Like humans, artificial minds can ‘learn by thinking’
Empowering YouTube creators with generative AI
Empowering YouTube creators with generative AI
CHIPOTLE DEBUTS AUTOCADO AND THE AUGMENTED MAKELINE BY HYPHEN IN RESTAURANTS
Interview with Jerry Tan: Service robot development for education
At the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) 2023, I had the opportunity to interview Jerry Tan from Lattel Robotics, a company dedicated to promoting AI-focused robotics education and training. They work closely with the RoboCup@Home Education initiative, supporting schools and institutions in introducing AI and service robot development to students. Their goal is to equip learners with practical AI application skills in computer vision, autonomous navigation, object manipulation and speech interactions.
Through their AI robotics and AI applications workshops, Lattel Robotics offers an introduction to robot operating system (ROS)-based AI applications development in service robotics. As a hardware partner for the RoboCup@Home Education initiative, they assist schools and institutions in competing in AI robotic challenges by developing applications that address real-world problems. Their AI learning solutions include setting up AI laboratories, designing curriculums and developing courseware.
Andrea: Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Could you please tell me more about who can benefit from the Jupiter2 platform, and what exactly it is designed to do?
Jerry: Just about anyone can use it with a programming background to get started to develop their own AI applications via service robot development, using open source software.
Andrea: What kind of sensors do your robots use? Just microphones and cameras, or is there more?
Jerry: Yes, so we use a range of sensors, including RGB-D cameras and LIDAR sensors for depth perception. Besides, we have microphones and speakers for speech interaction, along with robotic arms for object manipulation and mobile platforms for navigation.
Andrea: So, I have a little question about this. Do you have an API (Application Programming Interface) that students and researchers can work through?
Jerry: It’s not always necessary, as the robot is equipped with its own laptop, acting as a central processing unit. Getting started is easier, as we have integrated the hardware platform with open-source software like OpenCV and YOLO, using the Robot Operating System (ROS1 and ROS2). These are popular tools among AI researchers and developers.
Andrea: It sounds intriguing, but the setup process seems complicated. Integration often takes time.
Jerry: The robotic platform is already integrated and ready to be deployed. For our AI learning device, Juno2, all you need to do is to connect it to a laptop via a USB port and you can straight away boot up the Linux (Ubuntu) environment with ROS, without any software installation.
AI learning device, Juno2.
Andrea: How do you work with schools?
Jerry: We’re an education solution provider, supporting schools and institutions that want to introduce practical AI applications learning in a classroom. Programming experience in Python or C++ is a prerequisite in doing AI applications development. So we provide Python introduction workshop for complete beginners. Then using a train-the-trainers approach, we offer 3-day AI robotics workshops using Jupiter2 or 2-day AI applications workshops using Juno2. Through these workshops, educators are given an overview of the AI applications modules which would enable them to customise the material accordingly for education, training or even research purposes.
Andrea: What if someone doesn’t have direct access to the robot? Can they work remotely?
Jerry: Absolutely. You can connect via a remote desktop software from your computer and continue programming. As mentioned just now, we also have a smaller device called Juno2, designed for classroom use. You don’t need the full robot setup in this case; you can use this device to do computer vision and speech interactions applications. It’s a plug-and-play solution that works with any laptop or operating system, automatically loading Ubuntu, ROS and our Jupiter software development frameworks. It’s perfect for conducting online classes, as students can continue learning from home or wherever they are.
Andrea: If you have a robot like this, can additional components, like speakers, be added to your robots?
Jerry: Yes, definitely. That’s a good question. Jupiter2 is an open platform that is
customisable and reconfigurable. If you have an engineering background, you can modify the hardware based on the requirements. This flexibility allows both beginners and advanced users to focus on their specific areas of interest, whether it is software programming or hardware customisation.
Andrea: Have you exported these gadgets before?
Jerry: Yes, we have exported to Europe, Africa, South and North America before. So far there are more than 30 over schools, universities and institutions globally that have adopted our learning platforms for education, training, research and/or robotic competitions.
Andrea: Fantastic, thank you for your time and insights. I wish you continued success in the future!
You can find more information on the Lattel Robotics website.
Jerry Tan is the Managing Director of Lattel Robotics. A German-trained engineer turned entrepreneur, Jerry is currently running the AI robotics education and training companies in Malaysia and Singapore. Striving to empower anyone in getting started to learn AI applications practically, Jerry works closely with schools and academic institutions in setting up laboratories and developing courseware. |
2D cameras for positioning and inspecting ultra-fine wires in semiconductor production
Task planning framework supports human-robot collaborative furniture assembly
Autonomous vehicles could understand their passengers better with ChatGPT
Magnetically driven soft robot achieves high-speed jumping
Purigo – Unmanned Orchard Spraying Robot
Take a Powder, Einstein
Upgraded ChatGPT Thinks at the PhD Level
OpenAI is out with a new upgrade to ChatGPT that features extremely advanced, in-depth thinking — and outperforms PhD students in physics, chemistry and biology.
The software undergirding the new upgrade — dubbed OpenAI o1 — also offers head-turning new performance highs in math and computer coding.
