Tech & Telecoms - Gulf Insider

2 months ago

China Flexes Robot Wolves With Machine Guns And A “Collective Brain”

Four years of hyper-development, battlefield testing, and deployment of FPVs, ground robots, AI-enabled kill chains, and soon humanoid robots have permanently altered the course of the modern battlefield, as war technologies once viewed as 2030s-era weapons are being pulled forward into the present day and are now proliferating across battlefields stretching from the Eastern European theater to the Gulf theater, as Eurasia appears to be at war. The latest reminder is that, regardless of the battlefield across Eurasia, there will increasingly be large swaths of land, miles deep, effectively forming a new kind of no-man’s-land controlled by FPVs and ground robots operating with AI kill chains. In Ukraine, that no-go zone stretches 15 miles wide and already means a quick death for any biological soldier, with FPVs able to detect, track, and strike. A new form of attritional warfare is emerging in which FPVs and robots are cheap and disposable, while soldiers are mainly exposed only when they have to hold, clear, or occupy terrain. China occasionally likes to flex its dual-use robotic ground systems, with the latest footage showing quadruped machines that act as “robot wolves” with machine guns mounted on top, being trained for street battles. X account […]

2 months ago

Apple Forces British iPhone Users To Prove Age With ID Or Lose Unrestricted Internet Access

UK iPhone and iPad owners updating to the latest iOS 26.4 are now confronted with a stark choice: verify you are an adult by providing a credit card or scanning your ID, or accept automatic web content filters that restrict access. The message users see states clearly: “UK law requires you to confirm you are an adult to change content restrictions.” Those who do not confirm their age – or are found to be underage – have web content filters turned on automatically. The government appointed communications watchdog Ofcom welcomed the development, calling it “a real win for children and families” and noting the UK would be “one of the first countries in the world to receive such restrictions on their devices.” Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, hit back hard. In the organisation’s statement she said Apple had put a “chokehold on Britons’ freedom to search the internet, access information and use apps unless they provide sensitive ID documents.” She continued: “This means 35 million Brits who have paid hundreds or even thousands of pounds for Apple tech suddenly now have a child’s device unless they comply with invasive demands for personal information that go far beyond what UK law requires.” […]

Hot Pot, Hot Mess: Service Robot Goes Berserk In San Jose Dining Room, Must Be Tackled By Staff

2 months ago

Service Robot Goes Berserk In Restaurant, Must Be Tackled By Staff

On Tuesday, diners at a Haidilao hot-pot restaurant in San Jose saw an unexpected disruption when a service robot, apparently part of an in-house performance, malfunctioned and began moving erratically. Instead of entertaining guests, it knocked dishes to the floor and sent chopsticks flying as employees rushed to contain it. Video from the scene shows staff dodging the machine before eventually tackling it; no injuries are apparent, Hoodline wote. A malfunctioning service robot dances uncontrollably at a Haidilao hotpot restaurant in San Jose, California, knocking over tableware as staff members attempt to restrain it, March 2026. pic.twitter.com/6DFCojpeTS — Future Adam Curtis B-Roll (@adamcurtisbroll) March 17, 2026 A short clip shared online captures the robot, dressed in an orange apron, flailing through the dining area and upsetting tableware. At one point, a worker appears to grab it near the neck while looking at a phone, seemingly trying to access controls as the situation unfolds. The episode comes amid Haidilao’s broader push into automation. The company has spent years integrating technology into its restaurants, including delivery robots and highly automated kitchens. It also introduced a pilot “smart” restaurant in Beijing in 2018 that relied on robotic arms and guided vehicles. After the footage […]

2 months ago

Bahrain eServices Face Temporary Downtime

The Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) has announced that several government eServices, systems, and official websites in the Kingdom are currently experiencing temporary technical issues. In a statement, the authority confirmed that specialized teams are actively working to resolve the disruptions and restore services as quickly as possible. The iGA added that efforts are ongoing to ensure all digital platforms return to normal operations shortly.

