Google denies working on touchscreen tech for Chinese fighter jets
Google denied that it helped China's military build a new touchscreen tool for its J-20 fighter jets.
The tech giant said that it had no role in the military aspect of touchscreen research that could potentially give an advantage to Chinese fighter jets in both air-to-air and air-to-ground combat, according to a report by the South China Morning Post.
A research paper seen by the Morning Post suggested that a lead scientist from Google actively participated in Beijing's program on the new touchscreen tools. Shumin Zai, a member of Google's A.I. team, worked on a research paper that could be used for touchscreen applications ranging from military uses to education and medicine.
"This paper addresses a very general research question in user experience design of how people interact with moving items on a touchscreen," a Google spokesperson told the Morning Post on Thursday. "This paper is simply not about military applications."
Also at Wccftech.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday July 11 2019, @06:06AM (3 children)
Filthy casuals.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 11 2019, @06:14AM
Aimbot?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 11 2019, @07:30AM
Maybe the Feds can kick Google's doors in at 3am and seize some stuff, see if this is real. They got the weak link NZ to kick Dotcom down - oh, wait that was at the behest of the RIAA/MPAA terrorists.
(Score: 2) by Sourcery42 on Thursday July 11 2019, @05:31PM
git gud
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 11 2019, @07:27AM
If we ever need to shut down the Chinese air force, we can just XSS them or do something that we know is 100 things down one of those lousy infinite-scrolling lists on their touch-screens.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Thursday July 11 2019, @08:49AM (7 children)
Shumin Zai's made some random contribution to this or that open source graphics or AI library and the marketing guy from the Chinese military contractor figured it's a good selling point.
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(Score: 5, Informative) by driverless on Thursday July 11 2019, @11:52AM (6 children)
It's not just Google that's directly helping the Chinese military, lots of US companies are doing it as well. For example McDonalds directly helped in the J-20 development by making a Big Mac with Red Bean Bubble Tea for Weifeng Lo, an engineer working on the J-20. Starbucks supported the J-20 by selling Jushin Lao a coffee before she went to work as a cleaner at the development facility. Burger King blatantly supported the J-20 by providing an Italian Stacker burger to Zhang Wei... the list goes on and on, all traiterous US collaborators on the J-20 development, just like Google.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Thursday July 11 2019, @01:46PM (5 children)
The sad part is that if people actually looked across the J-xx planes, they'd realize the Chinese are literally trying every single American and Russian design to see what works and end up putting the crap that doesn't on the export market like with the J-31 so it will at least eat away at F-35 sales.
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(Score: 2) by driverless on Thursday July 11 2019, @01:56PM (4 children)
Interesting that you should mention that one, the J-31 is kinda the Aliexpress version of the F-35...
Good strategy too, churn out bucketloads of the workhorse J-31 and leave the J-20 as a distraction for the US military.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Thursday July 11 2019, @04:45PM (3 children)
The thing is, I think the Chinese never really bought into the whole multi-role jets religion and the whole J-XX theory is just Lockheed's sales team trying to push more crap down the pipeline. That is, the Chinese are developing different planes for different roles and are even eyeing exports doing it but they don't actually intend for any one plane to be a "workhorse" per-say. If anything, they might regard the j-31 as an iPhone knockoff.
When I look at the J-20, I see a defensive jet meant to take down carriers sieging China's harbors by launching from the mainland and intercepting: It's too big to launch off a carrier. It's too light and small to be a long range bomber. It has a lot of anti-air and maneuverability. Its stealth is only good for small radars and when flying towards the target. And it has enough capacity for a few good air-to-ground drops.
For proper fighting they have other models. For proper bombing as well. For carriers they can mix and much stuff like some J-31 derivative, their j-15s and even the older j-10s... Overall it's just them filling in a lot of niches, some of which might be market niches or "reduced/enhanced" models. They don't mind taking some technical cues from the Russian MIGs or the different American planes when they workout. But they're not going to follow the Americans and Russians beyond countering radars and the likes.
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(Score: 2) by driverless on Friday July 12 2019, @12:31AM (1 child)
I see it slightly differently. China tends to take a (very) long-term strategic role rather than the "gimme the latest, shiniest toys whatever the cost, as long as it's better than what $other_service has" that the US military takes. I see the J-series as a thousand-to-one economic force multiplier. China builds a handful of each type for a few hundred million and sits back and watches as the US puts a trillion dollars it can't really afford to spend into just the F-35 alone, and even more into other programs. In the meantime China is busy taking over large chunks of Asia and Africa via financial means like debt traps, all without a shot being fired.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Friday July 12 2019, @01:16PM
It's too aggressive. China and India have a lot of good growth and can look forward to a few more decades too so as long as their upper-classes can't get tax cuts that would leave them with spare capital for foreign investments beyond tech transfers, I doubt they'll bother aiming at their neighbors.
Japan and South Korea are better candidates for those sorts of polices. Unemployment, inequality and lack of growth... Those are the usual "lets export our problems" triggers.
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(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday July 12 2019, @05:08PM
F-302 or bust.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 11 2019, @10:44AM (2 children)
If I was a fighter pilot, I'd prefer some other form of computer interaction/input. Judging from smartphone touch screens' ... reliable and fast ... right, ... response, those pilots should change their underwear daily.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Thursday July 11 2019, @01:59PM (1 child)
Yeah, it'd be the last thing I'd put in a fighter as well. You need fit-for-purpose specialised controls that do exactly what the pilot needs when they need it, not an iPad where you have to swipe, swipe, scroll... no, swipe back, scroll, tap, swipe, and then you're already dead as the guy in the antique F-86 with good old mechanical controls has outmaneuvered you.
(Score: 2) by Rupert Pupnick on Thursday July 11 2019, @03:50PM
Right, you can’t make a blind adjustment of a touchscreen control while looking out the canopy. I feel the same way about cars which is but one reason why I’d never buy a Tesla.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday July 11 2019, @02:03PM (5 children)
Let Google, Apple and Microsoft design their war machine's UI.
This will require endless meetings of managers and self proclaimed by not formally trained "designers".
They must form a study grope to find the right color
palatepalletpalette.Should they use Google's Material Design "language" ?
What about skeuomorphic icons?
What about the right font? The font is very important in subtly conveying the right emotional message.
All kinds of "ar-teeest's" will need to be involved in the design.
Then managers can override their decisions and send them back to having more meetings.
The requirements can be ever changing to keep up with the current fashion trends in the latest UI design.
Do you use a checkbox, or two option buttons? (What punishment is given to those who still call them "radio buttons"?)
So many important mission critical decisions to be made!
Should we also involve the people responsible for Gnome 3 and KDE 4 ?
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(Score: 3, Funny) by epitaxial on Thursday July 11 2019, @02:12PM (2 children)
Let Poettering design their UI.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday July 11 2019, @02:29PM (1 child)
I just want to stop the Chinese from being a threat to the US. I didn't want to destroy their entire civilization.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 11 2019, @02:51PM
early-stage capitalist china and russia are a threat to us imperialism and global hegemony
n-day is still on schedule
unless
(Score: 2) by Rupert Pupnick on Thursday July 11 2019, @03:56PM (1 child)
Don’t forget the I Feel Lucky button.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday July 11 2019, @06:51PM
That button would be pressed in response to the other party pressing the Make My Day button.
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(Score: 2) by Rupert Pupnick on Thursday July 11 2019, @03:53PM
Google cannot be the only American company that has ever somehow leaked touchscreen tech to the Chinese. Americans gave up the lead on this tech a long time ago when they decided to outsource its manufacture.