On today's episode, our host Zoë Schiffer is joined by WIRED's senior politics writer Jake Lahut to run through five of the most important stories we published this week--from how bitcoin miners have been racing this year to beat the tariffs, to how AI was used to find a missing hiker in the Italian Alps. Then, Zoë and Jake discuss the details around OpenAI's latest partnership with the federal government. Mentioned in this episode: OpenAI Announces Massive US Government Partnership by Zoë Schiffer and Will Knight Trumpworld Knows Epstein Is a Problem. But They Can't Solve It by Jake Lahut Charter Planes and Bidding Wars: How Bitcoin Miners Raced to Beat Trump's Tariffs by Joel Khalili Google Will Use AI to Guess People's Ages Based on Search History by Dell Cameron US Coast Guard Report on Titan Submersible Implosion Singles Out OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush by Mark Harris A Hiker Was Missing for Nearly a Year--Until an AI System Recognized His Helmet by Marta Abbà Get tickets to our live show, happening on September 9th, here. Write to us at uncannyvalley@wired.com.

After months at sea, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Waesche returned to San Diego on Thursday, with over 37,000 pounds of confiscated cocaine and one less crew member, lost at sea, officials said. The offloading of their massive narcotics haul -- which weighs about as much as a full grown humpback whale and is estimated to be worth 275 million -- comes days after search efforts were ended for 23-year-old Seaman Bryan Lee, according to the Coast Guard. Lee, who hails from Rancho Cordova, was discovered missing at 6:45 a.m. last Tuesday while the Waesche was conducting a routine counter-drug patrol around 300 nautical miles south of Mexico. Search crews dedicated over 190 hours to scouring 19,000 nautical miles for Lee using drones, aircraft and vessels, before suspending the search on Monday. The confiscated cocaine was netted through 11 drug interdiction missions off the coasts of Mexico and Central and South America from December through mid February.

Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., opens up about the aerial systems spotted in the Garden State on'The Story.' A U.S. Coast Guard official said one of its vessels was trailed by dozens of drones off the coast of New Jersey recently, according to Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J. Smith, a guest on "The Story with Martha MacCallum" Tuesday, said he spent Monday night on the beach in Ocean County and spoke to several people, including a U.S. Coast Guard commanding officer stationed in Barnegat Light. Smith learned from the Coast Guard commander that the night before, "one of their 47-foot vessels, boats, was trailed very closely by more than a dozen of these drones." "Now, that to me, is very, very, not just suspicious, provocative, and this could be a foreign power, whether it be [Vladimir] Putin, or it could be Xi Jinping in China, or the Middle East, we can't rule any of that out," the congressman said. Photos taken in the Bay Shore section of Toms River of what appear to be large drones hovering in the area at high altitudes in New Jersey on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024.

Footage of the Titan submersible's salvage has been released by the US Coast Guard's Marine Board of Investigation (MBI). A remotely operated vehicle captured the footage on 26 June 2023, but the video was shown 23 September 2024 during a hearing investigating what led to the submersible imploding. The wreckage was recovered and transported to a secure facility for further analysis as part of the ongoing investigation.

Through the utilizations of YOLO, we were able to run different weather conditions and lighting from our augmented dataset for training. YOLO then utilizes CNNs to apply a series of convolutions and pooling layers to the input image, where the convolution layers are able to extract the main features of the image [2]. Through this, our YOLO model is able to learn to differentiate different objects which may considerably improve its accuracy, possibly enhancing the efficiency of SAR operations through enhanced detection accuracy. This paper aims to improve the model's accuracy of human detection in maritime SAR by evaluating a robust datasets containing various elevations and geological locations, as well as through data augmentation which simulates different weather and lighting. We observed that models trained on augmented datasets outperformed their non-augmented counterparts in which the human recall scores ranged from 0.891 to 0.911 with an improvement rate of 3.4% on the YOLOv5l model. Results showed that these models demonstrate greater robustness to real-world conditions in varying of weather, brightness, tint, and contrast.

