We investigate a spiking neuron model of multisensory integration. Multiple stimuli from different sensory modalities are encoded by a single neural circuit comprised of a multisensory bank of receptive fields in cascade with a population of biophysical spike generators. We demonstrate that stimuli of different dimensions can be faithfully multiplexed and encoded in the spike domain and derive tractable algorithms for decoding each stimulus from the common pool of spikes. We also show that the identification of multisensory processing in a single neuron is dual to the recovery of stimuli encoded with a population of multisensory neurons, and prove that only a projection of the circuit onto input stimuli can be identified. We provide an example of multisensory integration using natural audio and video and discuss the performance of the proposed decoding and identification algorithms.

Forthcoming in Collaborative Intelligence: How Humans and AI are Transforming our World, Arathi Sethumadhavan and Mira Lane (eds.), Seth Lazar, Australian National University Man, a child in understanding of himself, has placed in his hands physical tools of incalculable power. He plays with them like a child, and whether they work harm or good is largely a matter of accident. The instrumentality becomes a master and works fatally as if possessed of a will of its own-- not because it has a will but because man has not. Introduction As rapid advances in Artificial Intelligence and the rise of some of history's most potent corporations meet the diminished neoliberal state, people are increasingly subject to power exercised by means of automated systems. Machine learning, big data, and related computational technologies now underpin vital government services from criminal justice to tax auditing, public health to social services, immigration to defence (Citron, 2008; Calo and Citron, 2020; Engstrom et al., 2020). Google and Amazon connect consumers and producers in new algorithmic markets (Nadler and Cicilline, 2020). Google's search algorithm--and possibly in the near future OpenAI's GPT-4 or another large language model--determines, for many, how they find out about everything from how to vote to where to get vaccinated. Meta, Twitter, TikTok, Google and others algorithmically decide whose speech is amplified, reduced, or restricted (Vaidhyanathan, 2011; Pasquale, 2015; Gillespie, 2018; Suzor, 2019). And a new wave of products based on rapid advances in Large Language Models (LLMs) have the potential to further transform our economic and political lives. Automatic Authorities are automated computational systems used to exercise power over us by substantially determining what we may know, what we may have, and what our options will be. This chapter is based on, and substantially revises, my'Power and AI: Nature and Justification', in the Oxford Handbook of AI Governance (Justin Bullock et al., eds). My thanks to the publisher for their permission to use this material. But what normative lessons should we draw from these analyses? Power is everywhere, and is not necessarily bad.

Police in San Francisco will be allowed to deploy potentially lethal, remote-controlled robots in emergency situations. The controversial policy was approved after weeks of scrutiny and a heated debate among the city's board of supervisors during their meeting on Tuesday. Police oversight groups, the ACLU and San Francisco's public defender had urged the 11-member body to reject the police's use of equipment proposal. Opponents of the policy said it would lead to further militarization of a police force already too aggressive with underserved communities. They said the parameters under which use would be allowed were too vague.

Israel is holding its largest-ever air force exercise this week with the participation of several countries including the United Arab Emirates, with whom it normalised ties last year. Amir Lazar, chief of Israeli air force operations, told reporters at the southern Ovda airbase the drills "don't focus on Iran", but army officials have said Iran remains Israel's top strategic threat and at the centre of much of its military planning. Israel has held the so-called "Blue Flag" exercises every two years since 2013 in the Negev desert to synchronise different types of aircraft, piloted by different countries to counter armed drones and other threats. With more than 70 fighter jets and some 1,500 personnel participating, this year's drills are the largest-ever held in Israel, Lazar said. Among the nations taking part are France, the United States and Germany, as well as the United Kingdom, whose aircraft flew over Israeli territory for the first time since the Jewish state's creation in 1948.

The biggest U.S. defense contractors -- such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics and Raytheon -- provide many of the technologically advanced weapons and systems used by U.S. service members. But there are thousands of other technology companies in the U.S., some large and many quite small, with big ideas and capabilities that have never had the opportunity to contribute to the nation's defense, even though the idea may appeal to them. In March, the Quick Reaction Special Projects program, which is part of the Rapid Reaction Technology Office within the office of the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, published the "2021 Global Needs Statement." The Global Needs Statement -- which is just one of several proposal calls per year that RRTO engages with small and non-traditional companies to incubate innovation by showcasing new ideas and concepts to a Defense Department audience -- asks interested companies to provide their most compelling and innovative technologies and ideas in areas involving artificial intelligence and machine learning; autonomy; biotechnology; cyber; directed energy; fully networked command, communication and control; hypersonics; microelectronics; quantum technology; space and 5G communications. Those technology areas are of great interest to the Defense Department and were spelled out in the 2018 National Defense Strategy; respondents to the Global Needs Statement aren't expected to be the big players who usually get the government contracts. "For this particular initiative ... the vast majority of the companies that submit applications are companies that DOD doesn't do business with on a regular basis or at all," said John Lazar, RRTO's Director.

Whether we know it or not, artificial intelligence (AI) is already steeped into everyday life. It's present in the way social media feeds are organised; the way predictive searches show up on Google; and how music services such as Spotify make song suggestions. The technology is also helping transform the way enterprises do business. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, for instance, has applied AI to analyse 200 billion data points to free up more time so its customer service officers can focus on doing exactly what their title suggests: servicing customers. As a result, the bank has seen a 400% uplift in customer engagement.