Photo credit: Muntaka Chasant, reproduced under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
By Kaja Šeruga
Just outside the historic German town of Goslar, a sprawling industrial complex receives an endless stream of discarded electronics. On arrival, this electronic waste is laboriously prepared for recycling.
Electrocycling GmbH is one of the largest e-waste recycling facilities in Europe. Every year, it processes up to 80 000 tonnes of electronic waste, which comes in all shapes and forms.
Despite an impressive array of machinery, more than half of the site’s employees manually prepare the discarded items for recycling. They do this by sorting the incoming waste and removing batteries, which are a fire hazard and a major challenge in e-waste recycling.
“There are more and more devices, they are getting smaller, and they all contain lithium batteries, some of which are permanently installed, soldered or glued in place,” said Hannes Fröhlich, Electrocycling’s managing director.
“It’s not a dream job, dismantling these appliances every day with hammers and pliers. I think we can do better.”
Some of these tedious tasks could be performed by robots. However, the problem is that every time there is a change in the product or the process, the hardware and software need to be restructured. This can be costly and time-consuming.
To address this issue, an EU-funded research initiative named ReconCycle has managed to automate the process by creating robots that can reconfigure themselves for different tasks.
Researchers from Slovenia, Germany and Italy worked together on this issue at the Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia’s leading research facility, from 2020 to 2024.
The team developed adaptable AI-supported robots that are able to remove batteries from smoke detectors and radiator heat metres.
These two products can be found in most households and are replaced every five to eight years, creating large amounts of waste.
“The main challenge is that there are so many different versions of each device. Just think how many different remote controls there are,” said Dr Aleš Ude. He is head of the Department of Automatics, Biocybernetics and Robotics at the Jožef Stefan Institute and coordinates the ReconCycle research team.
In industrial settings, robots are usually programmed for one specific task, repeating exactly the same series of movements in a predictable environment.
Instead, the researchers set out to create a robot that can adapt to many different tasks, using state-of-the-art AI.
“We wanted to expand robotics, introduce robots where there aren’t any yet,” Ude said.
Working with Electrocycling, Ude’s international research team created an adaptable robotic work cell. This is a workspace that consists of at least one robot, its tools and equipment, and its controller.
The novelty here is that this closed system autonomously adapts itself to various tasks, with the help of complex AI-driven software and modular hardware that can be quickly reconfigured. It also uses soft components like SoftHand, a human-like hand that can manipulate objects with great precision.
There are also safety features like collaborative robots and emergency stop buttons.
International collaboration was crucial in securing the right expertise, said Ude.
“Robotics is very interdisciplinary, so it’s difficult to find the right partners in one country.”
Thankfully, the new robots are arriving just at the right time, as the amount of e-waste produced every year continues to grow. Almost 5 million tonnes of e-waste are produced in the EU each year, amounting to about 11 kilograms per person. Less than 40% of that is recycled, the European Parliament has warned.
Globally, around 62 million tonnes of e-waste were produced in 2022 alone, enough to fill 1.5 million 40-tonne trucks, according to UN data. Even more worryingly, the amount of e-waste is rising five times faster than the amount that is being recycled.
The EU is working to reduce e-waste through the Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive, which sets the standards for collection and recycling.
The work of Ude’s team is also aligned with the EU’s digital strategy, which encourages the use of AI in manufacturing to improve efficiency and help achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
E-waste also has serious economic implications. An estimated €84 billion is lost each year when valuable metals like copper, iron and gold are discarded instead of being reused, according to the UN’s global e-waste monitor.
At Electrocycling, 80% of the e-waste is recovered as raw materials, such as iron, zinc, gold, silver and palladium – some 35 materials in all.
“People need to understand that this is not just waste, but also raw materials that need to be recycled and kept in circulation, both for economic efficiency and a reduction of CO2,” said Fröhlich.
New technology can make it even more efficient, and Fröhlich sees a lot of potential in it.
“I was surprised by how far the technology and AI have already come,” he said. “They even recreated a human hand for the robot.”
Ude hopes to continue working with Electrocycling to improve e-waste solutions further. The hope is also that adaptable robots which can handle changing environments will have applications far beyond e-waste recycling.
Given more time and development, these robots could even handle general housekeeping, or support carers in senior homes, said Ude.
“Robotics could be of great help in such areas.”
This article was originally published in Horizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine.
While ChatGPT-4o – the default AI engine for writing, research and similar work – remains formidable, some problems are cropping up with experimental models.
Specifically, ChatGPT-o3, ChatGPT-o4 mini and ChatGPT-o4 mini high – which use advanced reasoning – ‘make-up-facts’ more often when responding to questions from users.
Bottom line: If you want to be sure ChatGPT sticks-to-the-facts when auto-writing your emails and other text, there’s a prompt you can use that eliminates such hallucinations.
For the prompt, simply check-out the free sample read of “Auto Writing World-Class Emails With ChatGPT,” by Joe Dysart, available on Amazon.
Once you’re on the Amazon book page, click the free sample read button, scroll to Chapter 6 and grab the free prompt there that deep-sixes hallucinations.
In other news and analysis on AI writing:
*Mark Zuckerberg Releases ChatGPT-Competitor: Facebook inventor Mark Zuckerberg has released a direct competitor to ChatGPT, dubbed ‘Meta AI.’
While Zuckerberg – CEO of Facebook parent company Meta – has already infused many of his company’s apps with artificial intelligence, this is the first time he’s going in a head-to-head competition against today’s major chatbot competitors with a stand-alone AI chatbot.
