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Amazon, opens new tab is developing software for humanoid robots that could eventually take the jobs of delivery workers, The Information reported on Wednesday, citing a person familiar with the matter. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report. Amazon is completing construction of a "humanoid park," an indoor obstacle course at one of the company's San Francisco, California offices, where it will soon test such robots, the report added. The company is developing the artificial intelligence software that would power such robots, the report said, adding that Amazon plans to use hardware from other firms in its tests, for now....

Twenty-one humanoid robots joined thousands of runners at the Yizhuang half-marathon in Beijing on Saturday, the first time these machines have raced alongside humans over a 21-km (13-mile) course. The robots from Chinese manufacturers such as DroidUP and Noetix Robotics came in all shapes and sizes, some shorter than 120 cm (3.9 ft), others as tall as 1.8 m (5.9 ft). One company boasted that its robot looked almost human, with feminine features and the ability to wink and smile. Some firms tested their robots for weeks before the race. Beijing officials have described the event as more akin to...

A liberal activist and organizer coordinated with reporters from the conservative news site Breitbart during the primaries to cover his disruptions of events for candidates such as Sen. Marco Rubio. Aaron Black, an associate with Democracy Partners and a former Occupy Wall Street organizer, worked with the pro-Trump site Breitbart, tipping it off about his stunts, exchanging raw video and coordinating coverage, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation. Black has resurfaced recently as one of the people featured in undercover video from the Project Veritas group. In the video, he claims to work for the Democratic...

Elon Musk has confirmed that SpaceX’s Starship is set to launch for Mars by the end of 2026, and it will carry Tesla’s humanoid robot, Optimus. @elonmusk Starship departs for Mars at the end of next year, carrying Optimus. If those landings go well, then human landings may start as soon as 2029, although 2031 is more likely. https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1900774290682683612? According to Musk, if everything goes as planned, humans could reach Mars as early as 2029—though he acknowledged that 2031 is a more realistic target. The X account for Optimus replied to Musk’s announcement with just two words: "Hold on." "Starship...

Here's the starting point for this article. For almost 100 years the Education Establishment has maneuvered, plotted, and schemed to eliminate phonics, and to make American children memorize sight-words. The pitch has always been sweeping: phonics can’t possibly work for a complex language like English, and sight-words are the only way to go. Teachers, students, and parents have been bullied relentlessly to embrace what phonics experts (such as Rudolf Flesch) assume is a fraud and a nonstarter. How does the ordinary citizen deal with this? Well, it's been rough because the professors at Harvard, etc. do not play games. They're...

Oh, Deere The largest farming-equipment manufacturer in the world, John Deere, unveiled a new crop of autonomous tractors and trucks at CES 2025 earlier this week, as the heavy-machinery giant looks to capitalize on the buzz around all things self-driving. If your immediate thought is that this sounds like a job killer... it is. John Deere has talked up its machines’ capabilities for precisely that purpose: to help alleviate some of the labor-shortage issues that farming faces, with the company’s chief technology officer, Jahmy Hindman, saying that “there is not enough available and skilled labor” to do the kind of...

Scientists in South Korea have unveiled swarms of tiny magnetic robots that mimic the collaborative strength of ants to achieve incredible tasks, from carrying heavy cargo to navigating complex environments. These microrobots, described in a study published in the journal Device, could one day tackle challenges such as clearing clogged arteries or precisely guiding organisms. The team, led by Jeong Jae Wie from Hanyang University in Seoul, developed the robots to operate under a rotating magnetic field, enabling them to work together in swarms. Their potential applications include minimally invasive medical treatments and other tasks in difficult-to-reach environments. Wie and...

The Brief Self-driving robots created by Avride will soon begin delivering small food and grocery items in the Downtown Dallas area in partnership with Uber Eats. The autonomous robots will make deliveries within a two-mile radius. They are equipped with several cameras and an animated screen for delivery. The robots, about the size of a suitcase, will have a lock that only the customer can open through the delivery app. The company says the delivery robots will be active in Dallas within the next few days. And unlike human delivery drivers, you aren't expected to tip.

A fleet of marble-sculpting robots is carving out the future of the art world. It's a move some artists see as cheating, but others are embracing the change.Robots sculpt marble in Italy, sparking worries about future of art form | 13:1760 Minutes | 3.27M subscribers | 349,894 views | November 12, 2024

Elon Musk has showcased his army of $30,000 Tesla Optimus robots that are designed to help with household chores, prompting people to draw comparisons to the dystopian future depicted in I, Robot. In shocking and impressive footage, the humanoid robots were seen stiffly walking in single file across a stage while viewers stood jaw-dropped on the sidelines. Musk said attendees could walk up to the Optimus robots who would do things like serve drinks. 'At scale, you should be able to buy an Optimus robot for $20,000 to $30,000,' he said. 'It can walk your dog, mow your lawn, get...

"It could have been worse," one owner incredibly concluded. It’s a tale as old as… the Internet of Things era. Robot vacuums made by Ecovacs have been reported roving around people’s homes, yelling profanities at them through the onboard speakers after the company’s software was found to be vulnerable to intrusion. ABC News in Australia reports that there were recently multiple instances across the U.S. when owners of Ecovacs vacuums noticed their devices acting unusually. “It sounded like a broken-up radio signal or something,” Daniel Swenson told the outlet. “You could hear snippets of maybe a voice.” He opened the...

The ABENICS active ball joint gear allows for extremely precise, high-torque movementYamagata University At its core, this system developed at Yamagata University in Japan uses a "simple" cross-spherical gear paired with a monopole gear to control pitch, roll, and yaw. Essentially, the same full range of movement you'd see in a rotator cuff (the shoulder) of a human. With clever gearing, coupling, and sliding motions, the ABENICS gear is extremely precise in its movements. By adding a second monopole gear and differentials in tandem, connected to a ball joint, this system becomes even more robust. Operators are able to achieve...

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...