AI & Robotics News and Discussions

[wjfox]

[firestar464]

[firestar464]

[firestar464]

[weatheriscool]

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

Investors eye farming as AI’s latest cash cow

Monday 23 March 2026 4:01 pm

A startup fitting livestock with AI-powered collars is closing in on a $2bn valuation, as investors turn their attention to a less obvious frontier for AI.

New Zealand-based Halter is in talks to raise fresh funding led by Founders Fund, the Silicon Valley firm backed by Peter Thiel.

The round is understood to be heavily oversubscribed, pointing to renewed appetite for technology that promises tangible gains in traditional industries. Halter’s system allows farmers to manage herds remotely.

Each animal wears a solar-powered collar linked to a mobile app, providing real-time data on location and health indicators such as fertility and digestion.

The collars also emit sound and vibration signals, enabling farmers to guide livestock without physical intervention.

https://www.cityam.com/investors-eye-fa ... -cash-cow/

[wjfox]

[firestar464]

Neuro-symbolic AI could slash energy use while dramatically improving performance

https://techxplore.com/news/2026-03-neu ... nergy.html

[Yuli Ban]

I really hate this line of thinking. If we just sat down and accepted that goalposts shouldn't be moved, we'd still be amazed and dealing with 1950s checkers-playing programs.
The fact that we have all these sorts of tools but don't yet have proper AGI is the entire point. The fact you can get a model to code a website or create realistic videos but it still fails catastrophically in a dumb area and can't generalize is the entire reason to move goalposts.

What was impressive 5 years ago no longer is for that reason.

[firestar464]

There's a vast difference between what you're thinking (we aren't at AGI yet) and what OP is ranting about (the absurd belief that AI has peaked and will never amount to anything)

ai: *improves*
people: "but it will never do <thing>
ai: *does thing*
people: "but it does thing poorly"
ai: *improves dramatically at thing*
people: "but it will never truly do thing"
OP: *facepalm*

[firestar464]

Study finds AI privacy leaks hinge on a few high-impact neural network weights

https://techxplore.com/news/2026-03-ai- ... -high.html

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

Same mindset that elects people that defund science, defund medical research and justify allowing disease to spread unchecked at a time where we have vaccines to stop them. These people can't be reasoned with and just can't handle the reality that tech advances and it is typically for the better.

These people see everything in you work or you aint worthy. Well, in a world of robotics and a.i that becomes illogical.

[firestar464]

I mean, it's all reactionary thinking, but it's worth noting that once again, these aren't the same camp.

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

A robotic hand without motors? How a sub-second shape-shifting actuator could work

https://techxplore.com/news/2026-03-rob ... uator.html

[firestar464]

Asking AI to act like an expert can make it less reliable

https://techxplore.com/news/2026-03-ai- ... iable.html

[firestar464]

AI system learns to prevent warehouse robot traffic jams, boosting throughput 25%

https://techxplore.com/news/2026-03-ai- ... sting.html

[weatheriscool]