Dancing Cyborgs, Morphing Multi-modal Robots, DIY Python Pups, Teslabot..

AI is eating itself... Plus all the best robot events (with promo codes)

Jul 02, 2023

I pointed out a few links last week that are definitely catching a lot attention worldwide. In a nutshell, we are now generating lots of bad data, via generative AI, and poisoning the well in which AI learns. More and more humans, not just spambots, are posting AI generated text. This includes freelancers and mturks using AI to label data… which kind of defeats the point but definitely demonstrates human ingenuity!

Big thank you to everyone who has become a paid subscriber - it makes you an angel investor in the work I do at Silicon Valley Robotics and as a startup advisor, and accelerator. And maybe we can do more to share your experience and expertize with the robotics startup community. Mentor Office Hours, maybe startup profiles. We’ll keep exploring.

Quick Reads:

Dancing cyborgs: Japanese researchers develop robot arms to ‘unlock creativity’ - Reuters

Want four extra arms? Japanese scientists create wearable, spider-like robotics appendages - YahooNews

LogOn: Robot Jellyfish Aims to Explore the Oceans - VOA

Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence Names New CEO, Develops Phone2Proc to Train Robots - Robotics 24/7

Panasonic develops new multi-material 3D printer for the production of wearable electronics - 3D Printing Industry

Secretive hardware startup Humane’s first product is the AI Pin - TechCrunch

Pneumatic Actuators Give Robot Cheetah-Like Acceleration - IEEE Spectrum

NASA’s first robotic moon rover test drives in Silicon Valley - ABC7News

Micropsi Industries Showcases Vendor Agnostic Version of MIRAI Platform at Automatica - Robotics 24/7

A robot gardener outperformed human horticulturalists in one vital area - PopSci

An egg-shaped robot is serving coffee in Brooklyn, challenging the area’s bearded baristas - Yahoo News

New bioinspired robot flies rolls walks and more - CalTech

From autonomous weapons and nukes to robots and AI: how do we regulate technologies that have unforeseeable consequences? - El Pais

We need a new social contract for the coming golden age of robotics - Big Think

As Mobile Robot Market Matures, Vendors Continue to Improve Fleet Capabilities - Robotics 24/7

Kodiak, Loadsmith to put 800 trucks on new autonomous freight network - TechCrunch

Zoox becomes first company to deploy fully autonomous pod on public roads in Nevada - Carscoops

Uper CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says self-driving cars could one day make up 20% of drivers on the platform - Fast Company

Why Europe struggles to scale its deep-tech startups - Pitchbook

Months after its last raise, Realtime Robotics drums up another $9.5 million - TechCrunch

Dexory nabs $19M to bring visibility to warehouses through analytics and autonomous robots - TechCrunch

Improved autonomy leads to profitable robot deliveries for Cartken - SupplyChainDIVE

Why Transformative AI is really really hard to achieve - The Gradient

Import AI

Import AI 333: Synthetic data makes models stupid; chatGPT eats MTurk. Inflection shows off a large language model

Welcome to Import AI, a newsletter about AI research. Import AI runs on lattes, ramen, and feedback from readers. If you’d like to support this (and comment on posts!) please subscribe. Qualifying Life Event: Astute readers may have noticed we skipped an issue last week - that's because I recently became the caretaker of a newborn baby. Therefore, Import…

a year ago · 32 likes · 2 comments · Jack Clark

Platformer

The AI is eating itself

Today let’s look at some early notes on the effect of generative artificial intelligence on the broader web, and think through what it means for platforms. At The Verge, James Vincent surveys the landscape and finds a dizzying number of changes to the consumer internet over just the past few months…

a year ago · 157 likes · 7 comments · Casey Newton

The Algorithmic Bridge

How the Great AI Flood Could Kill the Internet

Like everything else, humans are subject to the second law of thermodynamics. Ice melts, wood burns, glass shatters. Entropy grows and we age. But it's the alternative version of the law that suits us best: The principle of minimum energy. It says, simplifying, that a system’s energy is lowest at the equilibrium. That is, if we can lie down instead of st…

a year ago · 37 likes · 12 comments · Alberto Romero

Robotics Events:

tc_disrupt_2023_speaker-carousel_1920x1080 3 speakers

Learn about the next wave of industrial robotics at Disrupt’s Hardware Stage - Sept 19-21 in San Francisco - Early Bird Prices Rollback - Save up to $800 until July 5th

(plus Actuator says you save $600 till August 11 and save 15% on top of that with promo “ACTUATOR”)

July 11-12 - VB Transform: Get Ahead of the Generative AI Revolution - VentureBeat (I have some tickets to give away)

Sep 19-21 - FIRA USA Salinas - FIRA

Sep 28 - The Autonomous Systems Showcase - Deep Tech Showcase

Oct 1-5 - IROS in Detroit - IEEE RAS

IROS is calling for demos - and so is Hello Robot.

Hello Robot is going to have multiple Stretches at IROS and we'd love to see some cool work from our community demonstrated at the Expo! We plan to make a few robots available for community members who would like to showcase their research at IROS, but aren't able to bring their own robots with them.

Demo submissions are due July 15 - if you'd be interested in using one of our robots to participate, please reach out to us as soon as you can!