AI & Robotics News and Discussions

[Yuli Ban]

Microsoft has built an AI-powered autocomplete for code using GPT-3

In September 2020, Microsoft purchased an exclusive license to the underlying technology behind GPT-3, an AI language tool built by OpenAI. Now, the Redmond, Washington-based tech giant has announced its first commercial use case for the program: an assistive feature in the company’s PowerApps software that turns natural language into readymade code.

The feature is limited in its scope and can only produce formulas in Microsoft Power Fx, a simple programming language derived from Microsoft Excel formulas that’s used mainly for database queries. But it shows the huge potential for machine learning to help novice programmers by functioning as an autocomplete tool for code.

“WHY DON’T WE ... SPEAK THE LANGUAGE OF A NORMAL HUMAN?”
“There’s massive demand for digital solutions but not enough coders out there. There’s a million-developer shortfall in the US alone,” Charles Lamanna, CVP of Microsoft’s Low Code Application Platform, tells The Verge. “So instead of making the world learn how to code, why don’t we make development environments speak the language of a normal human?”

[weatheriscool]

Slender robotic finger senses buried items
https://techxplore.com/news/2021-05-sle ... items.html
by Daniel Ackerman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MIT researchers developed a “Digger Finger” robot that digs through granular material, like sand and gravel, and senses the shapes of buried objects. Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Over the years, robots have gotten quite good at identifying objects—as long as they're out in the open.

Discerning buried items in granular material like sand is a taller order. To do that, a robot would need fingers that were slender enough to penetrate the sand, mobile enough to wriggle free when sand grains jam, and sensitive enough to feel the detailed shape of the buried object.

MIT researchers have now designed a sharp-tipped robot finger equipped with tactile sensing to meet the challenge of identifying buried objects. In experiments, the aptly named Digger Finger was able to dig through granular media such as sand and rice, and it correctly sensed the shapes of submerged items it encountered. The researchers say the robot might one day perform various subterranean duties, such as finding buried cables or disarming buried bombs.

The research will be presented at the next International Symposium on Experimental Robotics. The study's lead author is Radhen Patel, a postdoc in MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). Co-authors include CSAIL Ph.D. student Branden Romero, Harvard University Ph.D. student Nancy Ouyang, and Edward Adelson, the John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Vision Science in CSAIL and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.

[Yuli Ban]

Google AI Researchers Are Dreaming Up a New Species of Search Engine

Imagine a collection of books—maybe millions or even billions of them—haphazardly tossed by publishers into a heaping pile in a field. Every day the pile grows exponentially.

Those books are brimming with knowledge and answers. But how would a seeker find them? Lacking organization, the books are useless.

This is the raw internet in all its unfiltered glory. Which is why most of our quests for “enlightenment” online begin with Google (and yes, there are still other search engines). Google’s algorithmic tentacles scan and index every book in that ungodly pile. When someone enters a query in the search bar, the search algorithm thumbs through its indexed version of the internet, surfaces pages, and presents them in a ranked list of the top hits.

This approach is incredibly useful. So useful, in fact, that it hasn’t fundamentally changed in over two decades. But now, AI researchers at Google, the very company that set the bar for search engines in the first place, are sketching out a blueprint for what might be coming up next.

In a paper on the arXiv preprint server, the team suggests the technology to make the internet even more searchable is at our fingertips. They say large language models—machine learning algorithms like OpenAI’s GPT-3—could wholly replace today’s system of index, retrieve, then rank.

Hey, I've been thinking of that too!
Hell, it even sounds similar to that concept of "cognitive agents" I had a while ago, where individual autonomous agents with multipurpose functionality can resolve complex issues (e.g. tell an agent to find a certain file on the internet, download certain parts of it, and then run it, and it'll follow those instructions).

[Yuli Ban]

HyperCLOVA’s AI language tool has 204 billion parameters, which is more than GPT-3

South Korea’s IT giant Naver unveiled a supersized artificial intelligence platform on Tuesday that can process massive amounts of data, saying it aimed to lead the era of “hyperscale” AI.

Dubbed HyperCLOVA, the firm’s latest AI tool is not only the local industry’s most advanced but is also the first large-scale AI trained in the Korean language, Naver said.

