What lies ahead for robotics and AI in 2024?
The top three technological, social and economic trends in robotics and AI may surprise you.
Happy Robotics and AI 2024 to everyone!
And many thanks to my amazing sister, Sue Keay. Not only is she Chair of the Robotics Australia Group, but also provisioner of the AI²PA "The Rodney” for our New Year celebrations. This AI generated IPA was brewed by the Australian Institute of Machine Learning and Barossa Valley Brewing and is, of course, named after the iconic Australian, Rodney Brooks.
Top three trends in robotics and AI for 2024:
Humanoids are here! Commercially available, and at a lower price point than you’d think.
AI may be massively overhyped but there is a critical underlying battle for data access supremacy in the 4D world ruled by robotics. Robotics valuations will rise.
While there has been a lot of ‘correction’ happening in 2023 for high profile self-driving car startups (Cruise etc.), overall, self-driving cargo is a winning category.
If you’d like to see more rigorous predictions for robotics and AI, I recommend Rodney Brooks’ annual scorecard. The only things that could improve it would be more analysis of the timeline on self-driving (and self-flying) cargo, as opposed to transporting people.
Predictions Scorecard, 2024 January 01
[You can follow me on social media: @rodneyabrooks.bsky.social]
This is my sixth annual update on how my dated predictions from January 1st, 2018 concerning (1) self driving cars, (2) robotics, AI , and machine learning, and (3) human space travel, have held up. I promised then to review them at the start of the year every year until 2050 (right after my 95th birthday), thirty two years in total. The idea is to hold my self accountable for those predictions. How right or wrong was I?
The recent rapid progress in humanoid robots has taken us all a bit by surprise, primarily because we all imagined that they needed to be closer to human level in terms of dexterity or social interaction in order to be commercially viable. WRONG.
These are just 10 of the 26 humanoid robotics companies, I’m currently tracking, although these are some of the most commercially promising. Another update soon!
And if I don’t have a humanoid home robot by Xmas 2024, I will be very very disappointed.
Did you just switch to a paid subscription? Thank you! It makes you an angel investor in the work I do at Silicon Valley Robotics as a startup advisor, and accelerator.
If you are a robotics company, January is a great time to join Silicon Valley Robotics.
Robotics Events:
SVR 2024 Calendar in next newsletter!
20-21 Feb - IEEE Serious Open Source 2024 Mountain View CA
April 2024 - RoboGames and…. Robot Block Party (more news soon!)
Some more robotics conferences
TAHRI 2024 Boulder CO 9 Mar - 10 Mar (Technology Advances for HRI)
HRI 2024 Boulder CO 11 Mar - 14 Mar
Haptics 2024 Long Beach CA 7 Apr - 10 Apr
Robosoft 2024 San Diego CA 14 Apr - 17 Apr
ICRA 2024 Yokohama Japan 13 May - 17 May 2024
ARSO 2024 Hong Kong, China 20 May - 22 May 2024
AIM 2024 Boston MA 14 July - 18 July
CASE 2024 Puglia Italy 28 Aug - 1 Sep 2024
IROS 2024 AbuDhabi 14 Oct - 18 Oct 2024
Humanoids 2024 Nancy FR 26 Nov - 28 Nov
ICRA 2025 Atlanta Georgia 17 May - 23 May 2025