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Four-legged animals are innately capable of agile and adaptable movements, which allow them to move on a wide range of terrains. Over the past decades, roboticists worldwide have been trying to effectively reproduce these movements in quadrupedal (i.e., four-legged) robots.

A new study finds that AI enhances creativity by boosting the novelty of story ideas as well as the 'usefulness' of stories -- their ability to engage the target audience and potential for publication. However, AI was not judged to enhance the work produced by more creative writers and the study also warns that while AI may enhance individual creativity it may also result in a loss of collective novelty, as AI-assisted stories were found to contain more similarities to each other and were less varied and diverse.

Scientists at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia have developed a tiny "claw machine" that is able to pick up and drop a marble-sized ball in response to exposure to chemical vapors.

Farmers and agricultural enterprises are embracing robotic solutions to optimize crop production while reducing environmental impact. These technologies enable precision agriculture, efficient resource utilization, and eco-friendly farming.

A team of roboticists and AI specialists at Google's DeepMind have demonstrated a robot capable of giving context-based guided tours around its offices. They have posted a paper describing their work, along with demonstration videos, on the arXiv preprint server.

Says Microsoft: We’re going to help ourselves to your Web content, thank you

Apparently, when it comes to copyright law, Microsoft never got the memo.

According to Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft’s CEO of AI, as reported by writer Sean Endicott: “With respect to content that is already on the open web, the social contract of that content since the 90s has been that it is fair use.

“Anyone can copy it, recreate with it, reproduce with it. That has been freeware, if you like. That’s been the understanding.”

The only currently ‘in-dispute’ exception to Microsoft’s ‘I’ll-help-myself, thanks’ perspective, according to Suleyman, are Web sites and publishers that explicitly state on their Web sites “do not scrape or crawl me for any other reason than indexing me so that other people can find that content.”

And according to Suleyman, even that warning is a ‘gray area’ that he believes will wind up in the courts.

Really?

That’s news to me.

Perhaps Sulyman should visit the U.S. Copyright Office on the Web, whose history domain documents that the first copyright law was enacted in the U.S. in 1790.

In other news and analysis on AI writing:

*In-Depth Guide: Snapshot on the Big Four in AI Writing: Writers looking for the latest on AI writing from the Big Four — OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Facebook parent Meta — can check-out this latest update.

The piece offers perspectives on the tech from a number of digitally oriented businesses based in India.

Observes Sajal Gupta, chief executive, Kiaos Marketing, a digital marketing consultancy: “The key is to integrate AI so seamlessly into your toolkit that it appears as natural as it possibly can.

“From a consumer’s perspective, if the tools are implemented well, the experience will only improve.”

*Google Adding It’s New AI to Gmail, Other Products: Many Gmail users already have access to new generative AI from Google, which they can use for auto-writing text, summarizing an email thread, searching through their inbox using AI — and more.

Powered by Google’s Gemini AI engine, the new feature can be found on Gmail’s side panel and can be activated with a click.

Roll-out of the new AI — which will also be popping up in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drive — should be complete by the close of July

*Microsoft Adds ChatGPT Competitor to its AI Offerings: Making good on its commitment to featuring a wide spectrum of AI services throughout its product line, Microsoft is integrating Writesonic into its Azure cloud infrastructure.

The ChatGPT competitor — which specializes in content creation and search engine optimization — gets to showcase its chops to businesses already using Azure.

*ChatGPT Competitor Gets an Upgrade: AI writing pioneer Writer has just launched an upgrade capable of ingesting and analyzing a document of up to 10 million words.

Observes Deanna Dong, product marketing lead, Writer: “We know that enterprises need to analyze very long files, work with long research papers, or documentation. It’s a huge use case for them.”

Also new with the upgrade is added transparency into what Writer’s AI is going.

Observes writer Michael Nunez: “The system shows users the steps the AI takes — including how it breaks down queries into sub-questions and which specific data sources it references.”

*Multi-Faceted AI Copywriter for Marketing Released: Given that automated AI writing is essentially a commodity now, startups specializing in AI marketing tools are increasingly coming out with offerings that do much more.

Singapore-based Addlly AI is no exception.

The company just released a beefed-up automated writing tool that is able to reference brand data — and incorporate analytical insights gleaned from social listening –as it creates copy for marketers.

Observes Tina Chopra, CEO, Addlly AI: “By merging cutting-edge AI technology with valuable data insights, we help businesses produce content that’s not just fast and more targeted, but also highly relevant and impactful.”

*New AI-Automated Email Service Launches: CallSine is offering a new email marketing service that uses customer data to auto-generate highly personalized email marketing pitches.

