Emergence of the Humanoid Robot

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Humanoid Robots Are Coming of Age

By Wired, May 25, 2023

Eight years ago, the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency organized a painful-to-watch contest that involved robots slowly struggling (and often failing) to perform a series of human tasks, including opening doors, operating power tools, and driving golf carts. Clips of them fumbling and stumbling through the Darpa Robotics Challenge soon went viral.

Today the descendants of those hapless robots are a lot more capable and graceful. Several startups are developing humanoids that they claim could, in just a few years, find employment in warehouses and factories.

From Wired

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Darpa Quantum Computing

A look at how Quantum is seen by Darpa

DARPA's Quantum Computing is Powered by ..FOMO  -  (Fear of Missing Out) 'Strategic Surprise'

By The Register. February 2, 2023

Under the US2QC program, DARPA will work with and provide funding to Microsoft, Atom, and PsiQuantum as they develop a design concept for a “utility-scale” quantum computer.

Fujitsu may not be worried about encryption busting quantum computers showing up anytime soon, but that doesn't mean the U.S. government is willing to risk missing out.

This week the Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA), the U.S. military's boffin brain farm, announced a new endeavor, called the Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC) program, to explore novel quantum system designs, and tapped Microsoft, Atom, and PsiQuantum to help.

"Experts disagree on whether a utility-scale quantum computer based on conventional designs is still decades away or could be achieved much sooner," Joe Altepeter, who leads DARPA's US2QC program, said in a statement. "The goal of US2QC is to reduce the danger of strategic surprise from underexplored quantum computing systems."

In other words, if it is possible to build a quantum computer capable of breaking through encryption or compromising the United States' defenses in any capacity, DARPA doesn't want to be caught playing catch up with rival nations.

From The Register

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Value and Emergence of Space Robotics

 Lots to learn here, using robotics in constrained and specific contexts. 

ACM NEWS

Space Robots Prepare to Grapple and Repair Satellites in Orbit

February 9, 2023

U.S. Naval Research Laboratory robotics engineer John Kinch prepares Robotic Arm System #2 for kinematic calibration.

Navy Resource Lab RSGS program manager William Vincent said using "algorithms that use relative pose data produced by the [RSGS] spacecraft, along with models of the servicing vehicle and the client spacecraft," will provide DARPA's spacecraft with "auton

Credit: Sarah Peterson/U.S. Navy

If a satellite in Earth orbit runs out of fuel or malfunctions, it becomes a serious threat to other satellites. Without enough fuel to keep it in its assigned orbital position or maneuver accurately, it can collide with other satellites, putting them out of action and creating hazardous space debris. What is really needed is a space-based equivalent of a tow truck, one that can visit and robotically refuel or repair satellites.

However, such a technology has not been available. 

This is all set to change next year, however, when the U.S. Defense Department's  Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), working with military contractor Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), hopes to launch just such a spacecraft for the first time. The RSGS (Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites) space vehicle will be the first general purpose "servicer" satellite, one designed to rendezvous with a troubled satellite and use two precision robot arms to capture and repair/refuel it in Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO).

At some 35,800 km. (more than 22,000 miles) above the Earth, satellites in GEO hover over a fixed spot on the ground, enabling them to deliver 24/7 the valuable services on which people depend, like TV, Internet, telephone, global positioning, and weather, as well as remote sensing and military spysat data.

How will DARPA's robotic spacecraft perform its cosmic choreography without colliding with its target satellite and making its own shower of hypersonic debris? We asked William Vincent, RSGS program manager at NRL, whose team is developing the onboard algorithms and robotic arms for the spacecraft, how they are doing it.  ... '   (much more detail at link) 

IEEE Medal of Honor Goes to Vint Cerf

Met him once at a company meeting.   DARPA Connection.    Often mentioned here, writing linked to. 

IEEE Medal of Honor Goes to Vint Cerf,  He codesigned the Internet protocol and transmission control protocol    By JOANNA GOODRICH in IEEE

IEEE Life Fellow Vinton “Vint” Cerf, widely known as the “Father of the Internet,” is the recipient of the 2023 IEEE Medal of Honor. He is being recognized “for co-creating the Internet architecture and providing sustained leadership in its phenomenal growth in becoming society’s critical infrastructure.”

The IEEE Foundation sponsors the annual award.

