WASHINGTON – One U.S. special operations soldier was killed and four U.S. service members were wounded in an "enemy attack" Friday in Somalia, the U.S. military said -- casualties that are likely to put renewed scrutiny on America's counterterrorism operations in Africa. It was the first public announcement of a U.S. military combat death on the continent since four U.S. service members were killed in a militant ambush in the west African nation of Niger in October. President Donald Trump paid tribute on Twitter on Friday night, offering "thoughts and prayers" to the families of the soldier who was killed and those who were wounded. "They are truly all HEROES," he tweeted. U.S. Africa Command said in a statement that U.S. troops with Somali and Kenyan forces came under mortar and small-arms fire in Jubaland, Somalia, at around 2:45 p.m.

Auto-Follow: Using face and body detection technology, the Hover Camera can accompany your journey hands-free with video recording and photo taking while cycling, running, surfing, or even hang-gliding No FAA Registration Required: Fly confidently and right out of the box without having FAA limitations and restrictions like other drones and operating temperature is 5 degree Celsius-35 degree Celsius (41 degree Fahrenheit-95 degree Fahrenheit) Carbon Fiber Cage: Hover Camera is crafted out of carbon fiber making it extra durable to falls and accidents; The Passport's propellers are enclosed in a cage providing the highest standard of safety Gesture Control Owner Mode: With owner mode you just scan your face into the app and the Passport will automatically find, follow, and record you. Carbon Fiber Cage: Hover Camera is crafted out of carbon fiber making it extra durable to falls and accidents; The Passport's propellers are enclosed in a cage providing the highest standard of safety Gesture Control Owner Mode: With owner mode you just scan your face into the app and the Passport will automatically find, follow, and record you.

According to a report by Gizmodo, Google has decided not to renew its controversial contract for Project Maven with the Department of Defense. The project involved analyzing drone footage using artificial intelligence with the ultimate goal of automatically classifying images of objects and people. The contract is set to expire in 2019, and the decision not to renew was announced internally during a weekly meeting by Google Cloud chief Diane Greene, who added that the company will announce new ethical principles surrounding artificial intelligence and the military. Three sources who were at the meeting told Gizmodo that Greene attributed Google's decision to let the contract expire "because the backlash has been terrible for the company." She added that the decision to embark on the project had been made "at a time when Google was more aggressively pursuing military work."

WASHINGTON – One U.S. special operations soldier was killed and four U.S. service members wounded in an "enemy attack" Friday in Somalia, the U.S. military said -- casualties that are likely to put renewed scrutiny on America's counterterror operations in Africa. It's the first public announcement of a U.S. military combat death on the continent since four U.S. service members were killed in a militant ambush in the west African nation of Niger in October. U.S. Africa Command said in a statement that U.S. troops with Somali and Kenyan forces came under mortar and small-arms fire in Jubaland, Somalia, at around 2.45 p.m. local time. One member of the "partner forces" was wounded. One of the wounded U.S. service members received sufficient medical care in the field, and the other three were medically evacuated for additional treatment.

That plastic cup you've got sitting on your desk looks pretty harmless on its own. However, add it to the rest of the plastic that humanity throws away on a daily basis and you have the makings of the estimated 5 to 13 million metric tons of plastic trash which reportedly wind up in the world's oceans every year. U.K.-based Plastic Tide founder Peter Kohler got a glimpse of the scale of this problem a decade ago -- and it changed the course of his life. "About ten years ago, I went out to the South Pacific," he told Digital Trends. "I've always been fascinated by oceans, and this was pure paradise. But it was a paradise under siege. One of the most visible ways this paradise was being besieged was with litter. It was everywhere, although we were miles from anyone. When you're sailing in the middle of nowhere, it really gets you wondering where this litter comes from and how it gets here. I came back to England and spent the next few years puzzling over how best to answer that question."

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. Since its epic landing on Mars in 2012, rappelling down to the surface like a robot commando, the Curiosity Mars rover has been one of our favorite robots of all time, and space. Not only it's an impressive piece of engineering, it's also an amazing exploration tool to help humanity answer questions we've been asking ourselves for a very long time, including: Are we alone?

Launching at Singapore port's Marina South Pier in quarter three 2018, Wilhelmsen Ships Service and Airbus will be piloting the delivery of spare parts, documents, water test kits and 3D printed consumables via Airbus' Skyways unmanned air system (UAS) to vessels at anchorage. With the signing of an MOU at maritime trade show Posidonia, the Maritime UAS project agreement covers a joint ambition to establish a framework for cooperation between the Parties, with the aim of investigating the potential deployment and commercialization of UAS for maritime deliveries use cases. Marking the very first time, the viability of autonomous drone delivery to vessels has been put to the test in hectic, real-world port conditions, Marius Johansen, VP Commercial, Ships Agency at Wilhelmsen Ships Service is confident with Airbus now onboard his agency team's long-term drone delivery aspirations will be fulfilled. "We are absolutely thrilled to be working with a forward thinking, industry leader like Airbus. When we announced last year that we were pursuing drone delivery, we were greeted with a fair amount of scepticism, but our collaboration with Airbus, shows we really do mean business".

A fashion show in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, that used drones to walk clothes down a runway has been ripped apart by Arab fashion elites and critics who compared the dresses to ghosts and dementors. Ali Nabil Akbar tells BBC Arabic he thought showing the dresses via drone during the Saturday show at Hilton Hotel was "suitable for Ramadan." "The idea is that we want to add things that are simple yet beautiful," Akbar tells the BBC. "Even the décor and set-up of the hall was organized beautifully, everything involved innovation." I'm dying at this fashion show in Saudi they weren't allowed female models pic.twitter.com/5xxpMBk4Nr

Google has released a set of principles to guide its work in artificial intelligence, making good on a promise to do so last month following controversy over its involvement in a Department of Defense drone project. The document, titled "Artificial Intelligence at Google: our principles," does not directly reference this work, but makes clear that the company will not develop AI for use in weaponry. It also outlines a number of broad guidelines for AI, touching issues like bias, privacy, and human oversight. While the new principles forbid the development of AI weaponry, they state that Google will continue to work with the military "in many other areas." Speaking to The Verge, a Google representative said that had these principles been published earlier, the company would likely not have become involved in the Pentagon's drone project, which used AI to analyze surveillance footage.

Google will not allow its artificial intelligence software to be used in weapons or unreasonable surveillance efforts under new standards for its business decisions in the nascent field, the Alphabet Inc. unit said Thursday. The restriction could help Google management defuse months of protest by thousands of employees against the company's work with the United States military to identify objects in drone video. Google instead will seek government contracts in areas such as cybersecurity, military recruitment and search and rescue, Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said in a blog post Thursday. "We want to be clear that while we are not developing AI for use in weapons, we will continue our work with governments and the military in many other areas," he said. Breakthroughs in the cost and performance of advanced computers have carried AI from research labs into industries such as defense and health in the last couple of years.