The US Army has released footage of an exoskeleton that looks like something out of Ridley Scott's iconic film Alien. The device, dubbed the'Third Arm', looks like a harness and takes the weight of weapons off of soldiers' arms. Infantrymen have been required to'shoot, move and communicate' throughout history, all while carrying weapons weighing close to 30 pounds. The US Army has released footage of a'third arm' exoskeleton. The device, officially called the Third Arm, looks like a harness and takes the weight of weapons off soldiers' arms The Third Arm doesn't need batteries, is lightweight and can evenly distribute the load of a heavy weapon. 'It falls in line with the direction that the Army wants to be heading in the future,' mechanical engineer Dan Baechle said.

The backlash to Google's work on a US military artificial-intelligence project began inside the tech giant, but in recent weeks, it has spilled into the public. As employees resigned in protest over Google's work with Project Maven, which uses AI to identify potential drone targets in satellite images, reports revealed top executives fretting over how it will be perceived by the public. On Friday, Google changed course, as Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene announced internally that the company will not renew the contract for Project Maven, according to Gizmodo. The current contract expires in 2019. Google's precise involvement in the project is not clear, but the relationship has caused enough controversy inside the company that several employees have quit in protest and more than 4,000 employees signed a petition arguing against the contract.

Google will reportedly halt its work on a military project that had fomented an employee revolt. Google Cloud chief Diane Greene told employees that the company would not renew its contract with the US military, according to multiple reports, acceding to a broad backlash against Google developing technology that could be weaponised. A representative of Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Google blasted for listing'Nazism' as tenet of California Republicans Google quietly removes'don't be evil' preface from code of conduct Hundreds of AI experts call on Google to stop weaponizing technology Google blasted for listing'Nazism' as tenet of California Republicans Google quietly removes'don't be evil' preface from code of conduct Thousands of workers had signed a letter asking leadership to end its involvement in a Pentagon pilot programme, known as Project Maven", that uses artificial intelligence to decipher video footage and could be used to improve targeted drone strikes. "We believe that Google should not be in the business of war", the letter read, cautioning that the tool could be used to "assist the US Government in military surveillance - and potentially lethal outcomes".

Google will not seek to extend its contract next year with the Department of Defense for artificial intelligence used to analyze drone video, squashing a controversial alliance that had raised alarms over the technological build-up between Silicon Valley and the military. The tech giant will stop working on its piece of the military's AI project known as Project Maven when its 18-month contract expires in March, a source familiar with Google's thinking told The Washington Post. Diane Greene, the chief executive of Google's influential cloud-computing business, told employees of the decision at an internal meeting Friday first reported by Gizmodo. Google, which declined to comment, has faced widespread public backlash and employee resignations for helping develop technological tools that could aid in warfighting. The source said Google would soon release new company principles related to the ethical uses of AI.

While leaked memos show that Google execs perceived a real risk of internal backlash from their $9 million Pentagon contract to supply AI for US military drones, they were willing to risk it because they expected the business to quickly grow to $250,000,000. The September email chain discussing the recently inked deal included Scott Frohman and Aileen Black, two members of Google's defense sales team, along with Dr. Fei-Fei Li, the head scientist at Google Cloud, as well as members of the communications team. Black provided a summary of the Project Maven deal, which she described as a "5-month long race among AI heavyweights" in the tech industry. "Total deal $25-$30M, $15M to Google over the next 18 months," she wrote. "As the program grows expect spend is budgeted at 250 M per year. This program is directly related to the Sept 13 memo about moving DOD aggressively to the cloud I sent last week."

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your Automaton bloggers. We'll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!): Let us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today's videos. Skydio's R1 can now follow cars, while not crashing into other stuff, of course: Telexistence thinks that having a telepresence robot that's humanoid on the other end will make it more natural to interact with, I'm guessing. And they've done a reasonable job with the design: I have to wonder what kind of latency you get between Japan and Hawaii, though.

File photo - A Google carpet is seen at the entrance of the new headquarters of Google France before its official inauguration in Paris, France Dec. 6, 2011. Google will not seek another contract for Project Maven, a controversial military program that uses artificial intelligence to improve drone targeting, according to Gizmodo. Citing three sources with knowledge of the matter, Gizmodo reports that Google will not seek another contract when the current Project Maven contract expires in 2019. The decision was announced by Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene at a meeting with employees Friday morning, it said. Greene reportedly cited the backlash against Project Maven, adding that the firm plans to announce new ethical principles about AI next week.

It reminds me when the US government tried to make exportation of strong encryption algorithms illegal. I think it is still illegal to export encryption software (but not algorithms written in plain text) to some countries. This was driven by the same argument: a fear of data mining, analytics, and mathematics, by government lawmakers who do not understand anything about it. Eventually, just like with encryption laws, the GDPR regulation will die -- not because it is bad, but because it is very poorly designed by incompetent people.

Artificial intelligence is the bold new frontier in business and entrepreneurship, and all signs point to an even bolder future for the burgeoning technology. Applications for AI in business are nearly boundless, and new uses emerge on a weekly basis. Leveraging artificial intelligence in your company's marketing, management and long-term strategy can give you an edge over the competition. Despite widespread use, AI is still an emerging technology. Breakthroughs in computing power have enabled the development of increasingly effective machine learning algorithms.

President Donald Trump signed a directive in 2017 to establish the'innovation zones' that allow exemptions to some drone regulations, such as flying over people, nighttime flights and flights where the aircraft can't be seen by the operator. States, communities and tribes selected to participate would devise their own trial programs in partnership with government and industry drone users. 'Data gathered from these pilot projects will form the basis of a new regulatory framework to safely integrate drones into our national airspace,' US Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao said in a statement. Ms Chao, who called the rapidly developing drone industry the biggest development since the jet age, said about 150 applications were received. Ten sites have been included in a the Federal Aviation Administration's Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Pilot Program.