While working as a program manager at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Information Processing Techniques Office in 1974, Cerf and IEEE Life Fellow Robert Kahn designed the Transmission Control Protocol and the Internet Protocol. TCP manages data packets sent over the Internet, making sure they don’t get lost, are received in the proper order, and are reassembled at their destination correctly. IP manages the addressing and forwarding of data to and from its proper destinations. Together they make up the Internet’s core architecture and enable computers to connect and exchange traffic.

“Cerf’s tireless commitment to the Internet’s evolution, improvement, oversight, and evangelism throughout its history has made an indelible impact on the world,” said one of the endorsers of the award. “It is largely due to his efforts that we even have the Internet, which has changed the way society lives.

“The Internet has enabled a large part of the world to receive instant access to news, brought us closer to friends and loved ones, and made it easier to purchase products online,” the endorser said. “It’s improved access to education and scientific discourse, made smartphones useful, and opened the door for social media, cloud computing, video conferencing, and streaming. Cerf also saw early on the importance of decentralized control, with no one company or government completely in charge.”  ... ' 

GE Invents 'Immortal Battery'

Quite the claim ...  Something we can use!

GE Research Developing the IMMORTAL Battery and Self-Healing Metals to Expand Operational Lifetime of Critical Military Systems   From Ge.com

Materials

Awarded two projects totaling $11 million through the Defense Advanced Research Agency’s (DARPA) Morphogenic Interfaces (MINT) program

First project involves designing a material for lithium- ion batteries that allows it to last virtually indefinitely

Second project involves the creation of new barriers to enable robust corrosion protection of aluminum metals

GE Research uniquely bringing together deep expertise in metals, biology, chemistry, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and mathematics to make certain metals virtually impenetrable to corrosion and degradation.

Could lead to unprecedented advancements in extending the lifetime and durability of cars, planes, buildings, and other critical infrastructure

NISKAYUNA, NY – January 11, 2023 -  Can certain types of metals self-heal like the human body does from a cut or broken bone?  Could they be engineered to withstand corrosion and never degrade? GE Research has been awarded two projects through DARPA’s visionary MINT program aiming to develop batteries and certain metal materials that may last virtually forever. These efforts are all part of meeting the Agency’s goal of extending the operational life of critical systems and infrastructure.

Introduced last year, DARPA’s MINT program is funding new material innovations that are patterned after how human cells and tissue form in a process known as morphogenesis. It is believed that new materials can be engineered to mimic key characteristics of human tissue such as self-healing to improve their longevity and durability.  GE Research has put together two strong multidisciplinary technical teams that will bridge the worlds of biology and materials science in the effort to create materials that mimic human nature.

The first project, entitled the InterMetallic MORphogen Tailored Activity Lithium (IMMORTAL) Battery, is a $6 million effort to develop a new intermetallic solid/solid charge transfer interface material to improve the performance of lithium- ion batteries and enable them to last virtually forever.  GE Research and its partners, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Michigan, University of California Santa Barbara, and Storagenergy, a leader in advanced lithium battery technologies, will employ AI and machine learning models, mathematics, chemistry, biology, materials science, and deep experience in battery technology to develop and demonstrate an IMMORTAL Battery prototype.  ... ' 

DARPA Red Balloon

Worked with DARPA at one point, but not this effort.

Challenge is interesting but it seems somewhat ill defined. 

Bursting a Few Balloons Regarding the Famous DARPA Red Balloon Challenge  By Stuart Madnick

Communications of the ACM, March 2022, Vol. 65 No. 3, Pages 33-34  10.1145/3517127

It is approximately 50 years since the first appearance of the ARPAnet, the predecessor to the now ubiquitous Internet. It is timely to reflect back on the DARPA Network Challenge (also known as the Red Balloon Challenge) in 2009 in honor of the 40th anniversary of the first remote log-in to the ARPANet on October 29, 1969. The results of that competition were reported in Communications2 but some important details have not previously been reported.

Teams had to find 10 red weather balloons deployed at undisclosed locations across the continental U.S. The first team to correctly identify the locations of all 10 would win a $40,000 prize. It was intended to explore how the Internet and social networking could be used to solve a distributed, time-critical, geo-location problem.

A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) won in the surprisingly short time of less than nine hours. Much was learned regarding the value of social media, crowdsourcing, and incentive schemes. At the time, social media was rather new and these were valuable lessons learned.

