March 28, 2024

Web and Technology News

Human toddlers are inspiring new approaches to robot learning

It’s an exciting time for robotic learning. Organizations have spent decades building complex datasets and pioneering different ways to teach systems to perform new tasks. It seems we’re on the cusp of some real breakthroughs when it comes to deploying technology that can adapt and learn on the fly. The past year, we’ve seen a […]

Robots learn to perform chores by watching YouTube

Learning has been a holy grail in robotics for decades. If these systems are going to thrive in unpredictable environments, they’ll need to do more than just respond to programming — they’ll need to adapt and learn. What’s become clear the more I read and speak with experts is true robotic learning will require a […]

Robots learn to perform chores by watching YouTube by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch

Pieter Abbeel and Ken Goldberg on generative AI applications

I’ll admit that I’ve tiptoed around the topic a bit in Actuator due to its sudden popularity (SEO gods be damned). I’ve been in this business long enough to instantly be suspicious of hype cycles. That said, I totally get it this time around. While it’s true that various forms of machine learning and AI […]

Pieter Abbeel and Ken Goldberg on generative AI applications by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch

CMU taught a robot dog to walk a balance beam

While discussing humanoid robots not long ago, someone told me their main issue with the form factor is that — from an evolutionary standpoint — we’re not built particularly well. That’s not to say that our bodies haven’t served us well, of course. They’ve done the trick for a few hundred thousand years. It’s more […]

CMU taught a robot dog to walk a balance beam by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch

Hype machines

The age-old question in my industry is, “Where are we in a given hype cycle?” For now, crypto news cycle dominance has, thankfully, died now, largely through its own self-destructive tendencies. FTX obviously served as the most prominent recent example of what happens when the tech community believes its own hype. You so badly wish […]

Hype machines by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch

FRIDA’s robot arm attempts to bring DALL-E-style AI art to real-world canvases

One could make a very reasonable argument that FRIDA (Framework and Robotics Initiative for Developing Arts) is as much a thought experiment as it is a research project. Certainly it butts up against similar questions around art and creativity as AI projects like DALL-E and ChatGPT — though the question is arguably even more in […]

FRIDA’s robot arm attempts to bring DALL-E-style AI art to real-world canvases by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch

Announcing the full agenda for TC Sessions: Robotics happening this July

We’re extremely excited we can finally unveil the agenda for this year’s TC Sessions: Robotics happening 100% online on July 21. It’s a tremendous labor of love for our team, and something we’ve been thinking about since the last time we held the show, way back in early March 2020. It’s difficult to put into […]

Putting the autonomous cart before the robotic horse

I’m writing this fresh off hosting TechCrunch Live this week with Jonathan Hurst of Agility Robotics and Bruce Leak of Playground Global. I’ll be posting more about the session later this week, but in the meantime, it’s got me thinking about carts, horses and the inherent ordering system therein. Specifically, how important is it that […]

Putting the autonomous cart before the robotic horse

I’m writing this fresh off hosting TechCrunch Live this week with Jonathan Hurst of Agility Robotics and Bruce Leak of Playground Global. I’ll be posting more about the session later this week, but in the meantime, it’s got me thinking about carts, horses and the inherent ordering system therein. Specifically, how important is it that […]