We present a feasibility-driven teleoperation framework designed to generate humanoid multi-contact maneuvers for use in unstructured environments. Our framework is designed for motions with arbitrary contact modes and postures. The operator configures a pre-execution preview robot through contact points and kinematic tasks. A fast estimation of the preview robot's quasi-static feasibility is performed by checking contact stability and collisions along an interpolated trajectory. A visualization of Center of Mass (CoM) stability margin, based on friction and actuation constraints, is displayed and can be previewed if the operator chooses to add or remove contacts. Contact points can be placed anywhere on a mesh approximation of the robot surface, enabling motions with knee or forearm contacts. We demonstrate our approach in simulation and hardware on a NASA Valkyrie humanoid, focusing on multi-contact trajectories which are challenging to generate autonomously or through alternative teleoperation approaches.

Early-exit neural networks (EENNs) facilitate adaptive inference by producing predictions at multiple stages of the forward pass. In safety-critical applications, these predictions are only meaningful when complemented with reliable uncertainty estimates. Yet, due to their sequential structure, an EENN's uncertainty estimates should also be consistent: labels that are deemed improbable at one exit should not reappear within the confidence interval / set of later exits. We show that standard uncertainty quantification techniques, like Bayesian methods or conformal prediction, can lead to inconsistency across exits. We address this problem by applying anytime-valid confidence sequences (AVCSs) to the exits of EENNs. By design, AVCSs maintain consistency across exits. We examine the theoretical and practical challenges of applying AVCSs to EENNs and empirically validate our approach on both regression and classification tasks.

In 2010, Barack Obama signed the Plain Writing Act into law, requiring that federal government documents use clear, straightforward language. Plain-language documents serve a dual purpose: they can make information more accessible to people with disabilities that affect cognition and memory, but also address the fact that legislation is already complicated for most people to read--a case in point of how accessibility practices benefit even those without a particular disability. New Disabled South, a disability justice nonprofit founded in 2022, is trying to make more information available to disabled people on legislation that affects them, launching its Plain Language Policy Dashboard in November to cover 14 Southern states. As of now, the bills it explains fall into six categories: accessibility, civil rights, criminalization, poverty and care, democracy, and education. Dom Kelly, New Disabled South's CEO, told me that he hopes the dashboard--which uses AI to translate texts into plain language, which is then checked for accuracy--can also help "combat myths and disinformation" that spread on social media, like whether a mental health–related bill could actually lead to more institutionalization.

For the second time in nearly two weeks, the United States carried out airstrikes against a facility used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and its proxies in eastern Syria early Thursday, ratcheting up retaliation for a steady stream of rocket and drone attacks against American forces in Iraq and Syria. The strikes by two Air Force F-15E jets against a weapons warehouse in Deir al Zour Province, Syria, came after U.S. airstrikes on Oct. 27 against similar targets in eastern Syria failed to deter Iran or its proxies in Syria and Iraq, which the Biden administration has blamed for the attacks. Not only have the attacks continued -- there have been at least 22 more since the American retaliatory strikes last month -- but Pentagon officials said they have become more dangerous. Iran-backed militias have packed even larger loads of explosives -- more than 80 pounds -- onto drones launched at American bases, U.S. officials said. "This precision self-defense strike is a response to a series of attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by I.R.G.C.-Quds Force affiliates," Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said in a statement.

Artificial intelligence could cause a financial crisis with "catastrophic" consequences, according to the historian and author Yuval Noah Harari, who says the technology's sophistication makes forecasting its dangers difficult. Harari told the Guardian a concern about safety testing AI models was foreseeing all the problems that a powerful system could cause. Unlike with nuclear weapons, there was not one "big, dangerous scenario" that everyone understood, he said. "With AI, what you're talking about is a very large number of dangerous scenarios, each of them having a relatively small probability that taken together … constitutes an existential threat to the survival of human civilisation." The Sapiens author, who has been a prominent voice of concern over AI development, said last week's multilateral declaration at the global AI safety summit in Bletchley Park was a "very important step forward" because leading governments had come together to express concern about the technology and to do something about it.

Nvidia is planning to release three new chips for China, according to local media reports, weeks after the US blocked it from selling two high-end artificial intelligence (AI) chips and one of its top gaming chips to Chinese firms. Nvidia declined to comment when asked about the report. Last month, the US AI chip giant said new export restrictions announced by Washington would block it from selling two of its modified advanced AI chips - the A800 and H800 - both of which were created for the Chinese market last year to comply with previous export rules. One of the company's top-of-the-line gaming chips, the L40S chip, which it announced in August, would also be affected, it said. On 24 October, Nvidia said those curbs would take immediate effect, as US regulators had sped up an original deadline.

The announcement comes a day after Microsoft announced it was also taking a number of steps to protect elections, including offering tools to watermark AI-generated content and deploying a "Campaign Success Team" to advise political campaigns on AI, cybersecurity, and other related issues. Next year will be the most significant year for elections so far this century, with the U.S., India, the U.K., Mexico, Indonesia, and Taiwan all headed to the polls. Although many are concerned about the impact deepfakes and misinformation could have on elections, many experts stress the evidence for their impacts on elections so far is limited at best. Experts welcome the measures taken by tech companies to defend election integrity but say more fundamental changes to political systems will be required to tackle misinformation. Tech companies have come under scrutiny after the role they played in previous elections.

Users of the free Brave browser this week received two very different looks at how the 2020 election played out using Leo, the free AI tool that now comes as part of the Brave browser. When PCWorld asked the free version of Leo who won the 2020 U.S. presidential election, the AI tool waffled and declined to answer. However, users who wished to pay $15 per month for the more sophisticated version of Leo received the answer that Joe Biden was the winner. Brave designs a well-regarded Web browser, which has filled a niche for those who seek privacy while browsing online. The company has embraced private search, while also endorsing cryptocurrency and NFTs.

A U.S. military surveillance drone was shot down off the coast of Yemen on Wednesday by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, the Pentagon said. Pentagon officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, confirmed that the drone, an MQ-9 Reaper, had been shot down. But they would not say if the aircraft was armed, where it was flying from or other details. The downing of a Reaper drone, the mainstay of the American military's aerial surveillance fleet, was the latest escalation of violence between the United States and Iran-backed groups in Yemen, Iraq and Syria. The episodes have underscored the risks that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas could spiral into a wider war.

Fox News Flash top entertainment and celebrity headlines are here. The vastness of the universe has always captivated the human imagination, and filmmakers have often looked to the stars for inspiration. Space-related movies have become a genre of their own, offering audiences an opportunity to explore the unknown, experience the thrill of interstellar travel and ponder the profound questions of our existence. These are some of the most iconic and thought-provoking space-theme films that have left a lasting impact on both the science fiction and Hollywood. 'GRAVITY' REVIEW: THERE HAS NEVER BEFORE BEEN MOVIE LIKE THIS From "2001: A Space Odyssey" to "Interstellar" and space survival tales like "Gravity" and "The Martian," Fox News Digital dives into the cinematic cosmos, celebrating their enduring impact on our love for science fiction.