Welcome to Daily Zaps, your regularly-scheduled dose of AI news ⚡️ 

Here’s what we got for ya today:

•  🐶 Army testing “armed” robot dogs

• 📺 Google ads will soon appear in AI overviews

• 💻 OpenAI Canvas feature for coding

•  🚢 Dockworkers concerned about automation

Let’s get right into it!

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MILITARY

Army testing armed “robot dogs”

The U.S. Army is testing armed "robot dogs" in the Middle East as part of a counter-drone effort. These quadrupedal robots, equipped with AI-enabled gun turrets, can track and engage targets with greater precision than human soldiers.

They are being tested alongside other counter-drone technologies at Red Sands in Saudi Arabia, with the potential to provide cheaper and more efficient alternatives to expensive missiles used to combat low-cost drones. While still in the experimental phase, these robots could eventually assist U.S. troops by enhancing security, reducing costs, and allowing soldiers to focus on more critical tasks.

BIG TECH

Google ads will soon appear in AI overviews

Google is updating its AI-powered search tools, enabling ads to appear in AI Overviews and enhancing its Lens image recognition tool. AI Overviews, which provide natural language explanations in response to search queries, will now display relevant ads below the AI-generated text and citations for U.S. mobile users.

Lens, used to identify objects in images, will also feature shopping ads and provide more detailed search results, including product reviews and pricing. These updates, along with enhancements to other search features like voice commands and a new AI-aggregated results page, aim to improve the user experience and offer more advertising opportunities without additional setup for advertisers.

STARTUPS

OpenAI Canvas feature for coding

OpenAI has introduced a new feature called "canvas" in ChatGPT, offering users a workspace for writing and coding projects alongside the normal chat window. This editable workspace allows users to generate content, highlight sections for editing, and adjust text or code with ease. Canvas, rolling out in beta to ChatGPT Plus and Teams users, will soon be available for Enterprise and Edu users.

It is part of a trend among AI providers to offer editable workspaces for easier interaction with generative AI. For coding, users can add comments, request code explanations, or have ChatGPT review and suggest edits to the code. The canvas interface simplifies collaboration with ChatGPT, enabling users to make targeted adjustments without regenerating entire outputs.

LABOR

Dockworkers concerned about automation

For the first time since 1977, dockworkers on the East and Gulf Coasts are on strike, halting operations at key U.S. ports. The strike, involving 47,000 workers, centers around demands for higher pay and a halt to automation that could threaten jobs. While wage and benefit issues could be settled easily, the core dispute is over the automation of port operations, which could drastically reduce the need for human labor.

Automation in ports, like operating cranes and moving containers, is seen as inevitable by many in the industry, despite its high costs and the potential loss of jobs. Only a few ports globally and in the U.S. have fully or semi-automated, but workers are concerned about the long-term impact. This strike highlights a broader issue facing many industries as technology threatens to replace well-paying jobs, setting a precedent for future labor disputes over automation.