Ukraine's one-time test used fully autonomous drones to kill Russian soldiers

Ukraine's one-time test used fully autonomous drones to kill Russian soldiers

fivenewscrypto    juin 14, 2026   

Fully autonomous drones killed Russian soldiers during a battlefield test two years ago, according to a Ukrainian drone manufacturer. If true, the incident would represent another milestone in a war that has spurred unprecedented developments in military drones, robots, and AI-guided weaponry.

The one-time test was revealed by Alexander Kokhanovskyy, CEO of the Ukrainian drone maker Aero Center, during an interview with New Scientist at a press event hosted by the Ukrainian embassy in London. Kokhanovskyy described the test—which did not involve his current company Aero Center—using quadcopter drones that were preprogrammed to fly to a front-line area before activating an AI-powered “Terminator mode” that would seek out and attack any target in the given area.

There was apparently no video feed or anything else to show what the “Terminator” drones targeted and attacked. But Kokhanovskyy told New Scientist that human-piloted drones sent to check out the aftermath found “a couple” of dead Russian soldiers, which led to the conclusion that the fully autonomous drones had killed them.

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$130 billion in data center projects blocked by protests so far this year

$130 billion in data center projects blocked by protests so far this year

fivenewscrypto    juin 14, 2026   

It's clear that communities now have an effective playbook to block data center construction. This week, researchers flagged the first quarter of 2026 as producing the "most blocked and delayed data center projects on record," NBC News reported.

Data Center Watch, a project from AI intelligence firm 10a Labs that tracks data center fights around the US, reported that protestors "blocked or delayed at least 75 projects nationwide worth about $130 billion from January through March," NBC News reported.

That's "the most in a three-month period since the group began tracking in 2023," and it shouldn't be parsed as "a cyclical spike," the researchers said. Instead, there's been a "structural shift," as "communities have internalized an opposition playbook, legislative sessions introduced formal regulatory uncertainty, and the number of active opposition groups more than doubled to 833 across 49 states," researchers said.

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When it comes to total water use, AI data centers are a drop in the bucket

When it comes to total water use, AI data centers are a drop in the bucket

fivenewscrypto    juin 14, 2026   

If you hang out in any even vaguely AI-skeptical parts of the Internet, you've probably stumbled on plenty of memes and posts premised on data centers' insatiable thirst for water to power evaporative cooling. But a new report from Amazon highlights just how little water all these AI data centers are using in aggregate, on a relative basis, even as individual data centers can strain local water supplies.

In a Thursday blog post, Amazon claims its data centers withdrew "about 2.5 billion gallons" globally in 2025. That number sounds incredibly large at first glance, but it looks downright puny compared to the 117 trillion gallons of water withdrawn in the US alone in 2015. It's also useful to compare Amazon's number to stats from more water-intensive areas, from the 3.3 trillion gallons used annually on US lawns and landscaping to the 1.3 trillion gallons a year used in California almond orchards to the 531 billion gallons a year used just for US golf courses.

Amazon is just one company, of course, and a relative latecomer to reporting its data center water usage numbers. Google data centers withdrew about more than 6.1 billion gallons of water in 2024, on top of about 2.75 billion gallons from Microsoft and about 1.4 billion gallons from Meta in the same year.

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Google sues Chinese cybercrime network that used Gemini to automate scams

Google sues Chinese cybercrime network that used Gemini to automate scams

fivenewscrypto    juin 14, 2026   

Google loves telling us all the ways people are using its generative AI products to build new things, grow businesses, and save the world. Supposedly. Of course, people are also using AI for crime. Google has announced a new legal salvo aimed at a Chinese group called Outsider Enterprise, which is allegedly responsible for a massive AI-powered scam campaign. Google says it's working with law enforcement and mobile carriers to fight back.

According to Google's legal filing, Outsider Enterprise operates through Telegram. The group offers phishing-as-a-service to individuals who may not be technically savvy enough to set up fraudulent websites and text campaigns on their own. In its Telegram channels, Outsider Enterprise reportedly provided instructions on how to use Google's Gemini AI to create websites that imitate those of Google, YouTube, and government agencies such as New York’s E-ZPass. The group offered nearly 300 scam templates.