But, there were several aspects of the event that did not get much, if any, attention. Much had been highlighted about the importance of the hierarchical incentive scheme used by the MIT team1 and how that helped them assemble such a large and geographically diverse team—leading to their success. That is, each member who joined the MIT team was encouraged to recruit additional members who would then recruit further additional members, and so forth. The reward for finding a red balloon not only went to the person who found it, but also to the chain of people who recruited the finder.a Thus, creating a strong incentive to grow as large a network as possible. In fact, it allowed even people living outside the U.S. to participate. Although they would not be able to personally locate a balloon, they could sign up friends and family in the U.S. to do the searching and gain some reward. In essence, the event was a form of a global pyramid scheme.

That is all quite exciting, but the reality may be somewhat different. In talking with people who were part of the DARPA group running the event and those who were part of the MIT team, it seems that instead of "People finding the balloons," it was much about the balloons finding the people.

Balloons Finding the People

It was reported in Tang et al.2,b that "DARPA selected readily accessible public sites where the balloons would be visible from nearby roads, each staffed by a DARPA agent who would issue a certificate validating each balloon location."

The consequences of this was not reported. It should not be surprising that often someone, totally unaware of the DARPA challenge, would be walking in these public places and see a big red balloon tethered to the ground. They might ask the attendant (the DARPA agent): "What was going on?" It is not clear how much would be explained, but the attendant would hand out a certificate with information including the precise coordinates of the balloon—note that not everyone carried around GPS systems in 2009 (the accompanying image depicts a certificate).

That person could then use the Internet to learn about the challenge, typically search around and find that the MIT team was still recruiting and sharing the rewards.c They could then rapidly join the MIT team and report their find to DARPA—and become part of the winners, since finding just one balloon provided no reward, you had to be part of a team that found all 10. ....... " 

AI Fighter Aircraft

 With some interesting autopilot history, and here with some DARPA experience:

The Rise of A.I. Fighter Pilots  By The New Yorker, January 21, 2022

In a cloudless morning last May, a pilot took off from the Niagara Falls International Airport, heading for restricted military airspace over Lake Ontario. The plane, which bore the insignia of the United States Air Force, was a repurposed Czechoslovak jet, an L-39 Albatros, purchased by a private defense contractor. The bay in front of the cockpit was filled with sensors and computer processors that recorded the aircraft's performance. For two hours, the pilot flew counterclockwise around the lake. Engineers on the ground, under contract with DARPA, the Defense Department's research agency, had choreographed every turn, every pitch and roll, in an attempt to do something unprecedented: design a plane that can fly and engage in aerial combat—dogfighting—without a human pilot operating it.

The exercise was an early step in the agency's Air Combat Evolution program, known as ACE, one of more than six hundred Department of Defense projects that are incorporating artificial intelligence into war-fighting. This year, the Pentagon plans to spend close to a billion dollars on A.I.-related technology. The Navy is building unmanned vessels that can stay at sea for months; the Army is developing a fleet of robotic combat vehicles. Artificial intelligence is being designed to improve supply logistics, intelligence gathering, and a category of wearable technology, sensors, and auxiliary robots that the military calls the Internet of Battlefield Things.

Algorithms are already good at flying planes. The first autopilot system, which involved connecting a gyroscope to the wings and tail of a plane, débuted in 1914, about a decade after the Wright brothers took flight. And a number of current military technologies, such as underwater mine detectors and laser-guided bombs, are autonomous once they are launched by humans. But few aspects of warfare are as complex as aerial combat. Paul Schifferle, the vice-president of flight research at Calspan, the company that's modifying the L-39 for DARPA, said, "The dogfight is probably the most dynamic flight profile in aviation, period."

From The New Yorker

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Rescue with Technology

 Have noted this trend, is moving quickly.   Much more at the link.

Technology to the Rescue, By Samuel Greengard, Commissioned by CACM Staff,  August 31, 2021

In the aftermath of a major flood, mudslide, earthquake, mine collapse, shipwreck or structural failure, first responders must move quickly—but also must tread carefully. In many cases, it is difficult to spot survivors in rubble and debris, and working conditions can range from challenging to extraordinarily dangerous.

Although there is no simple fix, robotic devices and sensing systems are beginning to fly, creep, crawl, and otherwise locomote into the physical world. Using advanced sound detection systems, cameras, infrared, biosensors, and other equipment, researchers are engineering robotic devices that can aid first responders and take search and rescue into the digital age.

Says Timothy Chung, program manager in the Tactical Technology Office at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), "Robots can provide insights that save lives and deliver other critical information across a spectrum of emergency situations—including places where lighting and breathing are challenges." ...

