The Future Is Here Today...Robots, Genetics, AI, Longevity, Singularity

Robot Journalist Takes Pictures, Ask Questions, Publishes Online

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by Aaron Saenz on March 18th, 2010
journalist robot from Tokyo University

This robot journalist can explore its surroundings, take pictures, interview people, perform internet searches, and publish online. Ok, I'm about to lose my job.

Robots are after my job. Researchers at the Intelligent Systems Informatics Lab (ISI) at Tokyo University have developed a journalist robot that can autonomously explore its environment and report what it finds. The robot detects changes in its surroundings, decides if they are relevant, and then takes pictures with its on board camera. It can query nearby people for information, and it uses internet searches to further round out its understanding. If something appears newsworthy, the robot will even write a short article and publish it to the web. Charlie Catlett, from Argonne National Labs, seemed impressed with the bot, and it made a splash at the most recent meeting of the Information Processing Society of Japan. By combining real world and internet research, the journalist robot is taking a step beyond other automated systems. Give it enough time, and robots like these could become a valued asset for news feeds everywhere.

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Invasion of the Robot Teachers! (Video)

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by Aaron Saenz on March 3rd, 2010
robot teacher in Korea

Robot teachers in Korea are set to join 500 classrooms by 2011, and 8000 classrooms by 2013.

Did you ever have a teacher you could have sworn was a robot? Well yours wasn’t, but your child’s might be. The Korean Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and the Nippon Institute of Technology (NIT) have fielded robotic teachers in Korea and Japan, respectively. According to ETNews, robot teachers have passed the first round of testing and will expand into 500 preschools by 2011. Eventually these robots will be seen in 8000 preschool and kindergarten classrooms by 2013 with 50 billion KRW (~$44 million USD) in funding. The Korean robot teachers sing songs to young children, but the Japanese robots are geared to an older audience. NIT’s e-Nuvo humanoid robot comes with a built in projector, and is meant to build interest in science, technology, engineering, and math by discussing robotics. While each of these robots are far behind the capabilities of a human instructor, they showcase the potential for advanced automation in education. Give these guys some time, and you could see robot teachers become a staple of the classroom. Check out some great videos of e-Nuvo courtesy of RobotWatch and Diagonal View after the break.

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No Humans, Just Robots – Amazing Videos of the Modern Factory

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by Aaron Saenz on February 11th, 2010
bread robots

From cars to bread, robots dominate modern production.

Modern manufacturing isn’t based on human labor, it’s based on the robot. Still, most people cannot grasp the breadth of automation in factories. We still picture plants full of human workers toiling to make our cars and furniture, just as we imagine our meat comes from animals in a barn. The truth is much more awe-inspiring, perhaps even frightening. The factories of today have some human workers, but huge portions of assembly lines are 100% mechanized. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics expects automotive jobs to decline 18% by 2018 despite expected increases in production. Robots eliminate the need for more workers. Before you lament the loss of jobs, take a moment and watch how robots earn their role every day in the workplace. Incredible!

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Eureqa – Software to Replace Scientists

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by Aaron Saenz on December 17th, 2009

The job of a scientist has its fun parts, and its not-so-fun parts. Making new discoveries, understanding the way things work, and experimenting with the natural world are all pretty cool ways to spend your day. Sifting through endless files of data looking for small correlations and insight…not so much. Which may explain the popularity of the new software from Cornell Computational Synthesis Lab called Eureqa. Toted as something of a virtual scientist, Eureqa finds hidden mathematical relations in large spreadsheets of data. The software uses a technique, symbolic regression, that slowly evolves equations over time to see which best fits the information you give it. How powerful is Eureqa? Well it can derive Newton’s Second Law from the motion of a pendulum without any input on the physical laws of mechanics in just a few hours. So it has Newton beat by several years. Other researchers are hoping to have Eureqa find the mathematical relations in their own work which is much more complicated than simple Newtonian physics. If successful, Eureqa could not only speed up scientific research, it could change the roles humans take in science. Check out video tutorials for Eureqa after the break.

Eureqa examines data from an experiment, and produces equations that explain what happened. Sounds like a scientist to me.

Eureqa examines data from an experiment, and produces equations that explain what happened. Sounds like a scientist to me.

