Individually, these drones can't do much damage, but as a swarm they are hard to defend against. They can carry explosives or electronic jammers capable of knocking out a radar system or other sensors. This is the plan for LOCUST, the US Navy's low-cost, swarming technology, which has just been revealed in Pentagon documents.

A SZ DJI Technology Co. drone is displayed during keynote presentations on artificial intelligence at the Microsoft Developers Build Conference in Seattle, Washington, U.S., on Monday, May 7, 2018. The public might consider them nuisances, but in the commercial market, drones are valuable data collection devices. Their primary task is to capture, store, and transmit data. So as IT departments consider integrating more drone data into existing enterprise business processes, they face new data governance requirements. As drone technology matures, it is important for companies to know what it means for their information technology and software.

An artist has created elaborate symbols with his drone to draw them in under fifteen minutes using the expanse of the Colorado sky as his canvas. Giant light paintings including Pokemon characters Pikachu and Ellie, a perfect outline of a giant cube, the famous Batman symbol and the Broadway show Hamilton's logo lit up the night sky. Artist and photographer Russell Klimas uses a Lumecube, a powerful LED light, which he attaches to his drone to create bright, white streaks in the sky depicting the images. He also uses Google Earth and a navigation app called Litchi to create detailed flight plans for making waypoints to make the intricate paintings at the clearest point in the sky. Time lapse footage also shows him making the symbols in the sky in real time.

Ordnance survey has unveiled a solar-powered drone that is capable of flying for 90 days at a time without needing to come back to Earth and will be used to provide higher quality images of Earth. It will circle at approximately 67,000 ft (20,400m) above the ground and snap images to sell to organisations and businesses. First tests of the Astigan unmanned aerial vehicle are scheduled to take place before the end of 2019. Ordnance Survey is the majority stakeholder in Astigan, a firm based in Bridgwater, Somerset. The company works in the same factory that was once home to Facebook's Aquila internet drone project.

Rodd Moesel, president of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, said his organization is closely monitoring the proposed legislative measure to determine any unintended effects. The bureau's members feel any unknown drone flying below 250 feet (75 meters) is trespassing on private property, he said. Moesel also asserted members are worried about strangers using drones as "peeping toms," or to case property to steal animals and trailers.

Naypyitaw is not a common destination for foreign tourists, but some curious visitors are drawn to its oversized official buildings and largely empty, runway-like roads. The junta constructed the city in secret and moved the country's administration there in the mid-2000s.

In a dangerous AI "arms race," China is exporting killer drone weapons and pilotless aircraft with AK-47 rifles to combat zones in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, U.K.'s The Sun reported. Nicknamed "slaughterbots" in the report, the stealth weapons can deploy a targeted strike from the air "without a human pressing the fire button," per The Sun, citing a report by the U.S.'s Center for a New American Security (CNAS). "Though many current generation drones are primarily remotely operated, Chinese officials generally expect drones and military robotics to feature ever more extensive AI and autonomous capabilities in the future," the think tank's Gregory C. Allen claims, per the report. "Chinese weapons manufacturers already are selling armed drones with significant amounts of combat autonomy." The report pointed to a "Blowfish A2 drone" advertised as having "full autonomy all the way up to targeted strikes," according to Allen.

Republican Rep. Mike Henderson introduced a bill that would make it a misdemeanor for anyone to knowingly fly a drone within 300 vertical feet (90 meters) and near the furthest perimeter of prisons, the St. The legislation would also add felony charges for attempting to drop contraband into state prison grounds.

China may lag behind the US military on metrics like the number of aircraft carriers it has, but it may be able to seize a "leapfrog opportunity" and invest in newer, cheaper weapons that could make carriers obsolete. Similar to how some countries never developed extensive landline infrastructure and instead skipped directly to building mobile phone networks, China is capitalizing on the opportunity to develop AI-based technology, including autonomous submarines that could confront hulking US carriers. At the same time, the United States could end up spending "too much to maintain and upgrade mature systems,'" according to one Chinese scholar quoted in the report by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). The United States, China, and Russia have all stressed the importance of AI-based military technologies and are making notable investments. China is investing tens of billions of dollars in AI development, according to the CNAS report, with the government viewing it as a key strategy to "protect national security."

Amazon is clearly interested in autonomy between its delivery drone project and Scout robots, but it's taking that commitment one step further. The tech giant has participated in a $530 million investment round for Aurora Innovation, a self-driving car startup created by luminaries like ex-Googler Chris Urmson, former Tesla Autopilot leader Sterling Anderson and Uber autonomy co-founder Drew Bagnell. While Amazon hasn't said what it hopes to gain from the investment, Aurora's technology may provide some clues. Like many similar startups, Aurora is focused on developing a driverless system rather than producing full-fledged cars. You could integrate its technology into various vehicles, and companies like Hyundai and VW have already pledged to use Aurora software in their cars by 2021.