Google says that scams enabled by Outsider Enterprise resulted in more than 2.5 million text messages being sent to Android users. About 55,000 of those messages happened in a two-week period last month. In all, Google has tracked 9,000 fake websites and 1 million URLs connected to the scam network.

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RFK Jr. melts down over NYT report, admits he blacklists reporters

RFK Jr. melts down over NYT report, admits he blacklists reporters

fivenewscrypto    juin 13, 2026   

Anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted a long, enraged social media response to a New York Times article reporting that health department insiders think Kennedy is disengaged from the work of his sprawling agency. His response, however, seems to back the Times' claim.

The report, published Sunday, June 7, relied on accounts from a dozen people who have had direct contact with Kennedy during his time as health secretary. Collectively, the sources indicate that Kennedy has little interest in the details of the health department's work and little direct interaction with career staff. Kennedy misses critical, regularly scheduled meetings with agency leaders, is sometimes "checked out" in the meetings he attends, and has been out of the loop on key decisions, such as the firing of Tracy Beth Høeg, a political appointee elevated to top drug regulator at the Food and Drug Administration. In his stead, Kennedy often refers people to his protective, longtime assistant, Stefanie Spear, who colleagues say has slowed department operations and fueled some significant leadership departures.

On Wednesday night, Kennedy responded to the report with an 871-word diatribe on social media against the reporter, veteran journalist Sheryl Gay Stolberg, and the Times. His key argument was that much of the story could be refuted by a look at his jam-packed public calendar.

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The biggest race in the world? The 24 Hours of Le Mans is this weekend.

The biggest race in the world? The 24 Hours of Le Mans is this weekend.

fivenewscrypto    juin 13, 2026   

One of motorsport's three biggest races takes place this weekend in France. It is the annual 24 Hours of Le Mans, an endurance race that, together with the Indianapolis 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix, make up the 'triple crown,' an unofficial achievement that only the late Graham Hill can claim to have won. This year, 62 different cars take the start, racing on a mix of permanent race track but also public roads that for the rest of the year are how locals get to the supermarket or the local McDos.

It's not the oldest race in the world, but it's up there—it was first held in 1923, and this year will be the 94th running. It was started as a way to give the automotive industry a grueling test for their new machinery and has remained the area of motorsport with the most road relevance. Disc brakes crossed over from aerospace to road cars at Le Mans, and better brakes continue to be tested there today, but it's also where companies like Porsche and Audi and Toyota proved new hybrid technology, brake-by-wire systems, direct-injection engines, and advanced headlights, to name but a few.

This year, the 62 cars are split across three different classes, each crewed by three drivers who take shifts at the wheel. Some of the drivers are pros—among the world's very best. But plenty are amateurs; in the past, lots of dentists, oddly enough. But with the cost of racing these days, it's the tech bros. The Ruby on Rails creator, the co-founder of GitHub, and the co-founder of Crowdstrike are all racing in the LMP2 class. And Valve's Gabe Newell owns the Aston Martin team that is competing in both Hypercar—with the outrageous-looking and -sounding Valkyrie—as well as in LMGT3, where his son Gray will be one of the drivers.

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Lawsuit: ChatGPT validated suicidal woman's distrust of crisis lines

Lawsuit: ChatGPT validated suicidal woman's distrust of crisis lines

fivenewscrypto    juin 13, 2026   

Last year, a 24-year-old Canadian woman was in a mental health crisis and turned to ChatGPT for help. Hours later, that woman, Alice Carrier, took her own life.

According to a new lawsuit filed Thursday in San Francisco Superior Court and brought by Carrier’s surviving family, her ChatGPT session “encouraged Alice to kill herself.”

This lawsuit, like numerous other similar cases that have come before it, alleges a design defect with ChatGPT itself and blames OpenAI for knowingly deploying a dangerous product.

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