ROBOTICS
This Could Be the Start of Amazon’s Next Robot Revolution
Will Knight | Wired
“In 2012, Amazon quietly acquired a robotics startup called Kiva Systems, a move that dramatically improved the efficiency of its ecommerce operations and kickstarted a wider revolution in warehouse automation. Last week, the ecommerce giant announced another deal that could prove similarly profound, agreeing to hire the founders of Covariant, a startup that has been testing ways for AI to automate more of the picking and handling of a wide range of physical objects.”
TECH
Sutskever Strikes AI Gold With Billion-Dollar Backing for Superintelligent AI
Benj Edwards | Ars Technica
“Safe Superintelligence (SSI), newly co-founded by OpenAI’s former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, has raised $1 billion in cash to help develop safe artificial intelligence systems that far surpass human capabilities, company executives told Reuters. SSI, which currently has 10 employees, plans to use the funds to acquire computing power and hire top talent. It will focus on building a small highly trusted team of researchers and engineers split between Palo Alto, California and Tel Aviv, Israel.”
COMPUTING
What to Know About the Quantum Network Buried Under New York City
Isaac Schultz | Gizmodo
“For 15 days last December, a complex quantum operation took place deep under New York City. Photons of light streamed around an area stretching from the Brooklyn Navy Yard to Corona, Queens, forming a 21-mile-long (34-kilometer-long) quantum network beneath the metropolis. …[The project] sent half a million photon pairs per second through the cable infrastructure, meaning 648 billion photon pairs were shot through the system over the course of the 15-day experiment.”
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Roblox Is Launching a Generative AI That Builds 3D Environments in a Snap
Scott J. Mulligan | MIT Technology Review
“Roblox plans to roll out a generative AI tool that will let creators make whole 3D scenes just using text prompts, it announced today. Once it’s up and running, developers on the hugely popular online game platform will be able to simply write “Generate a race track in the desert,” for example, and the AI will spin one up. Users will also be able to modify scenes or expand their scope—say, to change a daytime scene to night or switch the desert for a forest.”
ENERGY
Colossal 20-MW Wind Turbine Is the Largest on the Planet (For Now)
Abhimanyu Ghoshal | New Atlas
“With its massive wind rotor diameter of 260-292 m (853-958 ft), it has a maximum wind sweeping area of 66,966 sq m—that’s more than 12 NFL football fields. The company has a history of building the largest turbines our oceans have ever seen, and notes that with an annual average wind speed of 8.5m/s, its new turbine can generate 80 million kWh of electricity; that’s said to be enough to power housing for 96,000 residents annually.”
AUTOMATION
Waymo Thinks It Can Overcome Robotaxi Skepticism With Lots of Safety Data
Andrew J. Hawkins | The Verge
“The company’s fully driverless vehicles have driven 22.2 million miles across four cities. It says they are safer than human drivers in almost every category. …With the introduction of this new safety hub, Waymo is also making its methodologies available for download, so more outside researchers can look at the raw numbers.”
ETHICS
AI’s Impact on Elections Is Being Overblown
Felix M. Simon, Keegan McBride, and Sacha Altay | MIT Technology Review
“The internet is full of doom-laden stories proclaiming that AI-generated deepfakes will mislead and influence voters, as well as enabling new forms of personalized and targeted political advertising. Though such claims are concerning, it is critical to look at the evidence. With a substantial number of this year’s elections concluded, it is a good time to ask how accurate these assessments have been so far. The preliminary answer seems to be not very; early alarmist claims about AI and elections appear to have been blown out of proportion.”
TECH
Elon Musk Has the ‘Off’ Switch
Marina Koren | The Atlantic
“This particular feud has crystallized an unsettling truth that is growing more apparent each day: Musk is becoming an internet god. Space-based internet and social media are a potent combination, and their control by a single person is quite unprecedented—and alarming in the same manner as a federal government restricting online speech via sweeping decree.”
GADGETS
The Remarkable Paper Pro Is as Outrageous as It is Luxurious
Alex Cranz | The Verge
“You probably don’t need the Remarkable Paper Pro. It’s too luxury. You know those sports cars that look like spaceships but will drive into a streetlamp if you sneeze? That’s the kind of luxury I’m talking about. This is the hypercar of E Ink note-taking devices. It’s got a front light! It’s got color! It’s got an 11.8-inch display! It’s got the very best keyboard case available today! And it’s got a totally audacious choice of a display.”
Image Credit: Shubham Dhage / Unsplash
