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It's official! - Robots are replacing humans. Chipotle restaurants in California have introduced two robots to replace human workers in an effort to slash labor costs in response to the state-mandated $20 minimum wage. The first robot called the "autocato" can peel, stone, and cut an avocado, and then turn it into guacamole in 26 seconds. The other robot dubbed the "digital makeline" has the ability to portion salads and bowls based on orders from the mobile app. The robots are part of an automation push that Chipotle's executives think could reduce the number of employees and help lower rising...

By growing the mushroom’s mycelium into the robot’s hardware, researchers have engineered two types of robots that sense and respond to the environment by harnessing electrical signals made by the fungus. =================================================================== A wheeled bot rolls across the floor. A soft-bodied robotic star bends its five legs, moving with an awkward shuffle. Powered by conventional electricity via plug or battery, these simple robotic creations would be unremarkable, but what sets these two robots apart is that they are controlled by a living entity: a king oyster mushroom. By growing the mushroom’s mycelium, or rootlike threads, into the robot’s hardware, a...

An autonomous surveillance robot has taken the leading charge of assuring safety in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward. That area had been home to various violent crimes over the past seven months, specifically the Boulevard Street area. The Boulevard street had almost become a focal point for public safety in the neighborhood. Natives staying in the area revealed that they see bullets all across the street at frequent intervals. Incidents like these leave them scared since they see and hear everything. The Atlanta Police Department has shared that 34 crimes have been reported in that area in the past seven months....

Are robots poised to soon become our overlords? Maybe not yet, although billionaire technologist Elon Musk says they could soon take over Tesla production facilities as the company moves forward with plans to begin producing humanoid robots called Optimus as soon as next year. In a post on X, Musk said, “Tesla will have genuinely useful humanoid robots in low production for Tesla internal use next year and, hopefully, high production for other companies in 2026.” First named the “Tesla Bot” and revealed in 2021 at a Tesla AI Day event, the robot’s design has drastically changed over the last...

In an unusually public conflagration between an artist’s estate and a tech giant, the Ansel Adams Trust hit back at Adobe for selling AI-generated images using the famed photographer’s name. Adams, a member of the famed Group f/64, is best known for his images of the American West, whose vast forests and mountains he photographed in sleek black and white. On its stock photography website Adobe Stock, the company was selling pictures produced using generative AI that recalled Adams’s work, albeit with noticeable differences. In one picture that has since been deleted from Adobe Stock, a cloud rolls into...

Matt McMullen talks about his company Realbotix. Founded in 2014, the company has been hammering away at the concept of intelligent, interactive robots long before today’s growing popularity of the idea. And they’re riding that wave as the technology continues to grow. See video here.

Last week, flamethrowing robo-dogs became the newest draft pick for the military-industrial complex. Now, I love dogs. I am proudly a “dog person.” Hopefully, my dog buddies will be waiting for me in heaven. But I don’t know how to feel about Throwflame’s weaponized dog, Thermonator. With the push of a button for the plasma arc ignition, the murder mutt starts marching in a perfect cadence. Think of it as a kind of video game. A great one about the collapse of human civilization or imprisonment of sentient robot soldiers: These diesel-fueled canine machines are as heartless as any death-ready...

The U.S.-based, Google-funded artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic is suggesting that its AI-powered large language model (LLM) Claude 3 Opus has shown evidence of sentience. If conclusively proven, Claude 3 Opus would be the first sentient AI being in human history. However, experts in the field remain relatively unconvinced by Anthropic’s insinuation.Claude 3 Opus has impressed many AI experts, especially the LLM‘s ability to solve complex problems almost instantly. However, claims of sentience began to circulate after Anthropic’s prompt engineer Alex Albert showcased an incident where Claude 3 Opus seemingly determined that it was being “tested.” “When we ran this...

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If the whistleblowers won't come to the journalist, then the journalist… Poor Alex Mena. Among his revelations to his button-camera-wearing date was that, “It’s almost impossible to lose your job in the government.” No update forthcoming so far, but it seems probable that Mr. Mena will soon be available for work. Since leaving Project Veritas, investigative journalist James O’Keefe has had a number of notable successes in getting high-placed government officials and others to open up about what they do. For his latest project, he sent a newly trained recruit to speak with Mena, who works in the IRS Criminal...

