A research team, including Huanyu "Larry" Cheng, James L. Henderson Jr. Memorial Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Penn State, is using pressure sensors—tiny devices, roughly the size of a paperclip, that can measure the force applied over an area—to design a highly sensitive electronic "skin" to use alongside robots and prosthetic limbs.

Robots are increasingly being used in manufacturing, agriculture and health care. But programming a team of robots to carry out individual tasks raises a question: How can robots learn from other robots if they are built differently? A multi-institutional team including Chongjie Zhang, an associate professor of computer science and engineering at WashU McKelvey Engineering, have developed a new method that enables robots to achieve intentions shown by their peers.

The fields of manufacturing, logistics, and even restaurants are increasingly moving toward automation, with robots being employed for a wide range of tasks. One of the most critical applications of robots is material handling, where grippers are used to move objects, such as automotive parts, logistics packages, food ingredients, and restaurant dishes. This reduces the burden on human workers while lowering the risk of accidents, thereby improving workplace safety.

More than a production figure, the achievement marks a significant step forward for the robotics industry, signaling a transition from early-stage validation to scalable, real-world deployment.

The Fully Automated Researcher

Writer Will Douglas Heaven reports that the next, major enhancement of ChatGPT is focused on transforming the AI into an incredibly in-depth researcher.

Observes Heaven: “The San Francisco firm has set its sights on building what it calls an AI researcher, a fully automated agent-based system that will be able to go off and tackle large, complex problems by itself.”

Look for an entry level, ‘intern version’ of this system by September – followed by a fully automated, multi-AI-agent powered upgrade by 2028, Heaven adds.

In other news and analysis on AI writing:

*AI Gifted? You’re a Preferred Employee at Social Media Network Reddit: Young college grads with AI chops are the top choice as employees by Steve Huffman, CEO, Reddit.

Observes writer Emma Burleigh: “While some CEOs marvel over the abilities of chatbots and AI agents, recent graduates are actually ripe for the new tech-driven world of work: the digital natives grew up with the internet, and spent most of their higher education in the ChatGPT era.

“They’re deeply familiar with the technology and are much more apt to leverage it in their work.”

Word to the wise.

*Publisher Yanks Horror Novel for Suspected AI Use: “Shy Girl,” a walk on the spooky side, has been pulled from publication for suspected use of AI in its creation.

Observes writer Alexandra Alter: “The cancellation of the novel reveals the challenges the book world is navigating as the adoption of AI becomes more widespread.

“Readers and many writers remain ferociously opposed to the use of the technology for writing — which they regard as cheating or a form of theft.”

*AI as Journalist: At Fortune Magazine, It’s De Rigueur: As many fiction and nonfiction media outlets express outrage over AI-generated content, others are embracing it unabashedly.

Case-in-point: Fortune Magazine, where nearly 20% of all articles are generated in part by AI, according to writer Isabella Simonetti.

Most of those articles are penned – with the help of AI – by journalist Nick Lichtenberg, who has “produced more stories in six months than any of his colleagues at Fortune delivered in a year,” according to Simonetti.

*Thanks But No Thanks: Microsoft Lightens Up on AI in Windows 11: In response to popular demand, Microsoft is paring down the presence of its AI assistant – Copilot – in Windows’ latest version.

Observes writer Ross Kelly: “Microsoft has faced criticism over its persistent integration of Copilot features across the operating system — a strategy it has pursued for over 18 months now.”

Apparently, many users are put-off by the Redmond Titan’s desire to transform Windows 11 into an ever-evolving, ‘agentic’ operating system.

*OpenAI Kills Its Sora Video App: An AI video-maker that once struck fear in the hearts of Hollywood filmmakers has been scrapped.

Writer Connie Loizos reports that maker OpenAI pulled-the-plug on Sora. The reason: Sora was simply too unprofitable.

Observes Loizos: “The app was burning through roughly $1 million every day — not because people loved it, but because video generation is so costly to run.”

*OpenAI Puts ‘Adult Mode’ on Ice: OpenAI has abandoned the release of an ‘adult mode’ for ChatGPT, which it has been mulling for many months.

Observes writer Alina Maria Stan: “The feature was announced with confidence, delayed twice, and ultimately abandoned after pushback from staff, advisors, and investors.”