Observes Logan Kelly, president, CallSine: “Unlike generic AI tools, we build a detailed knowledge base about your company and prospects.

“This allows us to use AI to generate truly relevant and tailored messaging beyond acknowledging a prospect’s standard profile information.”

*New AI-for-Lawyers Startup Wins a Trial Run: Legal tech AI service Leya — which offers lawyers auto-writing of draft contracts and similar AI services — has scored a tryout with law firm Bird & Bird.

Observes Karen Jacks, chief technology officer, Bird & Bird, added: “This proof of concept trial with Leya is the latest addition to our GenAI toolkit and will be an important part of our five-year strategy as we guide organizations through a world shaped by technology, innovation and regulation, and driving the transformation of legal services delivery.”

*Growing Pains: Another Unsupervised AI News Site Goes Rogue: When will they learn?

Tennis tournament Wimbeldon became the latest organization to realize that while AI auto-written content sure is convenient — it still needs human supervision right now.

Wimbledon’s blunder: It’s AI-powered ‘Catch-Me-Up’ news services — designed to auto-write pre-and-post-match player profiles with AI-generated stories and analysis — began spitting-out error-ridden copy on its first day of use.

Observes writer Emine Sinmaz: “The new offering on Wimbledon’s app and website described the former US Open champion Emma Raducanu as the British No 1, although she is the No 3. The 21-year-old who grew up in Bromley was also described as having won 11 matches so far this year, when she has had 14 triumphs.

“It also described a clash between 35-year-old Zhang Shuai, a two-time doubles grand slam champion from China who is on a losing streak, and Russia’s Daria Kasatkina, 27, as an “eagerly anticipated encounter between two up-and-coming players.”

As many have uttered down through the ages: Trust — by verify.

*AI Big Picture: ChatGPT Maker Gets Real About AI and the Military: AI users concerned that increasing breakthoughs in AI may be falling into the wrong hands should be cheered by the appointment of Paul M. Nakasone — a former director of the U.S. National Security Agency — to the board of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.

Granted, many ‘effective altruists’ are sure to decry the new presence of a military perspective on AI’s board.

But there are plenty of others who believe the U.S. needs to continually ‘what-if’ how AI may be used nefariously and how to protect against it — given that there are plenty of rogue nations already deeply engaged in the pursuit.

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 Sticky Fingers appeared first on Robot Writers AI.

A motorless, flexible, waterproof prosthetic foot inspired by the anatomy of the human extremity is the new SoftFoot Pro bionic foot prototype, designed by the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT-Italian Institute of Technology) in Genoa. Its design is unique on an international level and aims to serve both as a flexible technological prosthesis for people with limb-loss and as a solution for the humanoid robots of the future.

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have trained a humanoid robot to effortlessly learn and perform a variety of expressive movements, including simple dance routines and gestures like waving, high-fiving and hugging, all while maintaining a steady gait on diverse terrains.

Engineers have trained a humanoid robot to perform a variety of expressive movements, from simple dance routines to gestures like waving, high-fiving and hugging, all while maintaining a steady gait on diverse terrains. This work marks a step towards building robots that perform more complex and human-like motions.

How do people like to interact with robots when navigating a crowded environment? And what algorithms should roboticists use to program robots to interact with humans?

How do people like to interact with robots when navigating a crowded environment? And what algorithms should roboticists use to program robots to interact with humans? These are the questions that a team of mechanical engineers and computer scientists sought to answer in a recent study.

One thing robot researchers are trying to mechanize is the human sense of touch. Sheeraz Athar, one of She’s PhD students, is changing the game by re-thinking how touch works.

Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots have frequently shown signs of an 'empathy gap' that puts young users at risk of distress or harm, raising the urgent need for 'child-safe AI', according to a new study. The research urges developers and policy actors to prioritize AI design that take greater account of children's needs. It provides evidence that children are particularly susceptible to treating chatbots as lifelike, quasi-human confidantes, and that their interactions with the technology can go awry when it fails to respond to their unique needs and vulnerabilities. The study links that gap in understanding to recent reports of cases in which interactions with AI led to potentially dangerous situations for young users.

Engineers have developed a new soft, flexible device that makes robots move by expanding and contracting -- just like a human muscle. To demonstrate their new device, called an actuator, the researchers used it to create a cylindrical, worm-like soft robot and an artificial bicep. In experiments, the cylindrical soft robot navigated the tight, hairpin curves of a narrow pipe-like environment, and the bicep was able to lift a 500-gram weight 5,000 times in a row without failing.

Northwestern University engineers have developed a new soft, flexible device that makes robots move by expanding and contracting—just like a human muscle.