AI & Robotics News and Discussions

[Powers]

Tesla is hiring a bunch of designers so it can start selling humanoid robots by 2027

Jyoti Mann Nov 7, 2023, 12:34 PM GMT

Elon Musk has high aspirations for Tesla's humanoid robot, Optimus.

The Tesla CEO said at its annual AI Day last year that it could be ready to take orders in three to five years, per Reuters, and that it's "expected to cost much less than a car," and "probably less than $20,000."

It seems that the billionaire is hiring more people to work on the project and make his vision a reality. Tesla's careers page shows there are more than 50 jobs advertised that have "Tesla Bot," also known as Optimus, in the job title, as EV news site Electrek reported.

Some of the roles listed, which are to be based in Palo Alto, California, include "Humanoid Controls Engineer, Tesla Bot," "Systems Design & Integration Engineer, Tesla Bot," and various other Tesla Bot engineers.

Musk said in May that the "Optimus Team is making excellent progress" in an X post. Tesla then posted a progress update of Optimus in a YouTube video last month with accompanying text saying it's "now capable of self-calibrating its arms and legs."

https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-mu ... rs-2023-11

Will they succeed in making the first personal robots? I guess it's a matter of waiting.

[Vakanai]

China always worries me - it's an Orwellian-styled authoritarian state, and while most of these robots will be used only for industrial and commercial purposes, there's still inevitably going to be many instances where these robots will be used to police thoughts and actions and curb rights. This is a certainty with a country like China.

[wjfox]

Amazon Developing ‘Olympus’ AI to Narrow Gap with Microsoft, OpenAI

1 day ago · Source: The Information

Amazon is developing new conversational AI software as it seeks to catch up to OpenAI and Microsoft in selling such software to corporate customers, according to a person with direct knowledge. Amazon’s new large language model, codenamed Olympus, may also power new features in its online retail store, Alexa voice assistant on devices such as the Echo, and its Amazon Web Services unit.

https://www.theinformation.com/briefing ... oft-openai

[Cyber_Rebel]

From Bill Gates's blog, discussing the near future of AI Agents:

AI is about to completely change how you use computers
And upend the software industry.
By Bill Gates| November 09, 2023



(gatesnotes)

I still love software as much today as I did when Paul Allen and I started Microsoft. But—even though it has improved a lot in the decades since then—in many ways, software is still pretty dumb.

To do any task on a computer, you have to tell your device which app to use. You can use Microsoft Word and Google Docs to draft a business proposal, but they can’t help you send an email, share a selfie, analyze data, schedule a party, or buy movie tickets. And even the best sites have an incomplete understanding of your work, personal life, interests, and relationships and a limited ability to use this information to do things for you. That’s the kind of thing that is only possible today with another human being, like a close friend or personal assistant.

In the next five years, this will change completely. You won’t have to use different apps for different tasks. You’ll simply tell your device, in everyday language, what you want to do. And depending on how much information you choose to share with it, the software will be able to respond personally because it will have a rich understanding of your life. In the near future, anyone who’s online will be able to have a personal assistant powered by artificial intelligence that’s far beyond today’s technology.

This type of software—something that responds to natural language and can accomplish many different tasks based on its knowledge of the user—is called an agent. I’ve been thinking about agents for nearly 30 years and wrote about them in my 1995 book The Road Ahead, but they’ve only recently become practical because of advances in AI.

Agents are not only going to change how everyone interacts with computers. They’re also going to upend the software industry, bringing about the biggest revolution in computing since we went from typing commands to tapping on icons.

[wjfox]

The World Is Running Out of Data to Feed AI, Experts Warn

11 November 2023

As artificial intelligence (AI) reaches the peak of its popularity, researchers have warned the industry might be running out of training data – the fuel that runs powerful AI systems.

This could slow down the growth of AI models, especially large language models, and may even alter the trajectory of the AI revolution.

But why is a potential lack of data an issue, considering how much there are on the web? And is there a way to address the risk?

[...]

In a paper published last year, a group of researchers predicted we will run out of high-quality text data before 2026 if the current AI training trends continue. They also estimated low-quality language data will be exhausted sometime between 2030 and 2050, and low-quality image data between 2030 and 2060.

[...]

While the above points might alarm some AI fans, the situation may not be as bad as it seems. There are many unknowns about how AI models will develop in the future, as well as a few ways to address the risk of data shortages.

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-world- ... perts-warn

[caltrek]

The World Is Running Out of Data to Feed AI, Experts Warn

11 November 2023

As artificial intelligence (AI) reaches the peak of its popularity, researchers have warned the industry might be running out of training data – the fuel that runs powerful AI systems.

This could slow down the growth of AI models, especially large language models, and may even alter the trajectory of the AI revolution.

But why is a potential lack of data an issue, considering how much there are on the web? And is there a way to address the risk?

[...]

In a paper published last year, a group of researchers predicted we will run out of high-quality text data before 2026 if the current AI training trends continue. They also estimated low-quality language data will be exhausted sometime between 2030 and 2050, and low-quality image data between 2030 and 2060.

[...]

While the above points might alarm some AI fans, the situation may not be as bad as it seems. There are many unknowns about how AI models will develop in the future, as well as a few ways to address the risk of data shortages.

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-world- ... perts-warn

If you read the full article it sounds like the problem might not be so much that of "running out of data" but of "running out of free data." Meaning that the AI developers may need to start paying for some of the data that they use rather than simply scrape it free off the internet. A problem I can appreciate due to my own efforts to bring "free" information to this forum.

