United Nations

After years of petitioning the UN to take action against weaponized AI, the Future of Life Institute has now taken matters into its own hands, with thousands of AI researchers, engineers and companies pledging not to develop or support the development of autonomous killing machines in any way.

As the United Nations continues to drag its heels on developing a clear international treaty relating to lethal autonomous weapons, South Korea has just announced a major investment in artificial intelligence and military systems with the goal of applying AI to various defense projects.

Humanity’s first “space nation”, Asgardia, is a step closer to getting off the ground after its first satellite was launched last week. The end goal is for millions of people to live on satellites, but don’t pack your bags just yet: Asgardia-1 is just a CubeSat carrying 500 GB of pictures and text.

​Two years ago, an open letter was presented to the UN urging a ban on weaponized artificial intelligence. Now a second open letter has been released co-signed by over 100 founders of robotics and AI companies from around the world, and it demands the UN stop delaying its talks and take action.

This week is UN Road Safety Week, which highlights road traffic deaths and injuries and focuses on ways to reduce them. This year the week is headlined by the #SlowDown campaign, which is part of a plan to reduce road fatalities by 50 percent before 2020. Its suggestion? Lower speed limits.

The first funding recipients of HTC's VR for Impact program are SpaceVR, which will let viewers experience space from a satellite’s point of view, Tree, an interactive experience highlighting the realities of deforestation, and The Extraordinary Honey Bee, a feature examining the honeybee's decline.

​Today, HTC announced a new “VR for Impact” program, an effort meant to excel virtual reality’s potential as a humanitarian tool. The company has pledged US$10 million for industry partners and developers whose efforts support the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

The UN has considered the threat of weaponized AI, but now the body is looking at a more mundane robot invasion. A new report has outlined how the increasing use of industrial automation is impacting jobs in developing countries, and what strategies may help in overcoming the problem.

Advances in aviation may seem to have made the world a whole lot smaller, but they've also had a huge environmental impact. With this in mind, a new global measure has been agreed, aimed at offsetting carbon emissions from air travel and map out a more efficient, sustainable future for air travel.

The first ever dedicated United Nations space mission, set to launch by 2021, will allow all UN member countries to propose, develop and experiments that will orbit Earth for 14 days aboard Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser spaceplane.