The artificial intelligence (AI) currently being developed is largely benevolent. It can mimic the way humans think, complete menial and repetitive tasks, and more. But that doesn't prevent people from being afraid of AI, thinking it will take away jobs or eventually turn Terminator into a documentary. Somebody thought AI wasn't scary enough, and did something to change that. Researchers from MIT and Australia's CSIRO have created AI that actively warps pictures into scary nightmare fuel.

Large, white and rather dishy, NASA's latest spacecraft-tracking antenna unveiled on Thursday has an important job ahead of it. Deep Space Station 36 (DSS36) joins NASA's Deep Space Network, in which it will play a role in future interplanetary missions undertaken by humans and robots. Its home, the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC), has a long relationship with the U.S. space agency. In 2015, CDSCC was the first place to hear from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft when it flew close to Pluto. "This antenna is the culmination of what has been a six-and-a-half-year expansion of the tracking station," Glen Nagle, CDSCC's manager of education and public outreach, told Mashable.

The idea of artificial intelligence (AI) -- autonomous computers that can learn independently -- makes some people extremely uneasy, regardless of what the computers in question might be doing. Those individuals probably wouldn't find it reassuring to hear that a group of researchers is deliberately training computers to get better at scaring people witless. The project, appropriately enough, is named "Nightmare Machine." Digital innovators in the U.S. and Australia partnered to create an algorithm that would enable a computer to understand what makes certain images frightening, and then use that data to transform any photo, no matter how harmless-looking, into the stuff of nightmares. Images created by Nightmare Machine are unsettling, to say the least.

The University of New South Wales has announced a partnership with outsourcing giant Tata Consultancy Services that will see the pair undertake joint research in areas such as machine learning, virtual reality (VR), robotics, data analytics, and cloud computing. Under the memorandum of understanding, UNSW said the organisations will work together on ideas which stem from pure technology research and give them real-world applications, with the agreement also opening up the prospect of exchanges of scholars and internships for UNSW students at Tata Consultancy's global research facilities. The memorandum was signed by Tata Consultancy's CTO Ananth Krishnan and UNSW's deputy vice-chancellor enterprise professor Brian Boyle at the consultancy firm's Asia-Pacific Summit in Sydney. "There is a lot that UNSW and Tata Consultancy Services can offer each other," Boyle said. "UNSW excels in taking our research breakthroughs and partnering with industry to make a significant global impact. Working with TCS will build on UNSW's strong international links and help accelerate innovation by opening up new opportunities around the world."

The idea of artificial intelligence (AI) -- autonomous computers that can learn independently -- makes some people extremely uneasy, regardless of what the computers in question might be doing. Those individuals probably wouldn't find it reassuring to hear that a group of researchers is deliberately training computers to get better at scaring people witless. The project, appropriately enough, is named "Nightmare Machine." Digital innovators in the U.S. and Australia partnered to create an algorithm that would enable a computer to understand what makes certain images frightening, and then use that data to transform any photo, no matter how harmless-looking, into the stuff of nightmares. Images created by Nightmare Machine are unsettling, to say the least.

If you live in Outback Australia, your much-needed heart transplant could one day arrive by drone. A new consortium hopes to find a role for the unmanned flying machines in delivering urgent medical supplies to remote communities. The Australian RPAS Consortium (ARC), made up of eight groups with interests in the hardware, security and legal aspects of drones, including UAS International and the University of Sydney, launched its Angel Drone project Friday. First up, they plan to trial a drone able to carry blood samples, president of the group, Ron Bartsch, told Mashable. "We've got a specifically developed medi-drone that has got an [incubator] in it, which ensures the blood is kept at the right temperatures and conditions," he said.

Some of the best minds in Australia and the U.S. have put their combined brain power to scientific (and evil) use. Researchers at CSIRO's Data61 and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab have built what they called the Nightmare Machine, an artificial intelligence designed to transform beloved childhood characters into downright monsters. Not only can their AI now create its own images, but it's specifically trying to freak us out. According to the CSIRO, the "spooky formula" is generated by two deep learning algorithms: One that takes a visual style from one image and adds it to another, and one that can create faces. More than 200,000 images have been assessed for their fear factor, it said in a blog post, to help the AI learn what is truly frightening to mere mortals.

Autonomous underwater vehicles identify and kill invasive starfish at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Robots can help undo some of the damage that has been done to our environment. Unmanned aerial vehicles are already being used to track endangered wildlife and assist land conservation efforts by mapping ecosystems and monitoring protected areas. Meanwhile at sea, autonomous sailing drones are monitoring ocean water to detect any pollution and track changes in temperature and pH. Now, underwater robots are also working to restore biodiversity by hunting invasive species.

Robots are learning to create zombie faces and apocalyptic landscapes, and with your help, they can make them even more terrifying. Researchers from MIT and Australia's CSIRO have created the Nightmare Machine, an AI algorithm that can transform a normal face or landscape into nightmare fuel. The AI analyzed 200,000 normal human faces and was soon able to generate its own, but the team wanted to take it in another, freakier direction. "We want to produce scary faces," Dr. Manuel Cebrian told the Sydney Morning Herald. "So we take a zombie face –- a really scary one –- and feed it into the neural network."

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