Eureqa is free to download and free to use and scientists are eager to give it a try. At this moment, it’s just another interesting software tool that will help researchers make new discoveries. In its success, however, are the roots of a much larger change. Programs like Eureqa could one day take over a large part of scientific work. Data analysis is a key task in any modern lab, and is the core service provided by many auxiliary companies working in major industries. Did you perform a geological survey, do some market research, or study the stars? Chances are you employed a data analyst or an entire firm of them. Now, programs like Eureqa are on their way to improving that analysis, and one day reducing the number of humans needed in the process. We’ve already seen software that can mimic the work of journalists, now it seems scientists can be automated to some degree as well. Sure, this could have some negative consequences (which we’ve discussed with Martin Ford’s recent book), but it’s also going to be amazingly helpful. The quicker we find the underlying mathematical equations for a phenomenon, the quicker we can learn how to harness it for everyone’s good.

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Martin Ford Asks: Will Automation Lead to Economic Collapse?

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by Aaron Saenz on December 15th, 2009
Martin Ford's new book asks how automation will effect the near future of the economy.

Martin Ford's new book asks how automation will effect the near future of the economy.

Will the future be filled with cool technologies and endless opportunities or will our own creations lead to eventual doom? I tend to think the former. Technology has seemingly endless ability to improve the health, freedom, and happiness of our lives. Even optimistic futurists like Ray Kurzweil and James Canton admit, however, that the road to advancing technology is fraught with dangers. Super viruses, artificial intelligences run amok, environmental calamity – science has its threats as well as its promises. Yet there could be one near term problem that even futurists tend to ignore – economic collapse. Martin Ford, a silicon valley computer engineer, entrepreneur, and blogger has written The Lights In The Tunnel, a book which explores the economic implications of a world which is becoming increasingly automated. Ford proposes that in the upcoming years robots and computer programs will edge human workers out of their jobs and that unless we take drastic actions this will reduce mass market purchasing power, destroy consumer confidence, and shut down the global economy. Ford has the reader envision these changes during a thought experiment where lights in a tunnel represent purchasing power in the mass market (hence the title). Even after discussing the book with the author, I’m not convinced that The Lights In The Tunnel is an accurate prediction of our future, but I wanted to spread the question: what does increased automation mean for our economy?

It’s hard to deny that robots and computers will eventually take over for humans in many industries. Already we’ve seen how robots like the Flexpicker and Adept Quattro excel at sorting and moving goods in a manufacturing environment. More humanoid creations, like Kawada’s Nextage or Honda’s ASIMO, could take on even more human-like tasks. And then there are the software programs. We’ve recently showcased how sports journalists and other news people could one day face serious competition from virtual writers and performers. Everywhere, automation is progressing and taking over more jobs. Even vending machines are starting to eliminate the needs for some human workers.

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Is Software Set to Replace Sports Journalists?

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by Aaron Saenz on November 9th, 2009
Computers can now write a baseball news article. America's pasttime just went 21st century.

Computers can now write a baseball news article. America's pastime just went 21st century.

Sports writers are sharpening their pencils and maliciously eying their laptops as researchers in the Intelligent Informations Lab at Northwestern University announce that they’ve created a program that can write a convincing baseball news story without human help. Called Stats Monkey, the new computer software analyzes the box scores, and play by plays to automatically generate the news article. It highlights key players and clutch plays and will even write an appropriate headline and find a matching photo for a few player! Check out a sample story written by Stats Monkey after the break.

Not satisfied with worrying only baseball sports writers, developers say Stats Monkey could be adapted to any situation with a heavy helping of statistical data. Translation: it could work for every sport humans like to read about. Moreover, Stats Monkey could be adapted to write business stories, or conference updates, or other forms of professional journalism that rely heavily on numbers and analytics. Writing, it seems, is no longer immune from automation.

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The FlexPicker: Industrial Robot Built for Speed – Video

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by Andrew Kessel on July 9th, 2009
This was a triumph...

This was a triumph...

Over the last few months, there has been very little showing on industrial robots here at Singularity Hub. That is truly a terrible circumstance, as some of the best and most innovative robots are being put to task in the industrial setting. Well, consider this the start of that wrong righted and take a look at ABB Robotics’ FlexPicker. As the name suggests, this nimble bot can grab anything that is put in its path (via conveyer belt) and gently place it in its proper space. Now, this might not seem all that revolutionary: even tiny kids can play the Milton-Bradley game Perfection. Why not just stick them on the assembly line and forego the cost of the robot? But the FlexPicker is oh so much more than that.

This thing is even faster than that kid with ADHD who just can’t sit still. For payloads of less than 100 grams, like small plastic pieces or pills, the FlexPicker takes just three tenths of a second to perform its task. That means that that by the time you can take the fastest Porsche 911 from zero to sixty miles per hour (about 4 seconds), the FlexPicker can pick up and move 13 objects and be well on the way to number 14. Don’t believe it? Take a look at the video from BotJunkie:

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