[wjfox]

Amazon now using AI in customer reviews –

[weatheriscool]

DeepMind tool makes 10-day weather forecast in 60 seconds
https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-dee ... conds.html
by Peter Grad , Tech Xplore

Google DeepMind researchers this week unveiled a highly accurate AI-based weather prediction model they say marks "a turning point in weather forecasting."

In an article published in Science, Remi Lam, a staff research scientist at DeepMind, said their program is faster and more accurate than current forecasting methods and can precisely pinpoint characteristics such as air pressure, temperature, humidity and wind up to 10 days in advance.

The model, GraphCast, "significantly outperforms the most accurate operational deterministic systems on 90% of 1,380 verification targets," Lam said.

The basis of weather forecasting for decades has relied on NWP (Numerical Weather Prediction) formulas, complex physics-based equations covering massive numbers of variables.

[wjfox]

Researchers train AI to produce solar cells from perovskite in record time

NOVEMBER 15, 2023

Researchers in Australia have harnessed AI to produce solar cells from the mineral perovskite in just a matter of weeks, bypassing years of human labor and human error to optimize the cells.

Study lead author Dr. Nastaran Meftahi, from RMIT University's School of Science, said teams of researchers worldwide were racing to make perovskite cells, which were cheaper than silicon, and thanks to recent advances, now stable enough for long-term commercial use.

"Until now, the process of creating perovskite cells has been more like alchemy than science. Record efficiencies have been reached, but positive results are notoriously difficult to reproduce," she said. "What we have achieved is the development of a method for rapidly and reproducibly making and testing new solar cells, where each generation learns from and improves upon the previous."

[...]

"Critically, our machine learning model represents the starting point for further optimization, both in terms of power-conversion efficiency and stability," Meftahi added.

Surmiak's team designed and characterized 16 new solar cells never seen before using his novel setup, and Meftahi used these cells to predict the properties of 256 new solar cell recipes.

https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-ai- ... skite.html



Dr Adam Surmiak working with automatic device characterization equipment at Monash University. Credit: ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science

[weatheriscool]

YouTube Will Require Creators to Disclose AI-Generated Content
The disclosures will appear at the bottom of videos and Shorts that include 'altered or synthetic content.'
By Adrianna Nine November 17, 2023
https://www.extremetech.com/internet/yo ... ed-content

To stifle misinformation, YouTube is introducing new disclosure mandates for creators who publish AI-generated content. The video-sharing website announced Tuesday that it will soon roll out labels and other updates identifying “synthetic” or “realistic altered” content. According to the announcement, the hope is that fewer users will be misled by videos created with emerging technologies.

[wjfox]

This book is finally happening.

[firestar464]

Orca 2: Teaching Small Language Models How to Reason

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/researc ... to-reason/

[firestar464]

https://techxplore.com/news/2023-11-con ... gence.html

What IS AGI?

[weatheriscool]

[caltrek]

U.S., UK, and Allies Forge Pact to Safeguard AI Security
November 28, 2023

Introduction:

(Inc Arabia Team via MSN) The US, the UK, and a coalition comprising more than a dozen nations have unveiled a groundbreaking agreement to protect artificial intelligence (AI) from potential misuse, as reported by Reuters.

The pact underscores the crucial need for companies to prioritize the security of AI systems, advocating for the adoption of a "secure by design" approach.

Despite being non-binding, the agreement, outlined in a comprehensive 20-page document, provides key recommendations to steer companies toward the responsible development and deployment of AI.

The 18 participating countries unanimously agreed on the necessity for designing and utilizing AI systems in a manner that ensures the safety of customers and the wider public, with a specific focus on guarding against potential misuse.

Jen Easterly, the director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, remarked on the groundbreaking nature of the affirmation, stating, "This is the first time that we have seen an affirmation that these capabilities should not just be about cool features and how quickly we can get them to market or how we can compete to drive down costs."

Read more here: https://www.msn.com/en-ae/news/other/u ... A1kE3KM

[firestar464]

Report: Stability AI Positioning Itself for Acquisition

https://www.pymnts.com/acquisitions/202 ... quisition/

[Powers]

Report: Stability AI Positioning Itself for Acquisition

https://www.pymnts.com/acquisitions/202 ... quisition/

That's very bad news.

[weatheriscool]

A color-based sensor to emulate skin's sensitivity for wearables and soft robotics

https://techxplore.com/news/2023-12-col ... ivity.html
In a step toward more autonomous soft robots and wearable technologies, EPFL researchers have created a device that uses color to simultaneously sense multiple mechanical and temperature stimuli.

Robotics researchers have already made great strides in developing sensors that can perceive changes in position, pressure, and temperature—all of which are important for technologies like wearable devices and human-robot interfaces. But a hallmark of human perception is the ability to sense multiple stimuli at once, and this is something that robotics has struggled to achieve.

Now, Jamie Paik and colleagues in the Reconfigurable Robotics Lab (RRL) in EPFL's School of Engineering have developed a sensor that can perceive combinations of bending, stretching, compression, and temperature changes, all using a robust system that boils down to a simple concept: color.

Dubbed ChromoSense, the RRL's technology relies on a translucent rubber cylinder containing three sections dyed red, green, and blue. An LED at the top of the device sends light through its core, and changes in the light's path through the colors as the device is bent or stretched are picked up by a miniaturized spectral meter at the bottom.

[firestar464]

AI researchers introduce GAIA: A benchmark testing tool for general AI assistants

https://techxplore.com/news/2023-12-ai- ... neral.html

[firestar464]

Trick prompts ChatGPT to leak private data

https://techxplore.com/news/2023-12-pro ... ivate.html