What's new, Atlas? (AI, Robotics and tech thread)

[Anxious_Squirrel]

That stunt robo vid was flipping amazing!!!

I want a robot to litter train my new kitty for me and clean up all of her messes.

[Darren_Garrison]

Break out your wallets for a Hand-Headed Dog of Doom.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

They’ve been saying that for months now, tho. The “by July 2019” is the first firm date I’ve heard; thanks for that. I keep trying to find a price point. At $15,000 they aren’t going to sell to anyone but big companies and governments. At $5,000 they might sell to upper-middle class people, until they figure out that they don’t need the robot to do anything that it can do. At $2,000 people everywhere will buy them and figure out things for them to do.

[Darren_Garrison]

I would have assumed more like $50,000.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

I don’t think they’ll be that expensive; I’ll stick with my $15k WAG.

---

My 2nd favorite movie so far this summer, Upgrade, features a guy with an implant that lets him sneeze murderous nanobots at people; it was widely derided as one of the least-plausible things in a movie that showed a world that was actually convincingly possible.

Yet here we are:

Each sensor in the aerosol spray contains two parts. The first is a colloid, an extremely tiny insoluble particle or molecule. Colloids are so small, in fact, they can remain suspended in a liquid or the air indefinitely — the force of particles colliding around them is stronger than the force of gravity attempting to pull them down.

The second part of the sensor is a complex circuit containing a chemical detector built from a two-dimensional material, such as graphene. When this detector encounters a certain chemical in its environment, its ability to conduct electricity improves. The circuit also contains a photodiode, a device that can convert ambient light into electric current. This provides all the electricity needed to power the circuit’s data collection and memory.

The researchers grafted their circuits onto colloids, thereby giving them the colloid’s ability to travel in unique environments. Once combined, the researchers aerosolized the nanobots (converted them into a sprayable form). This delivery method wouldn’t be possible without the addition of the colloid. “[The circuits] can’t exist without a substrate,” said the study’s lead author Michael Strano

And here’s the actual study: Colloidal nanoelectronic state machines based on 2D materials for aerosolizable electronics.

I stuck with the synopsis at the first link, eh.

[Half_Man_Half_Wit]

DARPA is launching a significant new AI initiative to explore the ‘Third Wave’ of AI concepts—which, according to their telling, will be context-aware agents capable of explaining and justifying their reasons. This comes at least in part as a response to worries that ‘Second Wave’ (i. e. current) AIs basically use methods largely opaque to human reasoning, based on Bayesian statistical analysis and deep learning techniques, which leads to sometimes unpredictable and (to us) bizarre behavior. (‘First-Wave’ systems, on that reading, are basically those with human-derived know-how hardcoded in, such as expert systems.)

See also this video.

I think this is an interesting direction, but may run into some challenges. One problem is that we’re shackling the AI essentially to a human-like way of conceptualizing. In the end, very often, the reasons for decisions or actions we take aren’t really clear to us, either; we just end up confabulating something that passes at least a cursory smell test. By requiring AIs to pass that smell test, we’re running the risk of introducing arbitrary limits—after all, what makes sense to us is itself poorly justified; if we needed reasons for accepting certain sorts of reasons, the whole process wouldn’t ever bottom out.

[burpo_the_wonder_mutt]

Here’s our friend, again, doing Parkour now. (No cussing, yet.)

[Darren_Garrison]

The shortness of the video clip probably indicates the frequency of falls.

[k9bfriender]

@Darren_Garrison

The shortness of the video clip probably indicates the frequency of falls.

I was thinking it had more to do with it having a very limited power supply.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

@burpo_the_wonder_mutt

Here’s our friend, again, doing Parkour now. (No cussing, yet.)

That’s freaking awesome!

[burpo_the_wonder_mutt]

Next: skateboarding! Bart Simpson “Cowabunga” T-shirt mandatory.

[Wesley_Clark]

I want one of these when they come out. I can’t afford it, but after a decade it’ll probably become affordable. Its supposed to sell for 15k at first, but it’ll probably be down to 5k within a decade or so.