Designed with the look and feel of ChatGPT, Meta AI “enables users to have natural, back-and-forth voice conversations with AI, edit and generate images — and discover new use cases through a curated Discover feed featuring prompts and ideas shared by the community,” according to writer Carl Franzen.
*ChatGPT: Matching the Right AI Engine for Your Task: ChatGPT runs on a number of different AI engines these days – each optimized for specific tasks.
Here’s the breakdown:
–Everyday writing: ChatGPT-4o is the go-to alternative for everyday writing tasks and heavily tried, true and tested.
–Advanced Creative Writing: ChatGPT-4.5 is billed as an advanced creative writing tool – especially for users looking for AI with advanced emotional intelligence. The only downside: If you’re on ChatGPT Plus, you can only send 20 messages to ChatGPT-4.5 each month.
–Advanced Reasoning: ChatGPT-3o, ChatGPT-o4 mini and ChatGPT-o4 mini high
*Google Rolls-Out AI for the ’Under-13’ Crowd: In a controversial move, Google is allowing kids to access its Gemini Chatbot under their parent-managed Google accounts.
Observes writer Natasha Singer: “Google acknowledged some risks in its email to families this week, alerting parents that Gemini can make mistakes and suggesting they help your child think critically about the chatbot.”
You mean help your five-year-old think critically about what an AI chatbot – which can be interacted with via voice conversation – says to your five-year-old when you might not be around?
Sure. That’ll work.
*ChatGPT-Maker Pitches Itself as the Solution for Democracies: In another sign that much of the free world may run on its own version of AI, ChatGPT’s maker OpenAI is marketing itself as the solution for democracies.
Observes an OpenAI blog post: “This is a moment when we need to act to support countries around the world that would prefer to build on democratic AI rails, and provide a clear alternative to authoritarian versions of AI that would deploy it to consolidate power.”
*Study: AI Writer/Editor Grammarly Boosts Productivity: Grammarly is out with a new study revealing that customers using its AI tools experience a 17% boost in productivity.
The reason: Customer service agents that used Grammarly in their writing interactions with customers found that their writing was clearer, more mistake-free, sounded more on brand – and was easier to finish, according to writer Esther Shittu.
Grammarly was able to prove the new efficiencies by putting its AI writer/editor to an A/B test at companies, in which half of employees in the test had access to Grammarly — while the other half did not.
*Top AI Writing Tools for Students: The Houston Press has come up with its list of preferred tools for student writing.
Along with general-use tools like Grammarly and Rytr, Houston Press also likes the following for academic-focused writing:
–StudyPro: All-in-one academic platform specializing in research, writing, and editing
–Paperpal: Good for research-based academic writing and journal formatting
–Samwell.ai: Good for guided essay planning and structured development
–Quarkle.ai: Good for idea brainstorming and fast topic exploration
*AI News Summarizer Promises to Bring Readers to News Outlets: Particle, a new Web app that offers AI-powered summaries of breaking news, is promising to bring readers to the news outlets that are the sources of those summaries.
Observes writer Sarah Perez: Particle “highlights the news outlets covering a story by sharing links to their stories directly alongside its AI summaries.
“In early tests on mobile, the company found that readers were clicking through to the publishers’ sites via these links, leading Particle to begin partnering with specific publishers like Reuters, Fortune, and the AFP to display their links more prominently.”
*Many Journalists Remain Fearful of AI: Years after being cast as an ‘AI collaboration buddy,’ AI-automated writing and similar apps available with AI still leave many journalists fearing for their jobs.
Specifically, a new study finds that 57.2% of journalists believe AI could displace even more jobs in coming years.
Even so, the study revealed a silver lining: “Approximately 50% believe that AI could create new roles within journalism, particularly in managing and overseeing AI tools,” according to writer Chris Price.
*AI Big Picture: People Are Falling in Love With AI Companions: In a world often starved for intimacy, AI companions are stepping up as solutions – often with unintended consequences.
This riveting video from “60 Minutes Australia” finds that growing numbers of people are coupling with AI, insisting that their AI companions are more trustworthy than many humans.
There’s also a darkside to the trend: One male teenager committed suicide in an attempt to be closer to his “AI lover.”
Share a Link: Please consider sharing a link to https://RobotWritersAI.com from your blog, social media post, publication or emails. More links leading to RobotWritersAI.com helps everyone interested in AI-generated writing.
–Joe Dysart is editor of RobotWritersAI.com and a tech journalist with 20+ years experience. His work has appeared in 150+ publications, including The New York Times and the Financial Times of London.
The post ChatGPT’s Workhorse AI Engine Still Solid Choice appeared first on Robot Writers AI.
Claire chatted to Emma Hart from Edinburgh Napier University about algorithms that ‘evolve’ better robot designs and control systems.
Emma Hart is a computer scientist working in the field of evolutionary computation. Her work takes inspiration from the natural world, in particular biological evolution, and uses this to develop algorithms that ‘evolve’ both the design and control systems of a robot, customised to a specific application. She was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2022, and was awarded the ACM SIGEVO Award for Outstanding Contribution to Evolutionary Computation in 2023. She was invited to give a TED Talk on her work in 2021 that has over 1.8 million views.
You’re expected to support next-gen AI on infrastructure that was never designed for it.
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Nutanix: Build a scalable, secure foundation
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For IT leaders in regulated industries, AI success often means tough trade-offs: speed vs. control, innovation vs. compliance, usability vs. security, budget overruns vs. mission outcomes.
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