Australian AI startup granted AUKUS exemption for autonomous vessel software
SYDNEY (Reuters) -An Australian AI startup developing software for crewless boats said it has been granted one of the first AUKUS exemption licences by the Australian government, allowing it to share information with defence contractors in the U.S. and Britain.
Defence officials have said Australia will rely more on autonomous systems to protect its vast coastline and up to 1.2 million square miles (3.1 million sq km) of northern ocean, even as it spends billions on nuclear-powered submarines.
Australia, the United States and Britain removed significant barriers on defence trade in August through an exemption to the U.S. International Trafficking in Arms Regulations, designed to speed up construction of nuclear-powered submarines under the Australia-UK-US (AUKUS) pact.
The co-founder of the Greenroom Robotics startup, former Royal Australian Navy engineer Harry Hubbert, told Reuters the licence exemption will also speed up the company's collaboration on autonomous vessel trials with defence companies in Britain and the United States.
Greenroom's software acts like "the brain of a vessel", he said, emulating what a helmsman or navigator would do by talking to the rudder, engine and radar systems on board.
Trials of the software have been conducted on boats ranging from a one-metre long research vessel to an offshore patrol boat, he said.
Greenroom has a partnership with navy shipbuilder Austal Australia and has also worked with British company Subsea Craft on a tactical water vessel, Hubbert said.
Greenroom's software is dual-use, and can also be applied to help vessels monitor for whales, he added.
"The opportunity with AUKUS is that we can enter U.S. and UK markets but also expand the horizon," he said.
With around 80% of the ocean floor uncharted to modern standards, autonomous vessels can gather information that helps ocean research, national security needs and sea-borne trade, he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Chinese AI firms form alliances to build domestic ecosystem amid US curbs
SHANGHAI (Reuters) -China's artificial intelligence companies have announced two new industry alliances, aiming to develop a domestic ecosystem to reduce dependence on foreign tech as they seek to cope with U.S. export restrictions on advanced Nvidia chipsets. The announcements were timed to coincide with the three-day World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai ending on Monday. The conference also showcased a slew of new products, such as an AI computing system from Huawei that experts believe rivals Nvidia's most advanced offering, as well as consumer-friendly products such as several kinds of digital AI glasses. The "Model-Chip Ecosystem Innovation Alliance" brings together Chinese developers of large language models (LLMs) and AI chip manufacturers. "This is an innovative ecosystem that connects the complete technology chain from chips to models to infrastructure," said Zhao Lidong, CEO of Enflame, one of the participating chipmakers. Other manufacturers of graphics processing units (GPUs) in the alliance include Huawei, Biren, and Moore Threads, which have been hit by U.S. sanctions that block them from purchasing advanced tech made with U.S. know-how. The alliance was announced by StepFun, an LLM developer. A second alliance, the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce AI Committee, aims to "promote the deep integration of AI technology and industrial transformation." Participants include SenseTime, also sanctioned by the U.S. and which has pivoted from facial recognition technology to LLMs. Others are StepFun and another LLM developer, MiniMax, as well as chipmakers Metax and Iluvatar CoreX. One of the most talked about products at the conference was Huawei's CloudMatrix 384 which incorporates 384 of its latest 910C chips and outperforms Nvidia's GB200 NVL72 on some metrics, according to U.S. research firm SemiAnalysis. Huawei's system design capabilities have meant that it has been able to use more chips and system-level innovations to compensate for weaker individual chip performance, SemiAnalysis said. At least six other Chinese computing firms showcased similar "clustering" chip technology. Metax demonstrated an AI supernode featuring 128 C550 chips designed to support large-scale liquid-cooled data centre requirements. Other events included Tencent's unveiling of its open-source Hunyuan3D World Model 1.0, which the company said enables users to generate interactive 3D environments through text or image prompts. Baidu announced what it said was next-generation "digital human" technology that helps businesses to create virtual livestreamers. It features "cloning technology" that can replicate a human's voice, tone, and body language from just 10 minutes of sample footage. Alibaba was among those announcing AI glasses. Its Quark AI Glasses are powered by its Qwen AI model and are due to be released in China by the end of 2025. They will allow users to access the tech giant's map service for easy navigating and to use Alipay by scanning QR codes with voice commands. Connectez-vous pour accéder à votre portefeuille
Axios
10 minutes ago
- Axios
Musk announces Tesla, Samsung Electronics chip supply deal
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said late Sunday the automaker has signed a deal to obtain semiconductor chips from Samsung Electronics. The big picture: Samsung had announced Saturday that it had struck a $16.5 billion supply agreement, but it didn't name the company. The announcement comes after Samsung, one of the world's largest memory chip makers, acknowledged last year that it had fallen behind in the AI chips war. Driving the news: "Samsung's giant new Texas fab will be dedicated to making Tesla's next-generation AI6 chip. The strategic importance of this is hard to overstate," Musk wrote on his platform X. "Samsung currently makes AI4. TSMC will make AI5, which just finished design, initially in Taiwan and then Arizona," Musk added. "Samsung agreed to allow Tesla to assist in maximizing manufacturing efficiency. This is a critical point, as I will walk the line personally to accelerate the pace of progress. And the fab is conveniently located not far from my house."
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Rare 50 cent coin sells for $3,050 due to ‘unique' reason
An extremely rare 50 cent coin has sold for more than $3,000 at auction due to a mistake that happened during the minting process. If you spot an error on one of your coins, it could be worth more than its face value to collectors because of its rarity. The 2002 50 cent coin was mistakenly struck on a Samoan Tala coin, which is seven-sided and made out of nickel brass. The coin is thought to be totally 'unique', with no other examples of the error coin seen before. Roxbury's director Scott Waterman, who auctioned off the coin, told Yahoo Finance there was 'nothing similar' to the coin. RELATED Rare 5 cent coin worth 25,000 times its value due to 'double headed' detail Terrifying superannuation reality facing 4.3 million Australians hoping for comfortable retirement Major warning after Aussie receives random $350 payment in her bank account 'It's a different alloy as well, which makes it quite eye-catching. It's very, very unusual that one, unique as I understand it. So anything that is unique is literally there's one of it,' he said. The coin ended up selling at auction for $3,050, after being found in circulation. Waterman said the error was 'pretty crazy' and very 'unusual'. 'The Royal Australian Mint strikes a lot of other countries in the region, their coins as well. So very, very occasionally one will cross over and I think that's what's happened here,' he said. Waterman said error coins were a rare occurrence since decimal currency was introduced by Australia in February 1966, but they still exist. 'Relatively speaking, they're exceptionally rare in Australia compared to other countries and they're very well supported. We see really high prices for good error coins in Australia relative to other countries,' he said. Other coins struck on the wrong die have also fetched more than their face value. A 2000 $1 coin with its obverse struck with a 10 cent die sold at auction for $1,150 in uncirculated condition. This is known as a 'mule coin' where the coin is struck with mismatched dies on the heads and tails. Another of the $1 coins with the heads side struck on a 10 cent die fetched $375 at auction in circulated in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data