These robotic arms put a five-star chef in your kitchen

[Darren_Garrison]

[quote=“Wesley_Clark, post:92, topic:801952”]

I want one of these when they come out. I can’t afford it, but after a decade it’ll probably become affordable. Its supposed to sell for 15k at first, but it’ll probably be down to 5k within a decade or so.

[/QUOTE]

If you can’t afford a whole arm you could start off with a finger.

[burpo_the_wonder_mutt]

[quote=“Wesley_Clark, post:92, topic:801952”]

I want one of these when they come out. I can’t afford it, but after a decade it’ll probably become affordable. Its supposed to sell for 15k at first, but it’ll probably be down to 5k within a decade or so.

[/QUOTE]

^ Those things need white, three-fingered cartoon gloves and, “Powerhouse,” playing in the background (Getting the orchestra into your kitchen is your problem).

(Did you see one of them flash the “OK” sign? Cheeky bastard.)

If you can’t afford a whole arm you could start off with a finger.

Now where did that damn phone go?

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Check this out: China now has AI newscasters. The speech is still rough, but the image is perfect: I’m not sure I can tell it isn’t a real person just by looking.

ETA: I just watched the video again and no, I can’t tell that isn’t a real person just by looking.

[JohnT]

Not necessarily robotics, but a scientist in China is claiming to have made the first CRISPR-modified fetuses which are just recently born:

Chinese researcher claims first gene-edited babies

A Chinese researcher claims that he helped make the world’s first genetically edited babies — twin girls born this month whose DNA he said he altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life.

If true, it would be a profound leap of science and ethics.

A U.S. scientist said he took part in the work in China, but this kind of gene editing is banned in the United States because the DNA changes can pass to future generations and it risks harming other genes.

There is no other corroboration for this report, the article notes.

[Darren_Garrison]

“Not necessarily robotics” in the sense of “not robotics in any way, shape or form”…

[Snowboarder_Bo]

It is “tech” tho, so it fits the thread; so says the OP!

Check out what UK farmers are up to

Methodically inspecting Butler’s winter wheat crop for weeds and pests, the laborer doesn’t complain or even break a sweat. That’s because it’s a four-wheel robot dubbed “Tom” that uses GPS, artificial intelligence and smartphone technology to digitally map the field.

Next year, the British startup plans to start testing two more robots controlled by an artificial intelligence system that will work alongside Tom, autonomously doing precision “seeding, feeding and weeding.”

To ease financial pressure on farmers reluctant to make big one-off investments in equipment, the Small Robot Company plans to sell its services as a monthly subscription, charging 600 pounds ($765) per hectare a year.

With a bright orange 3D-printed body, and beefy all-terrain wheels, Tom resembles an oversized roller skate. Their light weight means these robots won’t compact soil the way tractors do, Scott-Robinson said.

On Butler’s farm, Tom trundles along crop rows taking hundreds of thousands of high-resolution pictures during the growing season. The images are fed to Wilma, the artificial intelligence platform, which is being trained to tell the difference between wheat and weeds.

In 2019, the company will start trials for two more robots, Dick and Harry. Dick will deliver fertilizer directly to soil around roots, instead of wasteful blanket spraying, and use a laser or micro-spray chemicals to kill weeds. Harry will insert seeds into the earth at a uniform depth and spacing, eliminating the need for tractors to plow furrows.

So rather than one big robot to sweep an area, a few small ones to tend to each plant individually, using the fact that they can potentially work 24/7 as a bonus feature. It sounds like a good idea; I look forward to the results next year.

[Machine_Elf]

@Darren_Garrison

Break out your wallets for a Hand-Headed Dog of Doom.

The Hand-Headed Dog of Doom has some fine dance moves.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

@Machine_Elf

The Hand-Headed Dog of Doom has some fine dance moves.

Let’s go to the quarry and throw stuff down there! That totally fucking rocked!