An artificial intelligence algorithm soundly defeated an experienced U.S. F-16 fighter pilot in a simulation of an aerial dogfight, the Pentagon said. The event, called Alpha Dogfight Trials, was part of the Air Combat Evaluation program of the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Designed to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence in combat situations, DARPA invited teams from eight defense contractors to fly F-16 fighter planes in competitive, simulated combat. The weeklong competition at the Applied Physics Lab of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore led to the winner facing off against a live, experienced pilot. Heron Systems, a Maryland-based AI developer, was the last company standing, and on Thursday its algorithm quickly defeated a U.S. Air Force pilot identified only as "Banger" in five rounds of combat, all in less than two minutes.

In the United Kingdom there's been some landmark AI news recently involving government use of the technology. First, use of facial recognition by South Wales Police was ruled unlawful by a Court of Appeal judge in part for violating privacy, human rights, and failure by police to verify the tech did not exhibit race or gender bias. How the U.K. treats facial recognition is important since London has more CCTV cameras than any major city outside of China. Then, U.K. government officials used an algorithm that ended up benefiting kids who go to private schools and downgrading students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended the algorithm grading results as "robust" and "dependable for employers."

An artificial intelligence algorithm defeated a human F-16 fighter pilot in a virtual dogfight sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Thursday. After two days of competition, the winning algorithm of Darpa's Air Combat Evolution program took on a human pilot in a Lockheed Martin (LMT) F-16 simulator Thursday. Artificial intelligence teams from Boeing (BA) subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences, EpiSys Science, Georgia Tech Research Institute, Heron Systems, Lockheed Martin, Perspecta Labs, PhysicsAI, and SoarTech entered the competition. In a semifinal Thursday, Lockheed beat Physics AI. Heron defeated Aurora in the other semifinal and then took down Lockheed in the final.

A museum at Bletchley Park, site of the World War Two code-breaking success, is to cut up to a third of its jobs after losing almost all of its income during lockdown. Up to 35 jobs at all levels and in each department are said to be at risk. Chief executive officer Iain Standen said the Bletchley Park Trust had "exhausted all other avenues". Workers at the Buckinghamshire site were responsible for decoding enemy codes during the war. The site became a museum in 1994.

An AI algorithm piloting an F-16 Fighting Falcon in a simulated dogfight against a seasoned US Air Force pilot achieved a flawless victory with five straight wins in a fierce competition Thursday, according to multiple reports. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) held the final round of its third and final AlphaDogfight competition Thursday, putting an AI system designed by Heron Systems against a human pilot in a "simulated within-visual-range air combat" situation. Heron's AI went head-to-head with a graduate of the Air Force's Weapons Instructor Course with the callsign "Banger," according to Breaking Defense. A expert commentator, DARPA's Justin Mock, said that the AI algorithm demonstrated "superhuman aiming ability" during the dogfight. During the fight, the human pilot never scored a single hit.

Waking up Alexa or Google with a question works well enough in the relatively unchanging home environment. But when trying to control robots in a combat environment, asking Alexa politely to find the source of enemy fire is a whole different challenge. That's why U.S. Army and academic researchers joined forces to develop a better way to interact and control autonomous systems such as mobile robots. Researchers from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory (ARL), in collaboration with the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies, developed a new conversational model called the Joint Understanding and Dialogue Interface (JUDI) capability. The approach to speech recognition "enables bi-directional conversational interactions between soldiers and autonomous systems," according to a statement from the U.S. Army.

Adam Shelly (left), an Xwing software engineer, stands with CEO and founder Marc Piette (center) and ... [ ] CTO Maxime Gariel in front of a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan the startup has retrofitted to fly autonomously. Scores of companies are working to develop pilotless robot aircraft that are electrically powered and takeoff and land vertically. That's an awful lot of change to pull off at once. Xwing is among a handful of aviation startups that are aiming to get to market sooner by taking on just one piece of that puzzle, in its case, making aircraft fly autonomously. The San Francisco-based company claims to have pulled off the first fully autonomous flight of a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, a small workhorse cargo plane, and it's hoping to win approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to launch commercial cargo deliveries with unmanned Grand Caravans over unpopulated areas in 2022.

Artificial intelligence is becoming a major feature of educational practice and policymaking, but researchers are beginning to raise critical questions about its ethics and effects. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become the subject of both hype and horror in education. During the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, AI in education (AIed) attracted serious investor interest, market speculation, and enthusiastic technofuturist predictions. At the same time, algorithms and statistical models were implicated in several major controversies over predictive grading based on historical performance data, raising serious questions about privileging data-driven assessment over teacher judgment. In the new special issue AI in education: Critical perspectives and alternative futures published in Learning, Media and Technology, Rebecca Eynon and I pulled together a collection of cutting edge social scientific analyses of AIed.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Friday denied any political pressure to undermine mail-in voting for the November election by slowing mail delivery, calling any such suggestion "outrageous." Under questioning before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, DeJoy said he had never spoken to President Trump, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, White House Chief of Staff or any Trump campaign officials about operational changes he has ordered. DeJoy said at his first election mail meeting, he instructed his organization to redouble their efforts. "I was greatly concerned about all the political noise we were hearing," saying weekly reviews were underway before "all the excitement came out. Any insinuation [about undermining on-time delivery] is quite frankly outrageous."

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy arrives at a meeting at the office of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on August 5.Alex Wong/Getty Embattled Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified before the US Senate on Friday that he will not reinstall more than 600 mail sorting machines that have been removed under his leadership. Postal workers say the removal of these machines has contributed to major mail delays that could affect whether mail ballots are counted in the 2020 election. Earlier this week, DeJoy announced that he was halting some planned changes to the USPS until after the election, following public outcry. But he will not reverse steps that he has already taken. "Will you be bringing back any mail sorting machines that have been removed?"