AI Revives the Conglomerate
Article excerpt
Tech billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are pursuing a strikingly similar strategy: constructing sprawling holding companies unified by artificial intelligence infrastructure. Both executives are assembling diverse business units, from retail and space ventures to autonomous vehicles and energy, under centralized AI systems that coordinate operations across traditionally separate industries. The convergence reflects a broader belief among Silicon Valley's elite that AI can solve the coordination problems that derailed earlier conglomerate experiments, potentially reviving a corporate model that fell out of favor decades ago. Whether these AI-powered holding companies can overcome the inefficiencies that plagued 20th-century conglomerates remains uncertain.
Fully autonomous drones killed Russian soldiers during a battlefield test two years ago, according to a Ukrainian drone manufacturer. If true, the incident would represent another milestone in a war that has spurred unprecedented developments in military drones, robots, and AI-guided weaponry.
The one-time test was revealed by Alexander Kokhanovskyy, CEO of the Ukrainian drone maker Aero Center, during an interview with New Scientist at a press event hosted by the Ukrainian embassy in London. Kokhanovskyy described the test using quadcopter drones that were preprogrammed to fly to a front-line area before activating an AI-powered “Terminator mode” that would seek out and attack any target in the given area.
There was apparently no video feed or anything else to show what the “Terminator” drones targeted and attacked. But Kokhanovskyy told New Scientist that human-piloted drones sent to check out the aftermath found “a couple” of dead Russian soldiers, which led to the conclusion that the fully autonomous drones had killed them.
Read full article
Comments