AI versus Marshy #24: AI weapons, displaced refugee tool, and hardware trend

Hi there!

Welcome to another edition of AI versus Marshy.

24 in fact!

This newsletter charts the impact of AI and what’s going on with the world, and focuses on 2 things, and 1 tool.

This helps filter out noise for my readers - and is usually a mix of tech trends, ethics, marketing, and what I think you’ll find interesting.

I do rabbit-hole.

This is what AI thinks I do each week

I should also mention - if you’re looking for this newsletter in video format - you can find me posting one on LinkedIn each Friday and I’m getting the hang of YouTube again.

But enough about me - let’s talk AI for this week.

💥 AI weaponised drones announced - or was that 5 years ago?

❗️ An AI tool for Good: Eureka

🪧 Signs hardware is AI’s future

Let’s rip into it like a toddler with a Christmas present 🎁

-Marshy

Wasn’t weaponised drones announced 5 years ago?

I’ve worked in tech for over 15 years.

Sometimes the things I’ve tracked become reality.

That’s the case with AI weaponised drones.

​Slaughterbots is a short film from nearly 5 years ago. It goes for 8 mins and has a tech bro on stage talking about this wonderful new AI drone weapon technology, and then things go wrong…

A tech bro in his natural habitat - a keynote presentation

It’s very Black Mirror.

But it’s not far away from what’s being considered by the Pentagon right now.

The hullaballoo sits around enabling drones to automatically decide to kill.

Australia is also in support of this.

Check out this pearl:

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Slaughterbots also features swarms - where the drones target people based on their political POVs shared on social media.

I don’t think this swarm is coming in for a warm and fuzzy hug

There’s nothing wrong with this, nothing at all!

Using AI for Good - Eureka

Using technology for good is a passion point for me and I’ve been watching the “AI for good” space closely.

Locally, I met Kaz or founded Plai - Purpose led AI and helps NFPs work with AI tools so they can have more impact.

Further abroad is a tool in prototype stage called Eureka.

Tech that’s designed to help those in need.

This is a tool designed to assist displaced refugees in Europe.

When someone is displaced from their country - there’s a huge amount of needs that spring up instantly:

• Access to cash
• Finding medical support
• Getting new documents
• Locating key meeting points in foreign country

This is harder to solve for than it sounds.

My old employer Whispir tried to help the UN in this space by designing a solution that could help inbound refugees request supplies on their way to sanctuary from a hotspot.

It never got off the ground, but Eureka looks a step closer to helping even more.

Check it out and you can give AI for Good a follow if you’re after more news like this.

Hardware is becoming another battleground for AI

I haven’t mentioned it since edition #10 - but Humane’s AI pin is moving full-steam ahead and will be avialable for purchase much like you can buy a phone.

A modern day pocket calculator

AI hardware is becoming a “thing”.

Whether it ends up like Humane, something more augmented reality-like with Apple’s Vision Pro, or something yet to come is hard to know.

What I do know is, don’t forget Neuralink!

I mentioned them last week and since then - they’ve gone ahead and raised another sneaky $46m.

Cheeky!

I keep thinking AI is going fast and then another week goes by - the amusing thing is that it in 3 years - some of the stuff I write about in here will be so out of date it will be embarrassing.

But not as embarrassing as my old YouTube videos.

Not yet…

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That’s another edition dusted for AI versus Marshy and if you’ve read this far - thank you!

I’m actually thinking of starting another newsletter - one focused on growth marketing and targeted at founders scaling.

That’s where my day gigs are focused and so it makes sense.

I do want to highlight that it will be released as well as this newsletter for the foreseeable future - I’m having so much fun writing this and aren’t going to stop anytime soon.

We’ve got this!

-Marshy

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