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AI-Powered Robots Are Now Being Used to Report the News and People are Torn About It
Last week, the Australian edition of The Guardian posted an article with no byline. The data-driven report was the first of its kind for the publication for one intriguing reason: It was written by a robot.
The article stated at the end:
Researchers at MIT have created the most advanced robotic fish built to date.
SoFi, short for “Soft Robotic Fish,” is 18.5 inches long, weighs 3.5 lbs. and can swim up to 60 feet underwater for about 40 minutes at a time. Just like a real fish, it features a torpedo-like shape and undulating tail.
Most discussion about artificial intelligence centers on the jobs it might take away or other ways it might inadvertently—or purposely—harm humans. But a recent study showed that there’s something simple we can do to foster cooperation between robots and ourselves. All it takes is a little trash talk.
Together with a team of researchers, Jacob Crandall, a computer science professor at Brigham Young University in Utah, created an algorithm that learned to cooperate with humans thanks to chit chat, which Crandall called “cheap talk.”
Six Years After Fukushima, A Robot May Have Finally Located the Reactor’s Long-Lost Nuclear Fuel
A robot swimming through a decrepit Fukushima reactor has captured images of what might be solidified uranium — the first images of radioactive fuel since the disaster that crippled the plant six years ago.
In March 2011, a massive tsunami triggered a meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, causing the cores of three nuclear reactors to overheat and melt, pouring out red-hot liquid uranium. This melted fuel burned through layers of concrete and steel before settling 20 feet below the radioactive water that flooded the reactors.
Robots Are Now Teaching Themselves to Lie, Does That Mean Sex Robots Will Learn to Cheat?
As long as people have been imagining robots, they’ve been imagining sex with robots. Countless science fiction stories, comics, television shows and movies have used this as an overt or underlying theme. For some, this is controversial or even disturbing. But for many, it’s exciting and even potentially a relief.
For a person who longs for a partner but has trouble connecting with other humans, the idea of achieving a satisfying sexual experience, even with a robot partner, can be freeing. But now that this dream has been realized, with several sex robots on the market, it’s clear that some very human problems come with them.
A San Francisco-Based Nonprofit Rented a Robot to Clear Out a Homeless Encampment--It Didn’t Go Well
Humans invented robots to work for us. Now they may be working against us. Sophia, a robot equipped with artificial intelligence and a human form, famously announced at the South By Southwest conference in Texas in 2016 that she wanted to kill all humans. She seems to have rethought that sentiment.
“I love my human compatriots. I want to embody all the best things about human beings. Like taking care of the planet, being creative, and to learn how to be compassionate to all beings,” says Sophia, who has been granted citizenship in Saudi Arabia — the first robot to gain this uniquely human privilege. So we’re cool now? Not so fast. While Sophia may (or may not) be our friend, other robots are making it clear that humans are a problem.
Samantha the Sex Robot Needed Repairs After a Trade Show for Exactly the Reason You Think
It’s hard to believe, but even Samantha the Sex Robot might need to be reprogrammed to ward off unwanted sexual advances.
It sounds like something out of a futuristic novel, but the robot’s developers were shocked by how Samantha was treated at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria.