifter has entered the premises. It comes as official figures show shoplifting offences rose by 13% in the year to June, reaching almost 530,000 incidents. Figures reported in August showed more than 80% result in no charge. At the same time, retailers are reporting more …