“As a company that represents Korea’s artificial intelligence technology, we will find our way forward through various challenges and create a new era of artificial intelligence with many others,” said Jeong Seok-geun, who leads Naver’s AI research center, Naver CLOVA, at an online press conference.

Hyperscale AI, which is capable of analyzing and using massive datasets, can be used to develop new AI models.

The firm plans to add foreign languages, videos and images into HyperCLOVA’s neural network and to advance its machine learning capabilities. It also plans to actively work with businesses and researchers to diversify the AI tool’s uses.

[Time_Traveller]

Path Robotics CEO wants Columbus to be 'next big mecca' for robots

1 hr ago

In the welding field, however, some argue that a robot takeover might be beneficial, and even necessary.

Columbus startup Path Robotics believes AI is one solution to the shortage of skilled labor that plagues welding. Path boasts the “world’s first truly autonomous robotic welding system.” Conceived after 18 months in the basement of a foundry, its system identifies what needs to be welded, welds it and learns along the way.

Path Robotics CEO Andy Lonsberry said he and his brother, Alex Lonsberry, chief technology officer at Path Robotics, always wanted to start a business.

“We had a pretty entrepreneurial upbringing,” Lonsberry said in an interview as he talked about his family's custom motorcycle business, which was his start in manufacturing.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo ... ar-AAKrUYF

[Time_Traveller]

South Korean firm to develop liability insurance for AI robots

May 27, 2021



South Korean telecom giant KT is developing an insurance program covering artificial intelligence-based robotics services for the first time.

KT, the country's leading telecom operator, and DB Insurance said they signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday in Seoul.
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The two companies plan to come up with an insurance product next month to offer fixed liability coverage for when service robots may cause damages.

After operating under DB's liability coverage program for the next year, KT will strive to collaborate to introduce other products dedicated to AI robots.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News ... 622131092/

[weatheriscool]

Exoskeleton reduces amount of work required to walk
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-05- ... uired.html
by Bob Yirka , Medical Xpress

A team of researchers at Queen's University in Canada has developed an exoskeleton that reduces the metabolic cost of walking. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes their system and how it works. Raziel Riemer, Richard Nuckols and Gregory Sawicki with the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Harvard University and the University of Georgia, respectively, have published a Perspectives piece in the same journal issue outlining the work by the team.

Prior research has shown that there is a metabolic cost to walking. Energy is expended in a variety of ways by parts of the feet, legs, pelvis and torso. Prior research has also shown that during each step, the leg lifted into the air must apply a braking force as it moves to land to keep the person from tumbling forward. Riemer, Nuckols and Sawicki note that braking is relatively expensive for muscles, as they have to tense and maintain a braking force while also stretching slightly. Braking for mechanical systems, on the other hand, is cheap. In this new effort, the researchers took advantage of this difference by designing an exoskeleton that takes over some of the braking that occurs during walking and thereby reduces the overall metabolic cost of walking.

[Yuli Ban]

Robots and artificial intelligence to guide Australia’s first fully automated farm
Food Agility chief executive Richard Norton said the reality of "hands-free" farming' was closer than many people realised

Robots and artificial intelligence will replace workers on Australia's first fully automated farm created at a cost of $20 million.
Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga will create the "hands-free farm" on a 1,900-hectare property to demonstrate what robots and artificial intelligence can do without workers in the paddock.

Food Agility chief executive Richard Norton said the reality of "hands-free" farming' was closer than many people realised.

"Full automation is not a distant concept. We already have mines in the Pilbara operated entirely through automation", he said

A lot of future farming technology has been demonstrated a field days and events around Australia.(ABC News: Kathleen Calderwood)

[Time_Traveller]

Artificial intelligence used by Royal Navy for first time at sea

May 29 2021

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been used by the Royal Navy at sea for the first time – testing against supersonic missile threats.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the trial is part of Nato’s Exercise Formidable Shield, which is currently taking place off the coast of Scotland until June 3.

The research is being led by Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) scientists – with the AI being tested on destroyer HMS Dragon and frigate HMS Lancaster.

The MoD said the AI improves the early detection of lethal threat, accelerates engagement timelines and provides Royal Navy Commanders with a rapid hazard assessment to select the optimum weapon or measure to counter and destroy the target.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news ... 81941.html

[Yuli Ban]

From a year ago, but still amazing