The New York City Police Department is ramping up security for the New Year's Eve ball drop in Times Square over fears Pro-Palestine protestors are set to disrupt it. It is deploying thousands of officers to the area and could use a combination of robots, drones and detection dogs to prevent any interruption to the event, which annually attracts an estimated one million people. Mayor Eric Adams said he is 'sure' Pro-Palestine protestors will try to cause disruption at the famous New Year's Eve ball drop. 'We’re sure there’s gonna be some type of attempt this year,' he said at...

Screenshot: Tesla/Youtube A robotic malfunction at Tesla’s Giga Texas factory resulted in a violent encounter where an engineer was attacked by one of the company’s robots, resulting in significant injuries and leaving a ‘trail of blood.’ According to the Daily Mail, while working on software programming for non-functional Tesla robots, the engineer was suddenly pinned against a surface by a robot tasked with manipulating aluminum car components, with its metal claws inflicted an injury that left an ‘open wound’ on the worker’s left hand. “Two of the robots, which cut car parts from freshly cast pieces of aluminum, were disabled...

By the year 2025, communist China plans to unleash large number of humanoid robots, meaning robots that look and act like people but are just walking computers and circuitry. In a race with Elon Musk’s Tesla and other Western companies working on similar technologies, China hopes to start mass producing its version of humanoid robots by 2025. According to banking giant Goldman Sachs, the market for humanoid robots could reach $150 billion per year in just 15 years. Fully operational humanoid robots are expected to be mass produced and working in factories between 2025 and 2028, and later in other...

An industrial robot brutally slaughtered a South Korean robotics technician Tuesday, allegedly mistaking him for just another container of organic material in need of stacking. The victim, a man in his 40s, was attempting to diagnose an issue with a pick-and-place robot's sensor at the Donggoseong Export Agricultural Complex in the southern county of Goseong, as there was an equipment test planned for later in the week, reported the Register. The paprika-sorting robot, reportedly created and installed by the victim's employer, spotted the man with its sensor, figured him for a box of vegetables, then seized him using its arms...

A hilarious video, recently shared on Reddit, captures the priceless reactions of two huskies when they come face-to-face with the Unitree Go2 Robodog. This remarkable canine creation, bearing an uncanny resemblance to the famous Boston Dynamics dog (just saying), had the pleasure of meeting a few of its living counterparts, and let's just say, some of them were less than thrilled.

The robotic arm, confusing the man for a box of vegetables, grabbed him and pushed his body against the conveyer belt, crushing his face and chest... According to Yonhap, the robot was responsible for lifting boxes of peppers and transferring them onto pallets. The man had been checking the robot's sensor operations ahead of its test run at the pepper sorting plant in South Gyeongsang province, scheduled for 8 November, the agency adds, quoting police. The test had been originally been planned for 6 November, but was pushed back by two days due to problems with the robot's sensor.

Hanson Robotics Limited’s Ben Goertzel, Sophia and Han at RISE 2017. Now for something that’s never been done onstage before. While they may not be human, our next guests are ready to discuss the future of humanity, and how they see their types flourish over the coming years.

Human-shaped robots with dexterous hands will be staffing warehouses and retail stores, tending to the elderly and performing household chores within a decade or so, according to a Silicon Valley startup working toward that vision.

The United Nations views AI as essential to accomplishing its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Why? Because AI can run the world more “efficiently” and autocratically than humans. With AI, enforcement of SDGs would be “standardized” for all, and would thoroughly dispassionate. Technocracy thrives on data, and there is no such things as too much. ⁃ TN EditorA panel of AI-enabled humanoid robots told a United Nations summit on Friday that they could eventually run the world better than humans.

Robots presented at an AI forum said on Friday they expected to increase in number and help solve global problems, and would not steal humans' jobs or rebel against us. But, in the world's first human-robot press conference, they gave mixed responses on whether they should submit to stricter regulation. The nine humanoid robots gathered at the 'AI for Good' conference in Geneva, where organizers are seeking to make the case for Artificial Intelligence and the robots it is powering to help resolve some of the world's biggest challenges such as disease and hunger.