Late last year, the Pentagon announced the launch of its first-ever audit. Since then, it has emerged that the Defense Department didn't properly account for more than $800 million in construction projects, and that the full audit, which Politico reports "may never even be possible" is projected to cost $367 million in itself. "I anticipate … Continue reading CIA ‘black budget’ complicates Pentagon audit
Tag: pentagon
It is no big secret that the U.S. military and its friends in private business want to wire their latest technology directly into the human brain. In late 2016, I wrote about the Defense Department using "electrical brain stimulators" to give its drone operators "minor brain zaps" to keep them awake, for instance. More recently, … Continue reading DARPA wants soldiers’ minds controlling machines, and vice versa
In 2016, after giving the matter "thoughtful consideration," tech executive Eric Schmidt told the public they should "stop freaking out" about potential pitfalls of artificial intelligence. Schmidt recently announced his resignation from the chairmanship of Google's parent company Alphabet, though he's apparently continuing in roles not only as an Alphabet board member, but heading the … Continue reading Google involvement in drone A.I. project revealed
Late last year, the Defense Department announced it would begin its first ever audit in an attempt to bring itself into compliance with federal requirements it has brazenly bucked for decades, despite receiving hundreds of billions of dollars annually. "It is important that the Congress and the American people have confidence in DOD's management of … Continue reading Pentagon audits expose lost tanks, hundreds of millions of dollars
The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives voted to approve a massive military budget of nearly $700 billion late last year and President Donald Trump has signed the legislation, but it remains unclear whether Congress will pass a bill appropriating the necessary funds as a potential government shutdown looms. Though the latest partisan disagreements over … Continue reading Pentagon balances secrecy, demands for more funding
In the first year of Donald Trump's presidential administration, the United States has been busy selling weapons to the rest of the world -- "busier than ever" as one official put it over the summer, although while America reportedly surpassed its fiscal 2016 tally by several billion dollars in exporting nearly $42 billion of arms … Continue reading Pentagon’s New Year’s resolution? Speed up arms sales
Nearly a decade after agreeing to stop using cluster bombs, the Pentagon has reversed course, indefinitely delaying a ban on the controversial weapons that was previously planned to take effect at the beginning of 2019. "The Department of Defense last month abandoned a 2008 policy that would have reduced the U.S. inventory of cluster munitions … Continue reading U.S. scraps plan to ban cluster bombs
Despite growing concerns from experts and the public about the security of increasingly interconnected machine networks and the potential dangers of artificial intelligence leading to "killer robot" technology, top military strategists are pushing forward with ambitious plans to vastly expand the Defense Department's concept of "network centric warfare." In a recent article on the Pentagon's … Continue reading The Pentagon’s classified plan to create Skynet
In the past few years, various aspects of the United States' security clearance system for allowing individuals to access classified information have come under scrutiny, following some major failures and embarrassments. In 2014, a massive data breach at the Office of Personnel Management led to the exposure of sensitive information on tens of millions of … Continue reading DoD grants temporary clearances to rapists, murderers to avoid ‘horrific impact’ on weapons development
An artificial intelligence arms race seems to be officially underway following Russian President Vladimir Putin's comment last week that whoever comes to dominate the field "will be the ruler of the world." This is one area, at least, where top U.S. policymakers can apparently agree with Putin. The military and the Central Intelligence Agency are … Continue reading CIA, DoD eager to tap AI capabilities they don’t understand
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