Also a factor: OpenAI’s widely reported decision to pare-down side projects and redouble its efforts on enhancing the core functions of ChatGPT.

*Google Experimenting With ‘Auto-Reply to a Review’ Tool: Business owners tongue-tied when faced with a negative – or positive — review may want to check-out an auto-reply tool now in beta in Google Business Profile.

The new AI-powered helper is designed to automatically serve-up responses to a customer review, which can be assessed and edited by the business – and then manually submitted.

Observes writer Danny Goodwin: “Availability is inconsistent across accounts and reviews. The feature has been spotted in the U.S., Brazil, and India, but not widely in Europe.”

*63% of Mid-Sized Law Firms Now Use AI: New survey finds that a healthy majority of mid-sized law firms are all in on AI use.

Equally eyebrow raising: 94% of those users predict that AI will spike revenue and enhance customer service.

Observes writer Bob Ambrogi: “Mid-sized firms are moving beyond experimentation into operational integration, the report says. Common implementations include automation of document creation (70%), email filing (60%), and data extraction (53%).”

*AI Pioneer Grammarly Hit With Class Action Suit: AI editing and writing tool Grammarly has been hit with a lawsuit, which accuses the firm of using writers’ identities without their permission.

Essentially, more than a few authors and writers are angry that Grammarly’s now-abandoned AI ‘Expert Review’ feature analyzed users’ writing — then attributed that analysis those scribes without their permission.

Observes Top Class Actions: Plaintiff Julia Angwin “Grammarly users were able to upload their writing and receive real-time comments on how to improve their prose from Angwin, (Stephen) King and other acclaimed writers for $12-a-month.”

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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 ChatGPT’s Next Big Thing appeared first on Robot Writers AI.

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No matter how sophisticated they are, robots can often be indecisive and struggle with multi-step chores in the real world. For example, if you tell a robot to tidy a messy room, it might understand the goal but not know where to grab each object. It could even end up inventing steps. To address these common mistakes, Microsoft and a group of academics have developed an AI benchmark system to improve the accuracy of robot planning. The details of their work are published in a paper on the arXiv preprint server.

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Claire chatted to Vikas Enti from Reframe Systems about using robotics and automation to build climate-resilient, high-performance homes.

Vikas Enti is the co-founder and CEO of Reframe Systems, a physical AI company rethinking how homes are built through automation and localized fabrication. He previously spent more than a decade at Amazon Robotics, where he helped scale advanced robotics systems across global logistics networks. Today, he is applying those same principles of systems design and repeatable production to address the housing shortage. Vikas focuses on building climate-resilient, high-performance homes faster and more predictably than traditional methods.

AmbiVision was born out of the development of Ambi Robotics’ robotic stacking system, AmbiStack, and leverages the same AI skills that power the robot’s ability to perceive and interact with packages.

What if technology, such as self-driving cars, drones, or intelligent navigation systems, could understand the world the way we do—not just seeing shapes, but recognizing meaning? A person waiting at a crosswalk, a bicycle left on the pavement, or a dog running across a yard—for us, these distinctions are instant. For systems that rely on data, they have long been a challenge.

Our latest voice model has improved precision and lower latency to make voice interactions more fluid, natural and precise.

In a major step toward more adaptable and intuitive machines, Kempner Institute Investigator Yilun Du and his collaborators have unveiled a new kind of artificial intelligence system that lets robots "envision" their actions before carrying them out. The system, which uses video to help robots imagine what might happen next, could transform how robots navigate and interact with the physical world.

In a major step toward more adaptable and intuitive machines, Kempner Institute Investigator Yilun Du and his collaborators have unveiled a new kind of artificial intelligence system that lets robots "envision" their actions before carrying them out. The system, which uses video to help robots imagine what might happen next, could transform how robots navigate and interact with the physical world.

Inside a giant autonomous warehouse, hundreds of robots dart down aisles as they collect and distribute items to fulfill a steady stream of customer orders. In this busy environment, even small traffic jams or minor collisions can snowball into massive slowdowns. To avoid such an avalanche of inefficiencies, researchers from MIT and the tech firm Symbotic developed a new method that automatically keeps a fleet of robots moving smoothly.