Abstract-- Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are emerging as very important tools in search and rescue (SAR) missions at sea, enabling swift and efficient deployment for locating individuals or vessels in distress. The successful execution of these critical missions heavily relies on effective path planning algorithms that navigate UAVs through complex maritime environments while considering dynamic factors such as water currents and wind flow. Furthermore, they need to account for the uncertainty in search target locations. However, existing path planning methods often fail to address the inherent uncertainty associated with the precise location of search targets and the uncertainty of oceanic forces. In this paper, we develop a framework to develop and investigate trajectory planning algorithms for maritime SAR scenarios employing UAVs. We adopt it to compare multiple planning strategies, some of them used in practical applications by the United States Coast Guard. Furthermore, we propose a novel planner that aims at bridging the gap between computation heavy, precise algorithms and lightweight strategies applicable to real-world scenarios.

A transnational inquiry has been launched to determine accountability for the deaths of five passengers aboard the OceanGate Expeditions submersible that imploded during a descent to the wreckage of the Titanic in the North Atlantic, the United States Coast Guard announced Sunday. Maritime agencies from Canada, France and Britain are joining an investigation that will be led by the Coast Guard, Capt. Jason Neubauer said during a news conference at Coast Guard Base Boston. Neubauer said the priority of the investigation, known as a Marine Board of Investigation, or MBI, "is to recover items from the seafloor." Neubauer said investigators will also determine "the cause of this marine casualty" and establish accountability.

Navy SEAL Jake Zweig responds to the intense search for the missing Titanic submarine on'Fox & Friends.' Efforts to recover the remains of the Titan submersible that suffered a catastrophic implosion near the Titanic wreckage are currently underway, and as of Sunday, had descended to the seafloor for a fourth dive. Last Thursday, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed that a debris field located about 1,600 feet from the wreckage of the Titanic was in fact that of the missing Titan submersible. The underwater vessel was carrying five men on board when it lost contact with its surface ship about an hour and 45 minutes after descending to the Titanic. South Wellfleet, Massachusetts-based Pelagic Research Services (PRS) was contacted by OceanGate, the company behind Titan, for use of its remotely operated vehicles, or "ROVs," to assist with the search. Pelagic Research Services continues to assist the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, U.S. Coast Guard, and U.S. National Transportation Safety Board with Titan recovery efforts near the Titanic wreckage.

First Coast Guard District Rear Admiral John Mauger offers his condolences to the loved ones of the Titan submersible crew on'America Reports.' BOSTON – EXCLUSIVE: Stockton Rush, the 61-year-old adventurer and CEO who died this week along with four other crew members in a catastrophic implosion near the bow of the Titanic, appeared in a series of never-before-seen surreal images captured during testing of the vehicle years ago. In the series of May 2018 photos taken in Abaco, Bahamas, and obtained by Fox News Digital, Rush can be seen peering through the vessel's lone porthole, testing out computer equipment inside and posing next to the 21-foot submersible on the deck of a ship before the test run. They were captured by underwater photographer Becky Kagan Schott, who said Rush had tested the vehicle numerous times in the area, and she befriended the adventurer. The Titan was designed to reach depths of 4,000 meters, according to OceanGate, the company Rush founded in 2009. It was meant for a variety of purposes, including scientific research, media production, and site surveying.

"A debris field was discovered within the search area by an ROV near the Titanic," the USCG said just before noon. ROV stands for remotely operated vehicle. Experts were evaluating the information. The Titan lost contact with its surface vessel, the Polar Prince, around 1 hour and 45 minutes into its dive Sunday morning, about 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and around 400 miles southeast of St John's, in Canada's Newfoundland. "We understand debris has been found which may be the landing frame and a rear cover of the tail instrument compartment of The Titan lost on previous dives," Richard Garriott, the president of the Explorers Club which had members on the missing sub, wrote to the group, according to a spokesman. "We hear there may be additional debris, but no updated visuals of the submersible." This file image provided by OceanGate shows the Titan submersible descending into the ocean.