Colin Furze is a certifiably insane inventor with millions of subscribers to his YouTube channel, where he posts videos that embrace the very definition of “don’t try this at home.” In the past, he’s built a fully operational thermite cannon, a microwave that becomes a video game console, and even a home-built hoverbike that he piloted around the countryside. He was even featured on Top Gear, when he modified an amusement park bumper car to set a speed record.
For his newest project, he wanted to do something really big. But what’s a guy to do when he already has a life-size AT-ACT Walker in his back yard? After his last project, eBay challenged him to create a life-sized replica of a TIE Silencer fighter from the latest Star Wars film The Last Jedi.
The blueprints for something like that can’t be found just laying around, so Furze did the next best thing. “We were sent a TIE silencer toy via eBay,” Furze explained to Empire Online. “We measured this toy, and just scaled everything up.”
When completed, the massive replica was 46 feet long and 14 feet high. After it was built, the team moved it to the front lawn of a historical landmark, the Burghley House in Stamford, for the public to enjoy.
They got everything they needed for the project from eBay, apart from the steel frame. It took a team of up to five people about six weeks to build. Furze doesn’t have any special qualifications for what he does, he just has an avid interest in gadgets and construction. “In theory, I still am a plumber,” Furze told Empire Online in an interview from the build site. “Because it’s the only thing I’ve got qualifications for.”
Joining him on the project was James Bruton, a robot engineer, who created an authentic replica of the BB-8 droid. Using only parts from eBay, Burton created the droid using 3D-printed parts, balancing weights, and an internal magnet.
With more Star Wars films on the way, what’s next for Furze? “It’d have to be pretty big,” he said. “They’ve just announced three more films, right? That’s three more potential projects!”
AI companies spend enormous amounts of time convincing us their technology is safe and secure. But what happens when those same companies become targets of increasingly sophisticated AI-powered attacks? Anthropic, the company behind Claude, is now facing that question. According to a Washington Post report, cybersecurity startup Cathedral discovered vulnerabilities that let its researchers access sensitive information in Anthropic's internal systems.
The researchers used AI agents to identify potential entry points in less than 12 hours. Interestingly, they didn't need to crack Claude itself. Instead, they exploited weaknesses in third-party business applications that Anthropic uses for everyday operations. Anthropic's security testing program disclosed the findings, which allows outside researchers to identify and report vulnerabilities.
Military working dogs charge into places the rest of us would flee. So, I understand why anyone would want to breed tougher, healthier dogs for the job.
Warhound, a new startup from Colossal Biosciences co-founder Ben Lamm and Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey, has stepped out of stealth with $200 million to clone and gene-edit working dogs for American troops, police departments, and emergency services (via TechCrunch).
AI can describe a picture, identify objects, and answer questions about what a camera sees. But when a blind user needs a quick answer, getting an entire spoken essay about the scene isn't exactly helpful. Researchers at the University of Maryland (UMD) have found that AI-powered visual assistance can leave blind users doing too much work to get the information they actually need.
The study, titled Say It My Way: Exploring Control in Conversational Visual Question Answering with Blind Users, examined how people interact with Be My AI, an AI-powered feature of the Be My Eyes app. The researchers found that users often received lengthy descriptions that didn't adequately address their immediate goals, forcing them to ask follow-up questions or find ways to steer the AI towards a more useful answer.