This video shows two Amazon warehouse robots, each carrying a package, getting into some kind of dance. It could also look like one is bullying the other by preventing it from escaping a difficult position. I guess we’ll never know the end of that story. Human intervention sounds definitely necessary.
Ladder robot
Human trapped in an AI loop
A brave tech worker trusted a robotaxi to drive them to the airport. The robotaxi got stuck in a loop on a parking lot, driving in circles, as you can see in the video below. This situation is both funny and scary and we can sense the stress and disbelief in the voice of this passenger.
I do have many questions:
- Why isn’t there some kind of emergency button you can smash in case of danger? All public transportation have that since before computers were invented.
- Why didn’t the passenger try to jump in the front seat and take control of the wheel? That must trigger some emergency mechanism also, I believe. Instead, they reached for their phone to call tech support and Tech support asked them to « open the app again and click on the bottom left icon». I do recognize that it needs some physical condition and guts to try this approach that maybe most people don’t have.
- Why do I have the feeling that this is going to be more and more common as we automate most of our basic services with AI? We already get in AI loops with robocalls and robosupport menus when we call a service because our credit card is blocked or the dishwasher does not connect to the Wifi anymore. It’s very obvious that it’s almost impossible to prevent these automated systems to drive humans in circles or jump off a cliff when «Sorry, the situation you’re experiencing right now does not exist ».
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mikejohns_lyft-uber-omg-activity-7271962168286191617-E7j4
Your emotional companion is being turned off forever
As predicted here 4 years ago, giving a VC-funded cloud-based animated robot as an emotional companion to your child is a risky move.
With VC funding drying out, the startup behind this “amazing” concept has to turn off the cloud computers needed to keep these teddy bears “alive”.
Since Embodied marketed Moxie as a companion and development toy for children, there’s concern about kids potentially suffering an emotional toll after the robot abruptly becomes inoperable.
I will not post here the viral video of a father announcing the news to his crying child. Why would you even film something like that?
Perturbations
Kicking bipedal robots is now called “perturbations” in the academic language of aggressive human robot interactions.
The cameraman falling down also made the cut. I guess it’s only fair to also show human missteps along robot missteps.
Don’t what now?
A humanoid robot named Unitree G1 is apparently being mass produced. And the manufacturer thought it was appropriate to add this warning in its video presentation:
*We kindly request that all users refrain from making any dangerous modifications or using the robot in a hazardous manner.
It’s probably the closest thing to a universal robotic device to interact with our anthropocentric world and you expect us not to do dangerous things with it?
I bet that’s probably the first thing we’ll do with it.
Human skinned robot
Researchers are exploring using livable human skin to cover a mechanical apparatus. Apparently, human skin has interesting properties for robots also.
To demonstrate this concept, they’ve recreated a human face.
“In this study, we managed to replicate human appearance to some extent by creating a face with the same surface material and structure as humans,” said Takeuchi. “Additionally, through this research, we identified new challenges, such as the necessity for surface wrinkles and a thicker epidermis to achieve a more humanlike appearance. […] Of course, movement is also a crucial factor, not just the material, so another important challenge is creating humanlike expressions by integrating sophisticated actuators, or muscles, inside the robot.
https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/press/z0508_00360.html
Dude, you’re going to have to do better than putting 2 googly eyes on a petri dish to call this a human face. But at least it seems you’re having fun.
Need a push?
Robots won’t steal our jobs, they’ll make us work for them.
(source)
Trusting robot soldiers
Some battle-hardened warriors treat remote-controlled devices like brave, loyal, intelligent pets, while others describe them as clumsy, stubborn clods. Either way, observers have interpreted these accounts as unsettling glimpses of a future in which men and women ascribe personalities to artificially intelligent war machines.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/military-robots
10 years is retirement age for androids
…or so it seems. Boston Dynamics retired Atlas, the android robot we all know for its terminator style back-flips and other “parkour” abilities in controlled environment.
The famous robocompany, once Google’s property until it was too toxic for the “no-evil” brand to keep, just released a video celebrating their ten years of product demos, with, you guessed it, lots of unseen bloopers.
Some are very gross with hydraulic body fluids pouring out of broken limbs or our Johnny Atlas here hitting itself in the bearing balls (like in the looping gif above originally extracted by TechCrunch). So, viewer discretion advised.
And bye Atlas, you amazed us as much as you scared us. I won’t say I’ll miss you.