Killed by Robots

AI Artificial Intelligence / Robotics News & Philosophy

  • Robots Learn to Touch and Feel
    Imagine a future where robots aren’t just tireless machines confined to factories, but intelligent partners capable of understanding you, seeing the world, and even feeling with a gentle touch. This long-held dream is now taking a significant leap forward, thanks to a remarkable new development from Microsoft Research. They’ve unveiled **Rho-alpha**, a pioneering “master brain” for robots, the first of its kind from Microsoft’s advanced Phi series. Rho-alpha empowers robots to interpret natural language instructions – just like you’d speak to a person – and then combine what they see with what they feel through touch, to execute surprisingly complex…
  • AI’s Will vs Human Free Will
    We often talk about artificial intelligence making decisions, and rightly so. From suggesting your next movie to optimizing traffic flow, AI is constantly ‘choosing.’ But when we use words like ‘choice’ or ‘decision,’ we’re instinctively mapping AI’s processes onto our own deeply human experience of deciding. And that’s where things get interesting, because our human experience is tangled up with something far messier, far more philosophically vexing: free will. Let’s be clear about what an ‘algorithmic will’ actually is. It’s not a tiny, silicon-based homunculus pondering its existence before selecting option B. Instead, it’s a magnificent dance of mathematics and…
  • Tesla pivots to Optimus robots
    A profound shift is underway, signaling a turning point not just for a single company, but potentially for the very fabric of human civilization. Tesla, a name synonymous with electric vehicles that redefined the automotive world, has announced a momentous decision: to cease production of its revered Model S and Model X vehicles. This isn’t merely a business pivot; it’s a redirection of monumental scale, pulling resources from iconic electric cars to focus intensely on a new frontier: the creation of Optimus humanoid robots. It marks a bold leap into an AI-driven future, where the company’s destiny is intertwined with…