Friday, March 13, 2020

Which Westworld Characters are Robots, and Which are Human?

"Are you real?" is a refrain that has haunted the first two seasons of Westworld , a show that's had an awful lot of fun playing with our expectations, creating twisty narratives that reveal massive time jumps and, more importantly, characters who may or may not be as human as they appear. And season three appears likely to continue that trend, for this future society is on the brink of war between synthetic beings and regular humans, even though many humans don't know the war is coming.

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Publisher: Vulture
Date: 2020-03-13T13:10:07.764Z
Author: Liz Shannon Miller
Twitter: @vulture
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And here's another article:

Boston Dynamics robots' progress is astounding and terrifying - Business Insider

Take a look at this thing from robotics company Boston Dynamics. It can barely walk straight, it's slow, and it needs a wiring harness:

It's so uncoordinated, there's no way robots are going to take our jobs, let alone pose any threat, right? 

* * *

The robot eventually starts to retaliate, and even holds its human testers hostage. The parody serves as an argument against giving robots too much mobility — or too much intelligence. 

Publisher: Business Insider
Date: 2020-03-12
Author: Antonio Villas Boas
Twitter: @sai
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Why so many robotic startups fail, and what can be done about it – TechCrunch

At last week's TC Sessions: Robotics+AI, I felt it was important to focus at least one panel on companies that are working to foster robotics startups. NVIDIA's VP of Engineering Claire Delaunay and Freedom Robotics co-founder and CEO Joshua Wilson joined me to offer unique perspectives.

Both companies help provide building blocks for founders. NVIDIA is using some of its tremendous resources to create platforms like Isaac , designed to help prototype robots. And Freedom , a fairly fresh startup in its own right, is designing AI offerings to ease the deployment of those manner of systems.

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Publisher: TechCrunch
Date: 2020-03-11 07:07:59
Twitter: @techcrunch
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These Industrial Robots Get More Adept With Every Task | WIRED

At the offices of startup Vicarious in Union City, where the San Francisco Bay Area's sprawl abuts rolling hills, 10 robot arms tirelessly place travel-sized beauty products into bins on a conveyor belt. Each gray arm ends in a suction-cup-tipped finger that makes a high-pitched whine as it plucks items such as antiperspirant or hand lotion from crowded boxes.

Vicarious buys standard industrial robots, enhances them with its software, and contracts them out the way a temp agency does workers—charging per task completed or at an hourly rate. In Baltimore, Vicarious robots assemble sampler packs for makeup company Sephora, work previously done exclusively by humans. Vicarious CEO and cofounder D.

Publisher: Wired
Author: Tom Simonite
Twitter: @wired
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Other things to check out:

Robots Are Helping to Eliminate Coronavirus Transmission

UBOT seeks daily investment results equal to 300 percent of the daily performance of the Indxx Global Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Thematic Index, which is designed to provide exposure to exchange-listed companies in developed markets that are expected to benefit from the adoption and utilization of robotics and/or artificial intelligence.

The robotics space is certainly in a push-pull dichotomy of investors capitalizing on the latest in disruptive technology, while at the same time, getting push back from those threatened by the wider adoption of robots. The fears are warranted given that robotics technology has the capacity to supplant human jobs.

Publisher: ETF Trends
Date: 2020-03-13T12:00:16 00:00
Twitter: @ETFtrends
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Full Page Reload
Publisher: IEEE Spectrum: Technology, Engineering, and Science News
Twitter: @IEEESpectrum
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DHL will deploy 1,000 robots from Locus Robotics for delivery fulfillment – TechCrunch

Robotics have found a lot of success in the shipping and warehouse fulfillment categories for their ability to give logistics companies an edge in timing. Amazon is probably the best and most prominent example, with more than 200,000 robots currently deployed in its centers across the U.S.

As the retail giant has shifted expectations to next and same-day deliveries, competitors and partners have looked for an edge, with many turning to third-party robotics. Shipping giant DHL has been looking to robotics companies. In late 2018, the company's North American wing announced its plan to invest $300 million in robotics and automation across 350 facilities.

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Publisher: TechCrunch
Date: 2020-03-11 08:41:25
Twitter: @techcrunch
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Making 'soft' robots work harder | News

Some fear robots might one day take over the world. But before they do that, machines will first have to learn how to walk over uneven surfaces.

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, are trying to make robots more adaptive and safer for humans to interact with by developing soft robotic legs that respond to surfaces more naturally.

By adding this layer of "mechanical intelligence" onto the artificial decision-making algorithms that animate most robots, the researchers are building robots that are better able to navigate different environments, perform delicate tasks, or eventually be worn by people for therapeutic purposes.

Publisher: News
Date: 2020-03-13T12:02:08-0700
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