French inventor Frank Zapata grabbed headlines around the world this summer when he flew his hoverboard across the English channel from Pas de Calais, France, to the famous white cliffs of Dover. But Bay Area commuters may soon do Zapata one better by skimming above San Francisco Bay on autonomous, single-passenger drones being developed by a Peninsula start-up company with ties to Google. The automated drones are electrically powered, capable of vertical takeoff and landing, and would fly 10 feet above the water at 20 mph along a pre-determined flight path not subject to passenger controls. The drones' rotors are able to shift from vertical to horizontal alignment for efficient forward movement after takeoff. The company behind all this, three-year-old Kitty Hawk Corp., has personal financial backing from Google founder Larry Page, now CEO of Google's parent, Alphabet, who has long been interested in autonomous forms of transportation.

Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar faces condemnation over her'some people did something' comments; reaction from Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer, former White House contributor. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn, blasted President Trump over his handling of Iran and suggested that his administration is to blame over the increased tensions between the two nations. Over the weekend, Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed they launched drone attacks on the world's largest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia and a major oil field Saturday, sparking huge fires and halting about half of the supplies from the world's largest exporter of oil. The attacks marked the latest of many drone assaults on the Kingdom's oil infrastructure in recent weeks, but easily the most damaging. They raised concerns about the global oil supply and could further escalate tensions across the Persian Gulf amid a growing crisis between the U.S. and Iran over the troubled nuclear deal.

As the plumes of smoke settle over two of Saudi Arabia's critical oil production facilities – which came under crippling drone strikes over the weekend – both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia are deliberating options for retaliation, raising the possibility of much broader instability across the region, although President Trump was quick to point out Monday, "I don't want war with anybody." Intelligence officials from both countries have been quick to point fingers at Iran as the orchestrators of the attack, which analysts have deemed as one of the most disruptive in history. "This is perhaps one of the greatest examples of kinetic economic warfare we have seen in recent times. Iran is suffering from our sanctions but does not want to escalate into an active war with us," Andrew Lewis, a former Defense Department staffer and the president of a private intelligence firm, the Ulysses Group, told Fox News. "They can do a lot to manipulate the world economy, which will have a negative impact on the U.S. and our allies in Europe."

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A former Google engineer has expressed fears about a new generation of robots that could carry out'atrocities and unlawful killings'. Laura Nolan, who previously worked on the tech giant's military drone initiative, Project Maven, is calling for the ban of all autonomous war drones, as these machines do not have the same common sense or discernment as humans. Project Maven focused on enhancing drones with artificial intelligence (AI) to distinguish enemy targets from people and other objects – but was discontinued after employees protested the technology in development, calling it'evil'. Nolan, who left Google in 2018 in protest against the US military drone technology, is now calling for all drones not operated by humans to fall under the same ban as chemical weapons, according to The Guardian. Former Google engineer has expressed fears about a new generation of robots that could carryout'atrocities and unlawful killings'.

The Lynx Infantry Fighting Vehicle - file photo. Streamlining multiple targeting sensors to destroy long-range targets, arming forward-positioned robots to penetrate enemy defenses and receiving organized weather-specific terrain mapping from nearby drones - are all emerging combat dynamics increasingly made possible by AI-enabled weapons and technologies. New applications of AI are consolidating data from otherwise disparate sensor systems, analyzing seemingly limitless amounts of targeting data in seconds and instantly sifting through hours of drone video to massively improve attack options and shorten "sensor-to-shooter" time. "We are developing an AI stack regarding how we pull together the sensors, computing layer and analytics to manage the data," Col. Doug Matty, Army AI Task Force Deputy Director, told Warrior in an interview. New algorithms, AI-enabled computer processing and high-speed networking are all specific elements of work now underway with the Army's AI Task Force, an emerging Army effort to collaborate with industry and academia, find technology breakthroughs and develop new applications for AI, Matty explained.

President Trump says the U.S. is'locked and loaded' against the attackers of a key Saudi oil facility'depending on verification'; Mark Meredith reports. Cruise missiles and drones used in the weekend assault on Saudi Arabia's oil installations were launched from Iranian soil, U.S. officials told Fox News on Monday. The early morning strikes Saturday that hit Aramco's main crude processing facility knocked out 5.7 million barrels of daily oil production for Saudi Arabia -- or more than 5 percent of the world's daily crude production. Defense Secretary Mark Esper attended an emergency National Security Council meeting on Sunday at the White House along with Vice President Pence, where military options were discussed, officials told Fox News. Earlier Monday in Austria, Energy Secretary Rick Perry placed the blame for the attack squarely on Iran.

BENGALURU: India has initiated a project to digitally map the country with a resolution of 10 centimetres, using drones and technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and big data, a senior government official said on Monday. The herculean task was taken up by the Survey of India, part of the Department of Science and Technology, a few months ago and is planned to be completed in two years, the department's secretary, Prof Ashutosh Sharma said. "...now we are equipping them (Survey of India) with the latest technologies like drones, Artificial Intelligence, big data analytics, image processing and continuously operated reference system", he told reporters on the sidelines of an event here. Once the project is completed, the data will be available to citizens and to Gram Panchayats and local bodies, empowering them to use it in decision making and planning process. The survey is currently in progress in Karnataka, Haryana, Maharashtra and the Ganga basin.

A new generation of autonomous weapons or "killer robots" could accidentally start a war or cause mass atrocities, a former top Google software engineer has warned. Laura Nolan, who resigned from Google last year in protest at being sent to work on a project to dramatically enhance US military drone technology, has called for all AI killing machines not operated by humans to be banned. Nolan said killer robots not guided by human remote control should be outlawed by the same type of international treaty that bans chemical weapons. Unlike drones, which are controlled by military teams often thousands of miles away from where the flying weapon is being deployed, Nolan said killer robots have the potential to do "calamitous things that they were not originally programmed for". There is no suggestion that Google is involved in the development of autonomous weapons systems.

The attack, which knocked out more than half of the Saudi oil output, may force the U.S. to tap into its own oil reserves to keep the markets well supplied. President Trump on Sunday suggested U.S. investigators had "reason to believe" they knew who launched crippling attacks against a key Saudi oil facility, and vowed that America was "locked and loaded depending on verification." While he did not specify who he believed was responsible for Saturday's drone attacks, U.S. investigators previously have pointed the finger at Iran. "Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked. There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!" the president tweeted. Earlier Sunday, Trump authorized the use of emergency oil reserves in Texas and other states after Saudi oil processing facilities were attacked, sparking fears of a spike in oil prices when markets reopen Monday.