An autonomous drone fleet overseen by Ocean Infinity has rediscovered the USS Stewart, the only US Navy destroyer ever captured by Japanese forces during World War II. The marine robotics company's trio of orange, 20-foot-long underwater robots found the historic vessel while mapping what is now the 1,286-square-mile Cordell Bank national marine sanctuary off the California coast. Also known as the "Ghost Ship of the Pacific," the 314-foot-long ship has spent the past 78 years resting roughly 3,500 feet below the ocean's surface, and appears to remain almost completely intact and upright. "This level of preservation is exceptional for a vessel of its age and makes it potentially one of the best-preserved examples of a US Navy'four-piper' destroyer known to exist," Maria Brown, superintendent for both Cordell Bank and Greater Farallones national marine sanctuaries, said in a statement to The New York Times on October 1. The USS Stewart's story is unique in US maritime history, making it one of the most sought-after wrecks for decades.

The United States Defense Department has ideas about a dramatic strategy for defending Taiwan against a Chinese military offensive that would involve deploying an "unmanned hellscape" consisting of thousands of drones buzzing around the island nation. Meanwhile, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology announced a red-team hacking competition this week with the AI ethics nonprofit Humane Intelligence to find flaws and biases in generative AI systems. WIRED took a closer look at the Telegram channel and website known as Deep State that uses public data and secret intelligence to power its live-tracker map of Ukraine's evolving front line. Protesters went to Citi Field in New York on Wednesday to raise awareness about the serious privacy risks of deploying facial recognition systems at sporting venues. The technology has increasingly been implemented at stadiums and arenas across the country with little oversight.

Jets can be flown by A.I. and can even take off, land and participate in dogfights. It's no secret at this point that AI is taking over many industries fast, and it certainly has its positives and negatives. Some are concerned with how using this technology will impact jobs for humans, while others are thrilled to see how tasks will get done much more efficiently. CLICK TO GET KURT'S FREE CYBERGUY NEWSLETTER WITH SECURITY ALERTS, QUICK TIPS, TECH REVIEWS AND EASY HOW-TO'S TO MAKE YOU SMARTER One field that is using AI to its fullest capabilities is the U.S. Navy. Our military's defense mechanisms have improved enormously in the 21st century; however, they have never used technology quite like this.

A robot from Gecko Robotics is being used to clean the exterior of a Navy vessel. Pennsylvania company Gecko Robotics has revealed that its hull-scaling robot, which can identify structural issues, has been adopted by the US Navy. The military force will now utilize the technology on the first amphibious assault vessel and one more destroyer from the Arleigh Burke-class. The CEO of the company stated in a press release that they are happy to use their advanced technology which has been evaluated and authenticated by Navy technical leaders and sustainment officials. The Navy has a crucial responsibility and Gecko will support them by ensuring they have the necessary tools to execute their tasks securely and efficiently in today's constantly evolving geopolitical scenario.

A team of Chinese researchers funded by China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) recently claimed to have used artificial intelligence (AI) to design an electrical layout of a warship with 100 percent accuracy and at an unprecedented speed. A team of researchers from the China Ship Design and Research Center, headed by Luo Wei, a senior engineer with the ship design center, published a paper in the Chinese-language journal Computer Integrated Manufacturing Systems on February 27. The researchers claimed in the paper that their AI designer took only a day to complete work that humans would need nearly a year to achieve with the most advanced computer tools. Considering the scale and complexity of modern warships, mistakes are sure to happen during the design process, and it can take several hours to discover and rectify them. However, when the researchers put the AI designer to the test, with more than 400 challenging tasks, they found that the AI could accomplish 100 percent accuracy.

"The significance of drone swarms is that they can be conceivably applied to virtually any mission." Many nations are working on such swarms, including China, Russia, India, the UK, Turkey, and Israel, which in 2021 became the first nation to use swarming drones in combat. The US Navy has always been a leader in this field, and while they did not respond to requests to discuss their work, the budget documents that MIT Technology Review has read reveal ambitious plans for swarms vastly bigger than anything yet seen. Buried in hundreds of pages of budget numbers are details of several projects not previously revealed, which involve drone boats and submarines as well as uncrewed air vehicles. Together they fall under a project named Super Swarm.

Iran's recent seizure of unmanned US Navy boats shined a light on a pioneering Pentagon program to develop networks of air, surface, and underwater drones for patrolling large regions, meshing their surveillance with artificial intelligence. The year-old program operates numerous unmanned surface vessels, or USVs, in the waters around the Arabian peninsula, gathering data and images to be beamed back to collection centers in the Gulf. The program operated without incident until Iranian forces tried to grab three seven-meter Saildrone Explorer USVs in two incidents, on August 29-30 and September 1. In the first, a ship of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps hooked a line to a Saildrone in the Gulf and began towing it away, only releasing it when a US Navy Patrol boat and helicopter sped to the scene. In the second, an Iranian destroyer picked up two Saildrones in the Red Sea, hoisting them aboard.

Iran's recent seizure of unmanned US Navy boats shined a light on a pioneering Pentagon program to develop networks of air, surface and underwater drones for patrolling large regions, meshing their surveillance with artificial intelligence. The year-old program operates numerous unmanned surface vessels, or USVs, in the waters around the Arabian peninsula, gathering data and images to be beamed back to collection centers in the Gulf. The program operated without incident until Iranian forces tried to grab three seven-meter Saildrone Explorer USVs in two incidents, on August 29-30 and September 1. In the first, a ship of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps hooked a line to a Saildrone in the Gulf and began towing it away, only releasing it when a US Navy Patrol boat and helicopter sped to the scene. In the second, an Iranian destroyer picked up two Saildrones in the Red Sea, hoisting them aboard.

Iran's recent seizure of unmanned US Navy boats shined a light on a pioneering Pentagon program to develop networks of air, surface and underwater drones for patrolling large regions, meshing their surveillance with artificial intelligence. The year-old program operates numerous unmanned surface vessels, or USVs, in the waters around the Arabian peninsula, gathering data and images to be beamed back to collection centers in the Gulf. The program operated without incident until Iranian forces tried to grab three seven-meter Saildrone Explorer USVs in two incidents, on August 29-30 and September 1. In the first, a ship of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps hooked a line to a Saildrone in the Gulf and began towing it away, only releasing it when a US Navy Patrol boat and helicopter sped to the scene. In the second, an Iranian destroyer picked up two Saildrones in the Red Sea, hoisting them aboard.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has seized an American sea drone in the Gulf and tried to tow it away, only releasing the unmanned vessel when a US Navy warship and helicopter approached, US officials have said. The incident on Tuesday marks the first time the Navy's Middle East-based 5th Fleet's new drone task force has been targeted by Iran. While the interception ended without incident, it comes amid growing tensions between the United States and Iran as negotiations over the tattered Iranian nuclear deal hang in the balance. The U.S. Navy prevented a support ship from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) from capturing an unmanned surface vessel operated by the U.S. 5th Fleet in the Arabian Gulf, Aug. 29-30. The IRGC's Shahid Baziar warship attached a line to the Saildrone Explorer in the central part of the Gulf in international waters late Monday night, said Commander Timothy Hawkins, a 5th Fleet spokesman.