Category robotics

For survivors of strokes, regaining fine motor skills is critical for recovering independence and quality of life. But getting intensive, frequent rehabilitation therapy can be challenging and expensive. Now, researchers are developing a new technology that could allow stroke patients to undergo rehabilitation exercises at home by tracking their wrist movements through a simple setup: a smartphone strapped to the forearm and a low-cost gaming controller called the Novint Falcon.

Let's say you want to train a robot so it understands how to use tools and can then quickly learn to make repairs around your house with a hammer, wrench, and screwdriver. To do that, you would need an enormous amount of data demonstrating tool use.

The world’s largest electronics manufacturer is gearing up to make one of NVIDIA’s most complex products, so it’s turning to a digital twin powered by the NVIDIA Omniverse and Isaac platforms.

It’s official: One of the world’s richest and mightiest tech companies has turned to ChatGPT to bring AI to its smartphone.

A major coup for ChatGPT’s maker OpenAI, the deal will bring ChatGPT to millions of iPhone users who are running — or will be running — iOS 18 software on their devices.

The Times of India also reports that Apple may feature ChatGPT competitors on its iPhone as well — such as Google Gemini.

But so far, no such deals have been inked.

In other news and analysis on AI writing:

*In-Depth Guide: Brainy Bot Smackdown: ChatGPT-4o Versus Google Gemini 1.5 Pro: Writer Lisa Lacy has put together a helpful rundown pitting the new ChatGPT-4o against one of its closest competitors, the new Google Gemini 1.5 Pro.

The verdict: It’s a lot like choosing between Coke and Pepsi: They’re very similar, but you’ll probably have a preference after you consider the differences.

Observes Lacy: “GPT-4o and Gemini 1.5 Pro are both advanced language models (AI engines), designed according to their makers’ specifications to understand the text prompts you give them and to generate text responses that seem like they were written by a human.

“But ChatGPT’s responses won’t be exactly like Gemini’s.”

*Hold My Algorithm: ChatGPT Snags 100K New Subscriptions in an Eye-Blink: Not Bad for a Day’s Work: From the Department of We-Can-Do-No-Wrong: ChatGPT just sold 100,000 new subscriptions in a single day.

Writer Ingrid Lunden reports PwC — a management consulting juggernaut — purchased the subscriptions for its worldwide workforce.

Plus, PwC also becomes a reseller of ChatGPT to other businesses with the deal.

*AI Muse on Tap: At World’s Biggest Agency, Creativity Served-Up with a Side of Bytes: WPP has decided to embrace a ChatGPT competitor — ‘Claude’ — as its preferred AI chatbot.

With the deal, about 114,000 WPP employees worldwide get access to Claude and will be using the tool for analysis, content creation and similar marketing tasks.

Observes writer Peter Adams: “The deal underscores the growing embrace of generative AI among agencies that see the technology as an enabler of productivity and crucial to gaining a competitive edge.”

*AI News Snackables: Newspaper Publisher’s Solution for the Summary Obsessed: Gannett — publisher of USA Today and hundreds of other newspapers worldwide — is experimenting with a new format that features AI news summaries atop the articles it publishes.

Observes writer Mia Sato: “Journalists participating in the pilot program will use AI to produce bulleted ‘key points’ of their story.

“The summaries appear to already be live on some USA Today stories online.”

*Pink Slip Heaven: Scores of Jobs Go Bye-Bye as Marketing Department Embraces AI: Remember that cheerful AI assistant and ‘collaborator’ that was going to free-up your days so you could indulge in much more meaningful work?

It just took your job.

Writer Megan Graham reports that $10 million worth of marketing work that would have gone to content creators for a Swedish financial company is now handled by AI.

Observes Graham: “Using generative AI tools such as Midjourney and DALL-E saved the company $1.5 million on image production costs in the first quarter — while slashing its image development timeline to seven days from six weeks.

“Klarna also said it had decreased by 25% its spending on external marketing suppliers (code-phrase for editors, writers and graphic artists) for tasks such as social media, translation and production.”

*ChatGPT to Stock Market Analysts: Leave the Cherry Picking to Me: People who pick stocks and bonds for a living are the latest professional demographic squirming over the AI automation of their services.

Observes writer Kevin Okemwa: “A new research study shows OpenAI’s GPT-4 model is better at predicting future earning trends than professional financial analysts or state-of-the-art AI models trained to handle such tasks.

“The study attributes GPT-4’s performance to its economic reasoning capabilities and an in-depth analysis of economic trends and ratios.”

*Oops, I Did It Again: Another Google AI Foray Runs Amok: Google can’t get a break.

After winding up with egg-on-its-face after early versions of its AI image generator falsely portrayed a Nazi soldier as an Asian woman, Google is having trouble with its new search product.