Using advanced sound detection systems, cameras, infrared, biosensors, and other equipment, researchers are engineering robotic devices that can aid first responders and take search and rescue into the digital age.  ...    Credit: DARPA   ... 

Deceiving AI

 Made me think, usually models we create are to determine some state, current or future, to be more accurate.   But now we can make models that have more precisely deceptive results.     Yes, can see why DARPA is interested.  Includes  a visual overview.

Deceiving AI   By Don Monroe

Communications of the ACM, June 2021, Vol. 64 No. 6, Pages 15-16 10.1145/3460218

Over the last decade, deep learning systems have shown an astonishing ability to classify images, translate languages, and perform other tasks that once seemed uniquely human. However, these systems work opaquely and sometimes make elementary mistakes, and this fragility could be intentionally exploited to threaten security or safety.

In 2018, for example, a group of undergraduates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) three-dimensionally (3D) printed a toy turtle that Google's Cloud Vision system consistently classified as a rifle, even when viewed from various directions. Other researchers have tweaked an ordinary-sounding speech segment to direct a smart speaker to a malicious website. These misclassifications sound amusing, but they could also represent a serious vulnerability as machine learning is widely deployed in medical, legal, and financial systems.

The potential vulnerabilities extend to military systems, said Hava Siegelman of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Siegelman initiated a program called Guaranteed AI Robustness against Deception (GARD) while she was on assignment to the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). To illustrate the issue to colleagues there, she said, "I showed them an example that I did, and they all started screaming that the room was not secure enough." The examples she shares publicly are worrisome enough, though, such as a tank adorned with tiny pictures of cows that cause an artificial intelligence (AI)-based vision system to perceive it to be as a herd of cows because, she said, AI "works on the surfaces."

The current program manager for GARD at DARPA, Bruce Draper of Colorado State University, is more sanguine. "We have not yet gotten to that point where there's something out there that has happened that has given me nightmares," he said, adding, "We're trying to head that off."

Researchers, some with funding from DARPA, are actively exploring ways to make machine learning more robust against adversarial attacks, and to understand the principles and limitations of these approaches. In the real world, these techniques are likely to be one piece of an ongoing, multilayered security strategy that will slow attackers but not stop them entirely. "It's an AI problem, but it's also a security problem," Draper said. ... '

Shape-Shifting Processor for Security

Now here  is a kind of remarkable thing.   Would it work for post-quantum computing?   Could it be used to ensure all kinds of threats are addressed?  What re coding would be required to make sure of that?  Nice idea. Like the approach of large scale, multi agent testing. 

ACM NEWS

Shape-shifting Computer Chip Thwarts Hackers  By The Conversation   May 20, 2021

We have developed and tested a secure new computer processor that thwarts hackers by randomly changing its underlying structure, thus making it virtually impossible to hack.

Last summer, 525 security researchers spent three months trying to hack our Morpheus processor as well as others. All attempts against Morpheus failed. (this link also gives a technical outline of the approach) This study was part of a program sponsored by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Program Agency to design a secure processor that could protect vulnerable software. DARPA released the results on the program to the public for the first time in January 2021.

A processor is the piece of computer hardware that runs software programs. Since a processor underlies all software systems, a secure processor has the potential to protect any software running on it from attack. Our team at the University of Michigan first developed Morpheus, a secure processor that thwarts attacks by turning the computer into a puzzle, in 2019. ...

Controlling Drones with Minds

 Not unexpected, have seen the forerunners of the idea.  Will also require much in the way of collaboration between drones, goals, controllers and troops.  It will ultimately succeed.  

The US military is trying to read minds

A new DARPA research program is developing brain-computer interfaces that could control “swarms of drones, operating at the speed of thought.” What if it succeeds?  ... ' 

Technology Review  by Paul Tullis archive page

DARPA Subterranean Challenge

 Always intriguing, how can robotic systems autonomously navigate complex and messy environments, like virtual tunnels, caves, underground urban environments, or even the interiors of buildings or warehouses, to achieve some stated goals.     Often requiring sensing and mapping to aid as part of the challenge.   Can include collaborative challenges.  Obvious military and policing applications.

https://cacm.acm.org/news/251252-darpas-subterranean-challenge-scores/fulltext

Home/News/DARPA's Subterranean Challenge Scores/Full Text

ACM NEWS.  DARPA's Subterranean Challenge Scores

By R. Colin Johnson  Commissioned by CACM Staff

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has already awarded more than $3 million in funding and prizes to robot designers competing in its Subterranean Challenge (SubT) underground autonomous robotic vehicle contests.

