When Robots Have Their ChatGPT Moment, Remember These Pincers

Food handling is an area of ​​work that still relies heavily on humans. Fruits, vegetables, meat, and other foods need to be handled quickly but gently. It is also hard to automate because no two pieces of fruit, vegetables, or chicken nuggets look exactly the same. Eka’s demos suggest that the company may be onto … Read more

Ace the Ping-Pong Robot Can Whup Your Ass

Ace is a robot that aims high: It wants to become the world champion of table tennis. It was developed by Sony AI researchers who, in a new study published in Nature, have shown how this robot, equipped with artificial intelligence, has faced some high-level athletes, holding its own in matches played according to the … Read more

A Humanoid Robot Set a Half-Marathon Record in China

over the weekend in China, a humanoid robot shattered the world half-marathon record—the human record—by seven minutes. The star performer was a robot developed by the Chinese company Honor (the smartphone maker), which finished the 13.1-mile race in 50 minutes, 26 seconds. The human record, set by Ugandan Olympic medalist Jacob Kiplimo, is 57 minutes, … Read more

You Can Soon Buy a $4,370 Humanoid Robot on AliExpress

Listing consumer electronics on the internet’s large ecommerce marketplaces is a key step in “democratizing” the products, allowing them to be purchased by anyone with just a click. It has happened to cars (in the United States, you can buy a Hyundai on Amazon), and now it’s happening to humanoid robots. The Chinese manufacturer Unitree … Read more

I Tried DoorDash’s Tasks App and Saw the Bleak Future of AI Gig Work

The flash from my iPhone camera illuminates my dirty socks and underwear as I hold each item up for the video recording to capture clearly. As I load my smelly clothes into the washer, I tremble a bit each time the phone beeps loudly, detecting that my hands may be out of frame. Gotta see … Read more