It used to be that you needed years and lots of specialist skills to build humanoid robots. Not anymore. Now base models are open-source. Want more complex appendages? Companies like Shadow Robot are making and selling those. Open-source AI is almost as good as closed-source industry leaders. Unitree’s new advanced humanoid...
I’m surprised more people aren’t aware of how rapidly robotics are currently developing. The same LLM AI that is capturing public attention with generative art and ChatGPT is equally revolutionizing robots.
Here’s an illustration of it. This is the closest I’ve seen yet of a mass-market-priced and extremely capable robot that could sell in tens of millions around the world. This looks close to the type of robot you could bring to many workplaces and get to do a wide range of unskilled work. How long before we see fast food places fully staffed by robots like these? At the current rate of development that seems only 2 or 3 years away.
My theory would be that some western people are very disquieted to see China take the lead in various technological fields. When I post in r/futurology on Reddit I constantly observe this in China related comments and discussion.
If advanced alien civilizations exist, then searching for them via their electromagnetic radiation techno-signatures seems an obvious route.
That said, I’ve never been very convinced by the idea of Dyson spheres. Surely if you were that technologically advanced you could think of cleverer ways to generate energy than building some cyberpunk structure that was bigger than a star.
There’s a strong push-back against AI regulation within some quarters. Predictably, the issue seems to have split along polarized political lines. With right-wing leaning people not favoring regulation. They see themselves as ‘Accelerationist’ and those with concerns about AI as ‘Doomers’.
Meanwhile the unaddressed problems mount. AI can already deceive us, even when we design it not to do so, and we don’t why.
I’m interested to see how this develops. If this is a base model other companies can freely acquire with no license costs or restrictions, then it might quickly expand the range of humanoid robots available.
I’m expecting China to take the lead in manufacturing “cheap” humanoid robots, and exporting them. There are demos of humanoid robots training themselves to do simple household tasks. How soon before you can buy a Humanoid Robot Maid in the shops?
Current LLM models tend to extract “best practice” responses a lot. They can statistically guess the correct responses to things, because it’s what experts cite the most. I wonder if that is what is behind this? As the authors of the research point out, the significance here is not the AI’s appearance of superior intelligence, it’s that it’s yet another example of how people may be influenced by AI.
I wonder how long it will be before we see people purposely create these so they can influence their descendants. There might be a future where people have “relationships” with a collection of long dead people.
The logical follow on from this is that EV owners should have cheaper car insurance. With far fewer moving parts they will also have much cheaper maintenance costs. Added to that EVs are cheaper to buy. China has reached the point where 50% of new car sales are EVs much quicker than anyone expected. Most people thought that was years away, but we’re already there. How soon before people start talking about a “death spiral” when it comes to gasoline cars?
Relevant Data
Per 1,000 vehicles of 3 year old cars
ICE 6.4
BEV 2.8
The ADAC even noted a growing lead for electric cars in recent years. The analysis was based on the more than 3.5 million call-outs made by ADAC breakdown services last year
Solar thermal propulsion is the idea of using solar energy to heat a propellant and using that energy for thrust. If it worked as hoped it could be very useful in LEO and beyond. Portal Space Systems, the start-up here, points out there are already plenty of use cases for it now moving satellites into different orbits. This idea has been around since the 1950s, and could even be described as low-tech (it could work with mirrors heating water), but the logistics and infrastructure to support it might not be so simple, or economically viable.
China already getting to 50%+1 for EV new car sales is way ahead of most predictions. Most people thought that was still a few years away, but it seems events are moving faster.
China is also exporting this speedy transition to other countries. Economics of scale are kicking in with EV manufacturers now, and the cars are getting cheaper and cheaper to make.
AI 'godfather' says universal basic income will be needed (www.bbc.co.uk)
Artificial intelligence hitting labour forces like a "tsunami" - IMF Chief (www.reuters.com)
There are almost 40 different humanoid robots in development, and open-source tech, and makers of specialist components, are making it easier than ever for other people to make them.
It used to be that you needed years and lots of specialist skills to build humanoid robots. Not anymore. Now base models are open-source. Want more complex appendages? Companies like Shadow Robot are making and selling those. Open-source AI is almost as good as closed-source industry leaders. Unitree’s new advanced humanoid...
Unitree's new G1 humanoid robot is priced at only $16,000, and looks like the type of humanoid robot that could sell in the tens of millions. (newatlas.com)
Astronomers are on the Hunt for Dyson Spheres (www.universetoday.com)
Many artificial intelligence (AI) systems have already learned how to deceive humans, even systems that have been trained to be helpful and honest. (techxplore.com)
A group of Chinese companies, including Xiaomi and UBTech, have launched an open-source humanoid robot. (newatlas.com)
When people rated moral reasoning responses to issues, and were unaware some were generated by AI, they rated the AI's as better than the humans. (www.nature.com)
China has a flourishing market for deepfakes that clone the dead. The same technologies are being used by Chinese people to make replicas of themselves, their children, and famous public figures. (www.technologyreview.com)
Researchers are making progress on producing cows from just stem cells, with no eggs or sperm involved. Some people are wondering if the same tech might one day work with humans. (www.technologyreview.com)
New German research shows EVs break down at less than half the rate of combustion engine cars. (www.adac.de)
Rooftop solar is being adopted so quickly in South Africa it has eliminated the country's previous problem with blackouts from its main electricity grid.
Further Info from Wietze Post, a South African renewables provider....
A new space start-up wants to try out a long talked about space tech - solar thermal propulsion (arstechnica.com)
Swiss researchers have developed a hair-thin sheet battery that can be charged in 1 minute, and they think can be scaled up to make batteries for phones and cars. (ethz.ch)
EV cars are likely to reach over 50% of new car sales in the world's largest car market in April 2024, marking another step in the extinction of the internal combustion engine. (carnewschina.com)