For the last three years, DARPA has sponsored multiple underground circuit competitions for robotic hardware systems constructed by contestants and tested in real underground environments constructed by DARPA with rock, concrete, steel, wood, and dirt. Concurrently, DARPA has sponsored software robot competitions programmed by contestants and tested in virtual underground facilities constructed by DARPA with software simulations (akin to video games). So far, DARPA's SubT has successfully advanced the state of the art in making quick, accurate maps, as well as demonstrating the need for better cooperative skills among different types of autonomous robots.

"Regarding autonomy, robots have a range of control depending on their environment," said Sanjiv Singh, a consulting professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute and editor-in-chief of the journal Field Robotics. Singh said the journal " covers the areas where robots must operate outside of a controlled environment — like a warehouse — which includes the mining tunnels, urban underground facilities, and the geological caves featured in DARPA's Subterranean Challenge."  ... '

FHE Encryption Getting Support from DARPA

The approach is getting more support.    Will post quantum decryption threaten it?

Intel will develop a fully homomorphic encryption chip for DARPA  BY MARIA DEUTSCHER

Intel Corp. today announced that it has been entrusted by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop a chip that will enable applications to work with encrypted data without having to unscramble it first.

The chip will use an emerging encryption method known as fully homomorphic encryption to facilitate such processing. The project was announced today and is described as a multiyear program that will also include Microsoft Corp., which will assist with development. 

In the enterprise, it’s standard practice to encrypt data both when it’s sitting in storage and while it’s zipping across the network. Encryption can prevent hackers from reading records if they gain access to them in a breach. But current cryptography methods don’t block all eavesdropping attempts.

The weak point is that encrypted data has to be unscrambled by the applications that use it before they can carry out computations. That creates opportunities for hackers to access sensitive information while it’s kept in a readable form. With the chip it will develop for DARPA, Intel hopes to reduce the risks stemming from the requirement to unscramble data by harnessing fully homomorphic encryption, or FHE for short, which allows applications to process information without decrypting it.  ...'

DARPA Test AI Beats Human Fighter Pilot

Quite an event, will this be the future of many kinds military interactions?   Some of the details in the interaction, comparing AI, human training and ingrained human behaviors,  are quite interesting.

Artificial Intelligence Easily Beats Human Fighter Pilot in DARPA Trial
Aug. 20, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine in Air Force Magazine

In the battle of artificial intelligence versus a human fighter pilot, it wasn’t even close.

The artificial intelligence algorithm, developed by Heron Systems, swept a human F-16 pilot in a simulated dogfight 5-0 in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s AlphaDogfight Trials on Aug. 20. The company beat out seven other companies before going head to head with “Banger,” a pilot from the District of Columbia Air National Guard and a recent graduate of the Air Force Weapons School’s F-16 Weapons Instructor Course. The pilot, whose full name was not provided, is an operational fighter pilot with more than 2,000 hours in the F-16.

Banger and Heron Systems’ AI fought in five different basic fighter maneuver scenarios with the simulated fight only using the Fighting Falcon’s guns, and each time the AI was able to out maneuver and take out Banger. The algorithm operated within the limits of the F-16—meaning it did not pull Gs beyond what a real-world aircraft could do. However, Banger said after the event that the jet was not limited by the training and thinking that is engrained in an Air Force pilot.

For example, Air Force Instructions outline how an F-16 pilot performs basic fighter maneuvers and establishes some limits such as not passing within 500 feet or a limit on the angle of attack when firing the gun. The AI did not need to follow these instructions, which helped it gain an advantage. Pilots habits are built based on procedures and adhering to training rules, and the AI exploited that.

The AI also is able to make adjustments on a “nanosecond level” where the human “OODA loop”—observe, orient, decide, and act—takes longer, giving the algorithm another advantage.

Banger survived longer in each successive round, though he was not able to hit the AI’s F-16, which was “flying” with the callsign “Falco.” He started the contest following the basic rules, and in following rounds tried to learn the methods of the algorithm, which flew more aggressively.  ... " 

GE Bores Like an Earthworm

Novel kind of robotic task and environment, example of biomimicry.

GE’s soft robot bores holes like a giant earthworm by Brian Heater in TechCrunch

A giant earthworm robot was not on the list of things I expected to see when I logged in this morning. But it’s here, and I’m here for it. Designed by a team at GE Research, the robot in question nabbed a $2.5 million award as part of DARPA’s Underminer. The program was created to foster rapid tunnel digging in military environments.As is all the rage in robotics these days, the GE team turned to biological inspiration to execute the task. What they came up with is a large, segmented and soft ..."

