There are drones, and then there are drones — the ones that push the technology to the cutting edge by being able to achieve some extraordinary feat like carrying a man skyward. The new Griff 300 falls into this latter category with its monster chassis and 8-propeller design. It, and its upcoming cousin the Griff 800, are pushing the boundary of what a drone can do.
Drones come in all shapes and sizes, but the Griff 300 by Norway’s Griff Aviation is a drone that is truly unique. Unlike other drones on the market, the 165-pound Griff 300 megadrone is a monster, capable of lifting ten times more than competing drones and flying up to 45 minutes with that heavy payload.
Its designation 300 was not chosen at random — that’s the gross weight, in kilograms, that the drone can carry. For those keeping track, the Griff 300 can haul up to 660 pounds, while the planned Griff 800 will be able to carry up to 1,764 pounds. This lifting capacity includes both the payload and the weight of the drone.
Not only can the Griff 300 hold an astounding amount of weight, but its payload also is customizable. The basic drone is designed for heavy load cargo missions, but it can do so much more with a specialized payload option. Alternative energy companies can choose features that assist in wind turbine maintenance, while the forest service can optimize the drone for fire-fighting needs. This flexibility allows customers, such as law enforcement or search and rescue, to choose a drone suitable for the task at hand.
Griff Aviation CEO Leif Johan Holland has experience in drone videography and knows how important safety is when operating a drone professionally. To give customers the assurance they need, Griff Aviation decided to have its drones certified by not one, but two drone regulatory agencies.
The Griff 300 is unique in this certification. It is the first drone on the civilian professional market to have a certification from both the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) in the U.S. and the EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency). No other drone that cater to the professional has achieved both certifications.
With the debut of the Griff 300 and the continued development of the Griff 800, Griff Aviation has established itself as a top-notch professional-level drone manufacturer. The company isn’t done pushing the envelope with its drones and hopes to increase the lifting capacity even further beyond 800 kilograms.
“But this is just the first in a series. The next model that will be produced will be able to lift 800kg (1,764lbs),” said Holland “Then we will continue to increase lifting capacity even further. This is the start of a revolution in aviation.”
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.