Tactical VR, Stealth Drones, and Military AI Model Sizes

Artificial Intelligence, Extended Reality, Autonomous Systems

Oct 10, 2024

Good morning,

As North Korea ramps up its rhetoric about nuclear war against South Korea and the United States, it may be that Kim’s soldiers are getting combat experience in Ukraine. Of course, if they are in fact fighting on behalf of the Russians, they’re just dragon drone fodder or meat in the grinder. Speaking of Ukraine (and bringing this intro back to the point of today’s newsletter), Ukraine has a new VR-based F-16 trainer, courtesy of Finland. Hologate is also offering VR systems for tactical training. Russia shot down its own “stealth” unmanned wingman, this week. We’re not quite sure why, but the drone fell into Ukraine, and the Ukrainians recovered it, offering insights into the state of Russia’s military technology. Finally, there’s growing concern about the types of AI models that are dominating the AI market. The military likely needs smaller, more specialized models than what’s being funded and developed. It would be interesting to see a comparison of the types of models our adversaries are investing in and building.

Let’s go!

News Headlines

DoD wringing out zero trust concepts under assessment process (FNN)
Israel defense minister delays DC visit amid Iran strike planning (DN)
North Korean soldiers are likely dying for Putin in Ukraine, Seoul says (POL)
Intelligence officials say U.S. adversaries are targeting congressional races with disinformation (AP)
China is rapidly building warships and warship-building capabilities; satellite imagery reveals the scale (WP)
AI chipmaker Cerebras Systems will likely postpone its IPO on national security concerns (GCW)
Boeing withdraws offer made to striking factory workers; no further negotiations planned (FBS)
Speculation persists over whether earthquake was really Iranian secret nuke test (EN)

Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning

The military needs smaller, edge AI models, but large models are squeezing them out (DO)
AI startups ride on investor frenzy to raise billions in 2024 (RT)
OpenAI told investors to not invest in five rivals, including xAI (RT)
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the Nobel Prize in physics to artificial neural network pioneers John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton (NYT)
Elon Musk's xAI moves into OpenAI's old HQ (TC)
The Army is using AI to assist its relief operations following Hurricane Helene (MT)
Defense Intel Agency to get authority to operate AI system on classified network (DS)

Extended Reality

Extended reality can help extend the lifespan of critical infrastructure (TX)
Ukraine adopts VR for new F-16 simulator (TNW)
Leonardo presents its virtual and extended reality simulator (DH)
AI-powered smart glasses key to the revival of Google's rocky AR/VR development (DT)
Hologate offers VR for tactical training (NP)

Robotics

Russia shoots down its own unmanned wingman, Ukraine recovers it offering insights into the state of Russian drone and stealth tech (ASF)
Army tests solar drone that can fly months in stratosphere carrying 150lb weight (IE)
Naval group launches robotic boat featuring lessons from Ukraine (DN)

Deal Flow

Sanhya Venkatachalam leaves Khosla to create Axiom Partners, with a debut fund of $50M to invest in AI/ML startups (PB)
AI coding startup Poolside raised a $500M Series B at a $3B valuation led by BCV (TC)
Cisco agreed to acquire up to $500M in existing shares at a $23B valuation in AI cloud-computing startup CoreWeave (YF)
Auger, a new startup developing an AI-driven platform to automate supply chain planning, forecasting, and data management raised a $100M seed round led by Oak HC/FT (TC)
Submer raises a $55.5M Series C--adding Mundi Ventures to previous backers--to scale immersion cooling for AI and datacenter servers (TC)
TensorWave raised $43M led by Nexus VP to provide AI infrastructure to businesses that want to develop, train, and deploy their own AI models (PU)
Resolve AI, a SF-based AI software operations automation developer, raised $35M in seed funding led by Greylock (RT)
Swiss drone aerial inspection startup Voliro raised a $12M Series A round led by Cherry Ventures (TFN)
Voliro, a Zurich-based aerial mobile robotics startup, received a $12M Series A led by Cherry Ventures (FSME)
Infinite Reality acquires XR company Zapper, as it continues to pursue its goal of being the Adobe of XR (AX)

Opportunities

The Army is seeking info on AI approaches and technologies to bolster its modeling and simulation capabilities under Project Linchpin (SAM)
DARPA wants help in using AI/ML to enhance performance of naval gun systems on surface warfare ships (SAM)

Hiring in AI/ML, XR, Robotics (brought to you by Defense Tech Jobs)

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