Many applications of representation learning, such as privacy preservation, algorithmic fairness, and domain adaptation, desire explicit control over semantic information being discarded. This goal is formulated as satisfying two objectives: maximizing utility for predicting a target attribute while simultaneously being invariant (independent) to a known semantic attribute. Solutions to invariant representation learning (IRepL) problems lead to a trade-off between utility and invariance when they are competing. While existing works study bounds on this trade-off, two questions remain outstanding: 1) What is the exact trade-off between utility and invariance? and 2) What are the encoders (mapping the data to a representation) that achieve the trade-off, and how can we estimate it from training data? This paper addresses these questions for IRepLs in reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces (RKHS)s. Under the assumption that the distribution of a low-dimensional projection of high-dimensional data is approximately normal, we derive a closed-form solution for the global optima of the underlying optimization problem for encoders in RKHSs. This yields closed formulae for a near-optimal trade-off, corresponding optimal representation dimensionality, and the corresponding encoder(s). We also numerically quantify the trade-off on representative problems and compare them to those achieved by baseline IRepL algorithms.

We designed and constructed an A-sized base autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), augmented with a stack of modular and extendable hardware and software, including autonomy, navigation, control and high fidelity simulation capabilities (A-size stands for the standard sonobuoy form factor, with a maximum diameter of 124 mm). Subsequently, we extended this base vehicle with a novel tuna-inspired morphing fin payload module (referred to as the Morpheus AUV), to achieve good directional stability and exceptional maneuverability; properties that are highly desirable for rigid hull AUVs, but are presently difficult to achieve because they impose contradictory requirements. The morphing fin payload allows the base AUV to dynamically change its stability-maneuverability qualities by using morphing fins, which can be deployed, deflected and retracted, as needed. The base vehicle and Morpheus AUV were both extensively field tested in-water in the Charles river, Massachusetts, USA; by conducting hundreds of hours of operations over a period of two years. The maneuvering capability of the Morpheus AUV was evaluated with and without the use of morphing fins to quantify the performance improvement. The Morpheus AUV was able to showcase an exceptional turning rate of around 25-35 deg/s. A maximum turn rate improvement of around 35% - 50% was gained through the use of morphing fins.

The CyberPeace Institute is an independent and neutral non governmental organization who works to enhance the stability of cyberspace by decreasing the frequency, impact, and scale of destructive cyberattacks. The Institute works in close collaboration with relevant partners to reduce the harms from cyberattacks on people's lives worldwide, and provide them assistance. By analyzing cyberattacks, the Institute exposes their societal impact, how international laws and norms are being violated, and advances responsible behavior to enforce cyberpeace. We are looking for a highly motivated intern to join the CyberPeace Institute. We work on a wide ranging area of machine learning and data science.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., on U.S. aid delivered to Ukraine. EXCLUSIVE: The snow was piling up and blizzard-like conditions were mounting as Anastasiya Koval, an American Ukrainian, crossed into the recently liberated city of Kharkiv in early December while on a humanitarian mission to deliver aid to the front lines. "I didn't realize how massive the city was. It was my first time there," she described in an interview with Fox News Digital. "What really impacted me was when we finally crossed the bridge where the Russian soldiers had entered the city."

Landmine blasts can be fatal and cause injuries including blindness, burns, damaged limbs, and shrapnel wounds. While many nations have stopped using and producing landmines, 59 countries and territories remain contaminated by mines or other explosives. In 2019, landmines and similar explosives caused at least 5,554 casualties, across 55 countries and regions, with civilians accounting for the majority (80%) and children representing nearly half of civilian casualties (43%). Over one million landmines were dropped in Afghanistan in the 1980s. About two million landmines have been planted on the Korean Peninsula since the Korean War ended in 1953.

For starters, it has no head. And instead of kibble and water, it runs on a lithium-ion battery. When the four-legged robot, which can climb stairs, open doors and transmit 360-degree video, was unveiled a few years ago, it was billed as a potent new tool for industries whose workers are often in dangerous conditions. It could, for example, detect radiation for an energy company or inspect the safety of a mining tunnel, its creator, Boston Dynamics, touted said in promotional material. And police officials around the U.S. realized Spot, which its inventors named, also offered an upgrade from the slower, less agile robots currently used in hostage situations, assessing suspicious packages and other high-risk situations.

The private museum of Takara Tomy, the Japanese toy company responsible for Transformers, Beyblade, and Zoids, is filled with playthings from Christmases past. In a lovingly curated room in the company's Tokyo headquarters, a miniature B-29 bomber, faintly flecked with rust, sits at the ready in a glass display case. A squad of Micronauts action figures seems to have warped in from the seventies. An R2-D2-esque Omnibot, the remote-controlled robot that I begged my parents to buy in 1985, looks ready to roll. In the near future, these toys are likely to be joined by a very different sort of gadget: a small, spherical moon rover named SORA-Q, which Takara Tomy designed for the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA.

Another Mars robot is settling in for a long, long sleep. With dust caking its solar panels, InSight has been losing the ability to recharge for months -- in the spring, it was operating at just one-tenth of its landing power. Now the thick layers of dust might have doomed InSight for good. NASA announced on December 19 that its InSight lander had not responded to communications from Earth, and "it's assumed InSight may have reached its end of operations." InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport, landed on Mars on November 26, 2018.

Prediction 6: Efforts to develop humanoid robots will attract considerable attention, funding and ... [ ] talent. Several new humanoid robot initiatives will launch. Rumors have been flying recently about GPT-4, the next generation of OpenAI's powerful generative language model. Expect GPT-4 to be released early in the new year and to represent a dramatic step-change performance improvement relative to GPT-3 and 3.5. As manic as the recent hype around ChatGPT has been, it will be a mere prelude to the public reaction when GPT-4 is released. What will GPT-4 be like? Perhaps counterintuitively, we predict that it won't be much larger than its predecessor GPT-3.

The study used "connectome-based predictive modeling" to compare five theories about how the brain gives rise to intelligence, said Aron Barbey, a professor of psychology, bioengineering and neuroscience at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who led the new work with first author Evan Anderson, now a researcher for Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. working at the Air Force Research Laboratory. "To understand the remarkable cognitive abilities that underlie intelligence, neuroscientists look to their biological foundations in the brain," Barbey said. "Modern theories attempt to explain how our capacity for problem-solving is enabled by the brain's information-processing architecture." A biological understanding of these cognitive abilities requires "characterizing how individual differences in intelligence and problem-solving ability relate to the underlying architecture and neural mechanisms of brain networks," Anderson said. Historically, theories of intelligence focused on localized brain regions such as the prefrontal cortex, which plays a key role in cognitive processes such as planning, problem-solving and decision-making.