Oh Great, They Put ChatGPT into a Boston Dynamics Robot Dog

“IT HAS AI NOW.”

As if robotic dogs weren’t creepy enough.

A team of programmers just equipped a Boston Dynamics robot dog with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Text-to-Speech voice modulation, allowing it to literally speak to them and answer their questions. Read More

#robotics

Google goes beyond ChatGPT and shocks the world

The new age of robots is upon us

It turns out, one of the most-coveted questions in AI has recently been answered.

Imagine an AI tool that is capable of playing hundreds of video games at a supreme level. And I’m not referring to a robot trained to be great at chess, or at checkers, or League of Legends.

I’m talking about a robot that’s amazing at all of them. Read More

#reinforcement-learning, #robotics

ChatGPT for Robotics: Design Principles and Model Abilities

This paper presents an experimental study regarding the use of OpenAI’s ChatGPT [1] for robotics applications. We outline a strategy that combines design principles for prompt engineering and the creation of a high-level function library which allows ChatGPT to adapt to different robotics tasks, simulators, and form factors. We focus our evaluations on the effectiveness of different prompt engineering techniques and dialog strategies towards the execution of various types of robotics tasks. We explore ChatGPT’s ability to use free-form dialog, parse XML tags, and to synthesize code, in addition to the use of task-specific prompting functions and closed-loop reasoning through dialogues. Our study encompasses a range of tasks within the robotics domain, from basic logical, geometrical, and mathematical reasoning all the way to complex domains such as aerial navigation, manipulation, and embodied agents. We show that ChatGPT can be effective at solving several of such tasks, while allowing users to interact with it primarily via natural language instructions. In addition to these studies, we introduce an open-sourced research tool called PromptCraft, which contains a platform where researchers can collaboratively upload and vote on examples of good prompting schemes for robotics applications, as well as a sample robotics simulator with ChatGPT integration, making it easier for users to get started with using ChatGPT for robotics. Read More

#chatbots, #robotics

NASA Turns to AI to Design Mission Hardware

Spacecraft and mission hardware designed by an artificial intelligence may resemble bones left by some alien species, but they weigh less, tolerate higher structural loads, and require a fraction of the time parts designed by humans take to develop.

“They look somewhat alien and weird,” Research Engineer Ryan McClelland said, “but once you see them in function, it really makes sense.”

McClelland pioneered the design of specialized, one-off parts using commercially available AI software at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, producing hardware he has dubbed evolved structures. Read More

#robotics

Stunning AI Robot Shows How It Will Replace Humans

Read More

#robotics, #videos

When May a Robot Kill? New DOD Policy Tries to Clarify

An updated policy tweaks wording in a bid to dispel confusion.

Did you think the Pentagon had a hard rule against using lethal autonomous weapons? It doesn’t. But it does have hoops to jump through before such a weapon might be deployed—and, as of Wednesday, a revised policy intended to clear up confusion.

The biggest change in the Defense Department’s new version of its 2012 doctrine on lethal autonomous weapons is a clearer statement that it is possible to build and deploy them safely and ethically but not without a lot of oversight Read More

#dod, #robotics

Machine Learning AI Has Beat Chess, but Now It’s Close to Beating Physics-Based Sports Games as Well

A machine learning-based AI called Nexto is so supremely good at Rocket League even top tier players are having trouble in online matches.

Artificial intelligence has already beaten chess. Hell, the most sophisticated AI systems have a very good chance against top players in the incredibly complicated game of Go.

But, in the uber-complicated car-based soccer game of Rocket League, can an AI do a boosted 360 aerial bicycle kick power shot from the midline? Can it pinch a ball off the side ramp so precisely it sails into the goal at 90 MPH? No, at least not yet, but AI can apparently dribble like a madman. It can fake out legitimately skilled players and score goals by flicking the ball off the hood and into the net. Read More

#robotics, #vfx

Krispy Kreme CEO: Robots will start frosting and filling doughnuts ‘within the next 18 months’

Krispy Kreme (DNUT) is aiming to cut time in its doughnut production line through automation.

“Probably within the next 18 months, you’ll see some automation starting to go into the frosting, the filling, the sprinkles, and even the packaging,” Krispy Kreme CEO Mike Tattersfield told Yahoo Finance.

… The addition of robots is part of an effort to maximize the fresh hub and spoke model opportunity in the United States, and increase points of access to deliver-fresh-daily (DFD) to grocery stories, convenience stores, quick-serve restaurants, and other locations. With this model, customers can get full-sized doughnuts produced that day, locally, without going to a Krispy Kreme location. Read More

#robotics

San Francisco police can now use robots to kill

The killer robot discussion is no longer strictly the domain of ‘RoboCop’

Last week, we talked about killer robots. That piece was inspired by a proposal that would allow San Francisco police to use robots for killing “when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force option available to SFPD.” Last night, that proposal passed the city’s board of supervisors with an 8-3 vote.

he language was included in a new “Law Enforcement Equipment Policy” filed by the San Francisco Police Department in response to California Assembly Bill 481, which requires a written inventory of the military equipment utilized by law enforcement. The document submitted to the board of supervisors includes — among other things — the Lenco BearCat armored vehicle, flash-bang grenades and 15 submachine guns. Read More

#robotics

Google and Renault are creating a ‘software-defined vehicle’

The new vehicle will feature the best of Google’s Cloud technology with Renault’s car expertise

In 2018, Google partnered with Renault Group to bring Android-powered infotainment systems to cars. The two companies are now building on this partnership to design and deliver the digital architecture for a more complex concept, a “software-defined vehicle” (SDV). 

This partnership has a twofold goal of creating both in-vehicle software and cloud software to enable the SDV platform and a Digital Twin, according to the release. Read More

#robotics