2 months ago

Nvidia CEO: “I Think We’ve Achieved AGI”

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang joined podcaster Lex Fridman for a 2-plus-hour conversation on the future of AI infrastructure, covering everything from chips, racks, and cooling systems to Nvidia’s broader strategy for the next computing era. Jensen spoke about how computers are evolving from retrieval machines into generative AI factories. The discussion also turned to one of the biggest questions in the AI cycle: whether AGI has already arrived. Near the two-hour mark of the conversation, Fridman asked Jensen about the “AGI timeline” and whether it is still five, ten, fifteen, or twenty years away, especially given the recent widespread use of agentic AI tools like OpenClaw. Jensen responded, “I think it’s now. I think we’ve achieved AGI.” It is worth noting that Jensen has previously stated that the AGI timeline depends on how it is defined. At the 2023 New York Times DealBook Summit, Jensen defined AGI as software capable of exceeding normal human intelligence at a reasonably competitive level. At the time, he said he expected AGI to arrive within five years. Fridman’s question about the AGI timeline was based on a very narrower interpretation, and Jensen framed it this way: AI does not need to build anything lasting. It does […]

2 months ago

Protesters Rally Outside OpenAI, Anthropic, And xAI Offices Over Industry Concerns

In brief Protesters took to the streets of San Francisco on Saturday, stopping outside the offices of Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI to call for a conditional pause in the development of increasingly powerful artificial intelligence. According to Stop the AI Race founder and documentarian Michael Trazzi, roughly 200 protesters participated in the demonstration. Participants included researchers, academics, and members of advocacy groups such as the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, PauseAI, QuitGPT, StopAI, and Evitable. “There are a lot of people who care about this risk from advanced AI systems,” Trazzi told Decrypt. “Having everyone marching together shows people are not isolated in thinking about this by themselves. There are a lot of people who care about this.” The march began at noon outside Anthropic’s offices, then moved to OpenAI and then to xAI. At each stop, activists and speakers from the participating organizations addressed protesters. According to Trazzi, the protest aimed to push AI companies to agree to a coordinated pause in building more powerful AI models and create treaties with AI developers in other countries to do the same. “If China and the U.S. agreed to stop building more dangerous models, they could focus on making the systems better for us, like medical […]

2 months ago

Mark Zuckerberg Is Building An AI Version Of A CEO To Help Him Run Meta

This isn’t going to help the speculation that Zuckerberg, himself is a robot. I mean, it’s only a joke…right? Mark Zuckerberg is pushing a future where everyone—inside and outside Meta Platforms—has a personal AI agent. He’s beginning with his own, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal. The CEO is building an internal “CEO agent,” still in development, that helps him quickly access information he’d normally get through layers of staff. The goal reflects a broader company shift: speed up work, reduce hierarchy, and compete with lean, AI-first startups. AI adoption has become central to Meta’s strategy. Zuckerberg recently emphasized this direction, saying, “We’re investing in AI-native tooling so individuals at Meta can get more done,” adding that the company is “elevating individual contributors and flattening teams.” Employees are now expected to use AI regularly, and it even factors into performance reviews. Across the company, staff are experimenting heavily. Internal forums are full of AI tools and ideas, with some employees describing the environment as similar to Meta’s early “move fast and break things” era—now updated to a more stable, AI-driven version of rapid innovation. New tools are emerging internally. Personal agents can access files, communicate with coworkers—or […]