Dubbed ‘AI Overviews,’ the new component to Google search is supposed to provide AI summaries atop the search results it brings back for users.

The only problem: AI Overviews got off to a bumpy start by cheerfully recommending glue as a key ingredient of pizza-making — and following up with an advisory that you eat rocks for good health.

Adds writer Nico Grant: “People also shared examples of Google’s telling users in bold font to clean their washing machines using ‘chlorine bleach and white vinegar,’ a mixture that when combined can create harmful chlorine gas.”

*Coming Soon to Smartphones: New AI Superpowers: A number of popular smartphone makers are jostling to put AI hardware in the palm of your hand.

Observes writer Michael Grothaus: “By the latter half of this year, it’s likely that we’ll begin to encounter phones being marketed as GenAI smartphones or simply GenAI phones.”

The only catch: While phones integrated with AI hardware will allow you to perform AI functions in your hand — bypassing the need to go to the cloud for that kind of magic — the AI you’ll be using will most likely be not as good.

The reason: AI in the cloud is processed by the power of a supercomputer, which — so far — cannot be shrunk down to a palm-sized device.

*AI Big Picture: No Joke: Your Next CEO Really Could Be An AI Overlord: Looks like the same people who are replacing thousands of workers with AI may be the next to find their heads on the chopping block.

Writer David Streitfeld reports that CEOs could be on their way to becoming an endangered species, given that AI is so good at a CEO’s core purpose — making difficult decisions.

Observes Streitfeld: “The chief executive is increasingly imperiled by AI, just like the writer of news releases and the customer service representative.

“This is not just a prediction. A few successful companies have begun to publicly experiment with the notion of an AI leader — even if at the moment it might largely be a branding exercise.”

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–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 Apple Goes All In on ChatGPT appeared first on Robot Writers AI.

In an advancement for robotics and artificial intelligence, researchers at Chongqing University of Technology, along with their international collaborators, have developed a cutting-edge method for enhancing interaction recognition. The study, published in Cyborg and Bionic Systems, introduces the Merge-and-Split Graph Convolutional Network (MS-GCN), a novel approach specifically designed to address the complexities of skeleton-based interaction recognition.

Teams of robots have the potential of tackling far more elaborate missions than individual robots, for instance, covering long distances faster, visiting different sites simultaneously, or monitoring larger geographical areas. Platforms that combine reliable hardware and software for multi-robot applications could help to advance research in this field, facilitating the testing of robot teams in specific real-world settings.

A novel, human-inspired approach to training artificial intelligence (AI) systems to identify objects and navigate their surroundings could set the stage for the development of more advanced AI systems to explore extreme environments or distant worlds, according to new research.

In a study published in Cyborg Bionic Systems, researchers from Shanghai University have unveiled a new artificial intelligence framework that improves the way robots interpret and execute tasks. The "Correction and Planning with Memory Integration" (CPMI) framework leverages large language models (LLMs) to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of robots performing complex, instruction-based tasks.

Humans and robots are increasingly interacting within built environments such as cities, buildings, walkways, and parks. Offering adaptability, cost-effectiveness, and scalability, robots are gradually being integrated into various aspects of everyday life, from manufacturing to health care to hospitality.

To overcome issues associated with real-life testing, researchers successfully demonstrated the use of digital twin technology within robot simulation software in assessing a robot's suitability for deployment in simulated built environments.

As more and more people drive electric cars, congestion and queues can occur when many people need to charge at the same time. A new study shows how AI-controlled charging stations, through smart algorithms, can offer electric vehicle users personalized prices, and thus minimize both price and waiting time for customers. But the researchers point to the importance of taking the ethical issues seriously, as there is a risk that the artificial intelligence exploits information from motorists.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute (RI) have developed a robotic system that interactively co-paints with people. Collaborative FRIDA (CoFRIDA) can work with users of any artistic ability, inviting collaboration to create art in the real world.

With so many options available, choosing the ideal cartesian system for a specific application can feel daunting. In this article, explore 5 key considerations for simplifying the decision process when selecting the correct cartesian robot.

Claire chatted to Isabelle Ormerod from the University of Bristol all about human-centred design and women in robotics.

Isabelle Ormerod is a PhD student at Bristol Robotics Lab in the Design and Manufacturing Futures Lab. Her professional path began in the medical product design industry, where she observed firsthand the application of human factors (HF) processes for dextrous and high-risk procedures. This experience sparked her interest in leveraging data-driven HF approaches in product design. Isabelle is also part of the Leadership team of Women in Robotics UK. This organization is committed to fostering an inclusive community for women and non-binary individuals in the robotics field in the UK.

Federal regulators have given Amazon key permission that will allow it to expand its drone delivery program, the company announced Thursday.