While the jury is still out on the upgrade’s impact on ChatGPT’s automated writing skills, people who make lots of money every day by relying heavily on writing — i.e., lawyers — will want to take a close look at this enhancement.
The reason: According to OpenAI’s in-house tests, this latest version of its AI software scored 95-out-of-100 on the Law School Admissions Test.
Yikes.
In other news and analysis on AI writing:
*In-Depth Guide: The Top 50 AI Writing Tools to Try: Copywriters looking for a round-up on the latest AI tools designed to make their jobs easier will want to take a look at this piece.
It offers a great overview of the most popular — and most groundbreaking AI tools — in their writing genre.
In addition to well-known AI writers, the guide also explores lesser-known, niche tools, including:
~Writerly, which includes a generative AI Chrome extension that helps users extract ideas from articles during browsing and generates content briefs for writers
~GetGenie, a WordPress plugin that uses AI to replace over 10 different apps.
~TextCortex, an AI Writer designed to accommodate your distinct writing style and singular writing requirements
*Goodbye, Ramblin’ Rose: New WordPress Tool Goes for Writing Clarity: The maker of WordPress has come out with a new AI tool designed to make your posts clearer and more succinct.
Dubbed ‘Write Brief with AI,’ the tool alerts users if their prose uses too many words — or if their wording ‘lacks confidence.’
The new tool could significantly improve writing on Web sites worldwide, given that 43% of all Web sites run on WordPress.
*ESPN AI To Cover Women’s Soccer: Because Mansplaining Wasn’t Enough: Sports news juggernaut ESPN has decided to add AI-written stories to its coverage mix.
So far, the plan is to limit AI-generation of prose to recaps of matches in the National Women’s Soccer League and the Premier Lacrosse League.
Observes writer Tom Jones: “The fear among living and breathing journalists is that this is a slippery slope, and that AI is taking their jobs.”
*Writing Career Suicide — Now With Algorithms: Writer Jack Apollo George has been granted the dubious honor of training AI to make himself obsolete.
Specifically, George is inputting examples of his own writing to help AI chatbots express themselves more eloquently.
Observes George: Working for an AI company as a writer is “a little like being told you are going to be paid a visit by Dracula — and instead of running for the hills, you stayed in and laid the table.”
*AI to College Writing Centers: Nice Knowing You: Higher education continues to struggle with its love/hate relationship with AI — including some writing centers that are offering new courses in AI-powered writing.
Observes Sherry Wynn Perdue, president, International Writing Centers Association: “I see this as a real opportunity for writing centers to show leadership if they’re given an opportunity.”
But not everyone is happy with the embrace of AI at the university level.
Observes writer Maggie Hicks: “Some writing instructors worry, though, that the new tools may tempt colleges to rely too heavily on the technology or even eliminate writing centers entirely.”
*AI-Written Academic Papers: Now Easier to Spot Than a Bad Wig?: Researcher Ahmed Abdeen Hamed has helped develop a new app designed to expose academic research papers written with AI.
Dubbed xFakeSci, the experimental tool has turned in accuracy rates of up to 94%.
Observes Hamed: “Because I work with medical publications, clinical trials, online resources and mining social media, I’m always concerned about the authenticity of the knowledge somebody is propagating.”
*Update on AI and Email Marketing: Turning ‘Unsubscribe’ Into ‘Tell Me More’: Shopify has put together a handy guide on the state-of-the-art of AI in email marketing.
Turns-out, many of the same email marketing tasks once performed by humans are now easily handled by AI, including:
*Smart segmentation
*Email personalization
*Subject line suggestions
*Content creation
*Fake Writers, Real Profits: Book Writers Plagued by AI Rip-Offs: Many writers selling their books on Amazon say they’re increasingly finding AI rip-offs of their work for sale.
The primary culprits: Suspiciously prolific ‘writers’ who pump-out hundreds of titles per year — but do not actually exist in the real world.
Observes writer Kevin Maimann: One of the most prominent suspect authors is “Mari Silva, who has 532 titles on a vast range of spiritual and cultural topics spanning world history, but no visible online presence outside of a vague Amazon author bio with a generic silhouetted photo of a woman.”
*AI Big Picture: AI — Now With Emotions: Finally, Robots That Understand Your Existential Dread: A psychologist who specializes in measuring emotion has come out with a new app that imbues AI chatbots’ voices with much more emotion.
Dubbed Hume AI, the app enables various AI chatbots to listen to queries with much greater empathy.
Observes psychologist and Hume AI co-founder Alan Cowen: “We specialize in building empathic personalities that speak in ways people would speak — rather than stereotypes of AI assistants.”
But not everyone is happy with the embrace of AI at the university level.
Observes writer Maggie Hicks: “Some writing instructors worry, though, that the new tools may tempt colleges to rely too heavily on the technology or even eliminate writing centers entirely.”
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 Take a Powder, Einstein appeared first on Robot Writers AI.
ENGINEERING THE AMERICAN DREAM
The Ultimate Guide to Using an AI Detector
The smarter AI tools of today’s digital world get, the more educators, creators of content, and other professionals should know how to identify AI-generated submissions or publications. Making these identifications requires the use of AI detectors. Therefore, this article will […]
The post The Ultimate Guide to Using an AI Detector appeared first on TechSpective.