DARPA Work with Chip Maker Intel

New connections to resolve security issues using machine learning methods.

DARPA snags Intel to lead its machine learning security tech
Zack Whittaker in TechCrunch  ...

DARPA snags Intel to lead its machine learning security tech
Chip maker Intel has been chosen to lead a new initiative led by the U.S.military's research wing, DARPA, aimed at improving cyber-defenses against deception attacks on machine learning models.Machine learning is a kind of artificial intelligence that allows systems toimprove over time with new data and experiences. One of its most common use cases today is object recognition, such as taking a photo and describing what's in it.  ... "

Swarming Defense Drones

Drones by their more flexible nature are creating new options with different kinds of precision, scale and application.   Here a Defense example.

DARPA is testing drones it can launch from a plane—then collect mid-air in MIT Technology Review

The news: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has conducted the first test of a new type of drone that can be launched from a plane in a swarm then recovered in mid-air when it's done its job.

How it works: A military transport or bomber plane releases a series of drones in rapid succession, they carry out the task designated to them (surveillance, for example), then they return to the plane, docking on a line before being winched in. It looks a bit like the airborne refueling process.  ... "

Blockchain not Bitcoin

Likely approach for approaches that address problems like secure identification and control.

 US Military’s DARPA Program Hops on the ‘Blockchain Not Bitcoin’ Bandwagon
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is seeking to get a better understanding of permissionless blockchains, but Bitcoin does not appear to be invited to the party.

To achieve this enhanced insight into blockchain technology, the US Department of Defense agency has sent out a request for information (RFI) on permissionless distributed consensus protocols, specifically touching on aspects that have been inadequately explored.

One area DARPA is seeking to get a better handle of is how permissionless blockchains can function in the absence of monetary incentives. With permissionless distributed protocols such as Bitcoin offering compensation to participants (miners) in the form of newly-created coins for their work in adding blocks and ensuring the security of the network, DARPA is interested in alternative methods that can be employed.

For the agency, it is mandatory that these techniques do not offer participants incentives in monetary form, cryptocurrency or otherwise. However, other transfers of value can be considered, such as offering participants access to computing resources..... "

DARPA and Zero Knowledge Proofs

Does make sense that this kind of capability would be generally useful.   A key kind of cybersecurity.

Generating zero-knowledge proofs for defense capabilities  by DARPA

There are times when the highest levels of privacy and security are required to protect a piece of information, but there is still a need to prove the information's existence and accuracy. For the Department of Defense (DoD), the proof could be the verification of a relevant capability. How can one verify this capability without revealing any sensitive details about it? In the commercial world, this struggle manifests itself across banking transactions, cybersecurity threat disclosure, and beyond. One approach to addressing this challenge in cryptography is with zero-knowledge proofs. A zero-knowledge proof is a method where one party can prove to another party that they know a certain fact without revealing any sensitive information needed to demonstrate that the fact is true.

"A zero-knowledge proof involves a statement of fact and the underlying proof of its accuracy," said Dr. Josh Baron, program manager in DARPA's Information Innovation Office (I2O). "The holder of the fact does not want to reveal the underlying information to convince its audience that the fact is accurate. Take, for example, a bank withdrawal. You may want a system that allows you to make a withdrawal without also having to share your bank balance. The system would need some way of verifying that there are sufficient funds to draw from without having to know the exact amount of money sitting within your account."

In recent years, there has been a marked increase in the efficiency and real-world use of zero-knowledge proofs. Most of these uses have been within the cryptocurrency domain where there is a need to provide certain verifiable data without revealing personal or other sensitive information. While useful in this context, the zero-knowledge proofs created are specialized for this task. They prioritize communication and verification efficiency but do not necessarily scale for transactions that are more complex. For highly complex proof statements like those that the DoD may wish to employ, novel and more efficient approaches are needed. .... '

Definitions:    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-knowledge_proof

AI and Wireless Spectrum

Technical view of controlling spectrum.  A broad and technical look at the history and future of the use of electromagnetic spectrum to communicate and now directly deliver capabilities anywhere.

If DARPA Has Its Way, AI Will Rule the Wireless Spectrum
DARPA’s Spectrum Collaboration Challenge demonstrates that autonomous radios can manage spectrum better than humans can  ... "    By Paul Tilghman  in IEEE