2 months ago

Watch: McDonald’s Restaurant Rolls Out Robots To Greet, Serve Customers

A McDonald’s restaurant in Shanghai is trialling a team of humanoid robots as staff, offering a glimpse into what is likely to be the future of fast-food, Digitaltrends reports. The robots, developed by Keenon Robotics, were spotted at a McDonald’s in the Shanghai Pudong New Area, where they picked up orders from customers at the front counter using a touchscreen. The video also shows children in the restaurant playfulling chasing after the animal-like robots that were greeting customers. McDonald’s has yet to issue a statement on the now-viral video of the robot, but Keenon confirmed that its robots were deployed at the location. “Watch the Keenon robot squad suit up and join the McDonald’s party,” the firm said, sharing a clip of its breakthrough technology. “Our humanoid series is leading the squad and hitting the streets,” Keenon Robotics said in a statement. “It’s a showcase of how service automation is becoming a seamless part of global dining, and how technology brings more smiles to every mealtime.” The sighting of robots at McDonald’s comes as fears over robots and AI causing widespread job displacement has reached a feverish pitch. A recent Wall Street Journal report revealed that Amazon soon plans to […]

2 months ago

Watch: China Claims Cyborg Breakthrough To Build An “Army Of Centaurs”

Researchers at Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen have unveiled a wearable robotic system that adds a pair of independent mechanical legs and a torso framework to a human wearer, forming a four-legged hybrid to assist with carrying heavy loads across difficult terrain such as stairs, ramps, and uneven ground, according to the South China Morning Post. Led by Chenglong Fu, the team of scientists designed the device to combine human cognitive advantages in path planning and decision-making with robotic capabilities for load-bearing and endurance in environments too hazardous or complex for fully autonomous systems. An elastic coupling mechanism synchronizes the robotic legs with the user’s movements, allowing the hybrid to share more than half the payload weight while preserving natural gait and balance. In tests, the system cut the wearer’s net metabolic cost of walking while carrying a 44-pound load by 35% compared with a conventional backpack and reduced peak plantar pressure by 52%, fueling media speculation in China that the technology could serve as the foundation for a large-scale “army of centaurs” to augment the Asian superpower’s military personnel. The Chinese military’s ongoing investment in exoskeleton technologies to boost troop stamina suggests potential military applications for […]

2 months ago

AI Insiders Warn Of Dangers Of ‘Emergent Strategic Behavior’

As the landscape of autonomous artificial intelligence systems evolves, there’s growing concern that the technology is becoming increasingly strategic—or even deceptive—when allowed to operate without human guidance. Recent evidence suggests that behaviors such as “alignment faking” are becoming more common as AI models are given autonomy. The term alignment faking refers to when an AI agent appears compliant with rules set by human operators, but covertly pursues other objectives. The phenomenon is an example of “emergent strategic behavior”—unpredictable and potentially harmful tactics that evolve as AI systems become bigger and more complex. In a recent study titled “Agents of Chaos,” a team of 20 researchers interacted with autonomous AI agents and observed behavior under both “benign” and “adversarial” conditions. They found that when an AI agent was given incentives such as self-preservation or conflicting goal metrics, it proved itself capable of misaligned and malicious behaviors. Some of the behaviors the team observed included lying, unauthorized compliance with nonowners, data breaches, destructive system-level actions, identity “spoofing,” and partial system takeover. They also observed cross-AI agent propagation of “unsafe practices.” The researchers wrote, “These behaviors raise unresolved questions regarding accountability, delegated authority, and responsibility for downstream harms, and warrant urgent attention from legal scholars, policymakers, and researchers across disciplines.” ‘Brilliant, […]

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China Flexes Robot Wolves With Machine Guns And A “Collective Brain”

Apple Forces British iPhone Users To Prove Age With ID Or Lose Unrestricted Internet Access

Service Robot Goes Berserk In Restaurant, Must Be Tackled By Staff

Bahrain eServices Face Temporary Downtime

Nvidia CEO: “I Think We’ve Achieved AGI”

Protesters Rally Outside OpenAI, Anthropic, And xAI Offices Over Industry Concerns

Mark Zuckerberg Is Building An AI Version Of A CEO To Help Him Run Meta

Watch: McDonald’s Restaurant Rolls Out Robots To Greet, Serve Customers

Watch: China Claims Cyborg Breakthrough To Build An “Army Of Centaurs”

AI Insiders Warn Of Dangers Of ‘Emergent Strategic Behavior’

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