They were the mischievous creatures blamed for causing mechanical failures and faults on aircraft during World War Two - before starring in a hit film as destructive monsters. Now, the gremlins are back - as a new type of killer flying drone. The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) research arm has revealed is planning to test the radical craft next year after awarding Dynetics a contract to build them. DARPA said the program has been deliberately named Gremlins after the imps that British pilots during Wold War Two adopted as their good luck charms. The program envisions launching groups of UASs from existing large aircraft such as bombers or transport aircraft - as well as from fighters and other small, fixed-wing platforms - while those planes are out of range of adversary defenses. When the gremlins complete their mission, a C-130 transport aircraft would retrieve them in the air and carry them home, where ground crews would prepare them for their next use within 24 hours.

Lately, there has been a lot of concern about the recent explosion of AI, and how it could reach the point of 1) being more intelligent than humans, and 2) that it could decide that it no longer needs us and could in fact, take over the Earth. Physicist Stephen Hawking famously told the BBC: "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race." Billionaire Elon Musk has said that he thinks AI is the "biggest existential threat" to the human race. Computers running the latest AI have already beaten humans at games ranging from Chess to Go to esports games (which is interesting, because this is a case where AI could be better than humans at playing games which were built as software from the ground up, unlike Chess and Go, which were developer before the computer age). AI has been making dramatic leaps over the past few years -- the question that Hawking and Musk are asking is: Could AI evolve to the point where it could replace humans? If this scenario sounds like science fiction, it's one that science fiction writers have posed again and again. One of the most popular is of course, Skynet, the intelligence that takes over in the Terminator universe and decides to wipe out most of humanity and enslave the rest (except for the resistance fighters, led by John Conner, but that involves a terminator travelling back in time, and time travel will be handled in another essay). In perhaps equally popular trilogy of the Matrix, super-intelligent machines take over the planet as well, but rather than killing humans they enslave them in a unique way. In order to ensure that electricity generated by the human brain can be put to use, the super-intelligent machines put humans in pods, keeping our minds busy playing a giant video game or simulation (i.e. the Matrix).

A consumer-grade drone can take photos of trees from above that are good enough to train a deep-learning algorithm to tell different species apart. Details: The team behind the project flew drone over a forest in Kyoto, Japan, to take photos and then divided some of them into seven categories: six types of trees and one called "others," for images that captured bare land or buildings. Results: After some fiddling, the algorithm (which was on an earth-bound computer) achieved 89 percent accuracy overall. Why it matters: Forest surveys typically use expensive systems outfitted with lidar or specialized cameras. This commercially available setup could be a cheap way to automate tree surveys, and the algorithm could be retrained to aid in disaster response, check pipelines for leaks, or help with other monitoring efforts that need to quickly cover a large area.

The increasing number of drones is positioning new challenges such as air traffic management, generating flight plans, dealing with emergencies and many others. Companies worldwide are opting for AI and Blockchain to deal with these challenges. Blockchain Technology is being looked upon to deliver a framework which can be used by stakeholders in the commercial drone industry. About DEEPAERO DEEP AERO is a global leader in drone technology innovation. At DEEP AERO, we are building an autonomous drone economy powered by AI & Blockchain.

Flirtey drones already have delivered automated external defibrillators used to jumpstart the hearts of cardiac arrest victims as part of a joint emergency program with first-responders in Reno. The company also anticipates future deliveries of EpiPens for severe allergic reactions and Narcan for opioid overdoses.

Using a drone to monitor crops in a field sounds like a good idea. But folks in rural areas may not have the Internet access needed to upload and analyze sky-high data once the drone lands. An Indiana startup has figured out a way to turn those pretty pictures into information that agricultural researchers can use --- no signal required. What can you do without Wi-Fi? The startup, out of Indiana and Purdue University, has created software it says can analyze and give meaning to aerial images captured by drones, Inside Indiana Business reports.

North Carolina, one of the states the Transportation Department authorized to conduct drone testing beyond FAA limits, is apparently working with Apple. Cupertino has revealed that it's using drones in the state to improve its Maps application, effectively confirming a Bloomberg report from way back in 2016 that said the company was putting a team together to capture mapping data with the use of UAVs. A spokesperson said in a statement that Apple collects "both aerial and ground images around the world to improve Apple Maps," and it will soon "begin to capture additional aerial images in select areas using drones." Since people are now more conscious about their privacy following high-profiles hacks and leaks, such as Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal, the spokesperson also assured that Apple will take measures to ensure it doesn't publish sensitive data. "Apple is committed to protecting people's privacy including processing this data to blur faces and license plates prior to publication," he said.

It messes up hair, it blows stuff in eyes, and most famously and rudely of all, one time it made a bridge in Washington twist and undulate until it exploded. Alright, maybe that was the fault of the engineers, not the wind. But still, strong gusts have the potential to threaten many technologies, including a new one: drones. If you've ever taken a quadcopter out on a windy day, you know the struggle. Now consider that in the near future, our cities will be swarming with delivery drones--and if we don't want them plummeting out of the skies, they'll have to learn to survive the elements.

Apple, Intel, Microsoft and Uber will soon start flying drones for a range of tasks including food and package delivery, digital mapping and conducting surveillance as part of 10 pilot programmes approved Wednesday by the US government. The drone-testing projects have been given waivers for regulations that currently ban their use in the US and will be used to help the Federal Aviation Authority draw up suitable laws to govern the use of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for myriad tasks. "The enthusiastic response to our request for applications demonstrated the many innovative technological and operational solutions already on the horizon," said US transportation secretary Elaine Chao. Apple will be using drones to capture images of North Carolina with the state's Department of Transportation. Uber is working on air-taxi technology and will deliver food by drone in San Diego, California, because "we need flying burgers" said the company's chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi.

The increasing number of drones is positioning new challenges such as air traffic management, generating flight plans, dealing with emergencies and many others. Companies worldwide are opting for AI and Blockchain to deal with these challenges. Experts consider that programming drones with AI and ML could help them learn from their mistakes and make them ready to deliver better services. AI-controlled drones are looked upon as the future of drones where AI would be taking most of the decisions. "Drone-captured data is an innovative solution for delivering sophisticated analytics to stakeholders and provides an affordable way to improve estimating, designing, progress tracking, and reporting our worksites," mentioned Patrick Perry of Drone Base.